Coronavirus epidemic puts an end to OneWeb's ambitious startup
- AThe British company OneWeb made ambitious plans to provide high-speed Internet to the entire planet, for which in the next 7 years almost 700 satellites were to go into Earth orbit. Of course, such large-scale actions would not have been possible without powerful funding, and the startup found it in the face of such large companies as Qualcomm, SoftBank, Airbus and many more smaller ones that invested almost three and a half billion dollars in the business idea.
Unfortunately, due to the unexpectedly started pandemic of the coronavirus, cash flow ceased to feed the startup, and it was forced to curtail, having started bankruptcy proceedings. Thus, 6 satellites launched at the beginning of this year caught up to a total of 74, which became approximately one tenth of the plan.
Note that OneWeb representatives tried to find the money to continue the program until the very end, but Softbank eventually refused to finance the startup for another $2 billion and the next launch of 34 satellites was canceled.
Unfortunately, due to the unexpectedly started pandemic of the coronavirus, cash flow ceased to feed the startup, and it was forced to curtail, having started bankruptcy proceedings. Thus, 6 satellites launched at the beginning of this year caught up to a total of 74, which became approximately one tenth of the plan.
Note that OneWeb representatives tried to find the money to continue the program until the very end, but Softbank eventually refused to finance the startup for another $2 billion and the next launch of 34 satellites was canceled.