The company, which emerged from bankruptcy protection in November, plans to start services “by May-June 2022”, said Sunil Bharti Mittal at a conference this week.
Mittal, the founder of the Airtel mobile phone networks in India and a number of African countries, became executive chairman after putting £500 million into OneWeb to rescue it — in a coordinated move with UK government, which put in a similar sum.
“OneWeb’s constellation will cover the entire globe, every square inch of this world,” said Mittal, at an event organised by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Saudi telecoms regulator. He emhasised the service will cover the poles, areas not served by geostationery satellites or others that are based close to the equator.
Mittal said in November that OneWeb will need US$2 billion to $2.25 billion to complete the satellite constellation. The eventual cost might be as high as $7 billion, said Mittal, according to reports.
Launches are due resume on 17 December 2020, by French company Arianespace using the Vostochny cosmodrome in Russia’s Far East, close to the Chinese border. It already has 74 satellites in orbit — from before the bankruptcy protection — out of an initial planned 648, though OneWeb might move to a higher number to compete with SpaceX’s Starlink and other projects.
If weather or other reasons cause a delay to the 17 December target OneWeb expects not to resume until January 2021, because of lengthy French and Russian Christmas holidays.
