Bharti Enterprises-backed OneWeb, a low earth orbit (LEO) satellite communications company, on Thursday said it has launched 36 more satellites by Arianespace from the Vostochny Cosmodrome.
This latest launch will bring OneWeb’s total in-orbit constellation to 358 satellites, over half of the company’s entire 648 LEO satellite fleet that will deliver high-speed, low-latency global connectivity, it said in a statement.
The company said it remains on track to reach global service by 2022 and is seeing growing demand from telecommunications providers, Internet service providers, and governments to offer its low-latency, high-speed connectivity services.
OneWeb has raised $2.7 billion since November 2020, with no debt issuance.
With this launch, OneWeb celebrates the start of ‘service demonstrations’ which showcase the network’s hardware and capabilities across an array of applications. The company has democentres at its headquarters in London, Westcott Venture Park Innovation Centre, Buckinghamshire, and Talkeetna, Alaska and Germantown, Maryland in the US.
Last month, the company has announced partnerships with Galaxy Broadband, as well as the completed acquisition of the company formerly known as TrustComm, now OneWeb Technologies, together with the announcement of funding from Hanwha Systems and additional funding from Eutelsat.
These advancements, along with other recent partnership announcements with AT&T, Hughes Network Systems, Peraton and BT, will help the company further its goal of bringing improved digital communication services to some of the hardest to reach parts of the world.