Tag Archives: OneWeb

If you live in area in Canada that lacks high-speed Internet, the news that the SpaceX Starlink internet service might be coming to you soon will be welcome news. However, customers will have to wait, how much longer is uncertain, but it seems unlikely the Starlink service will be available this year. This page is for subscribers only. Already a subscriber? Log in. Fact-driven space …

In the race to see who will deliver satellite communications from low Earth orbit, OneWeb appears to be behind SpaceX, at least in the number of satellites launched to date.

In an October 15, 2019 letter to the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) , Kepler Communications is petitioning the FCC to reconsider its order and authorization request from SpaceX to lower the altitude of 1,584 of its satellites to 550 km.

The CRTC is currently holding hearings on the topic of reliable, affordable broadband Internet. For the majority of Canadians, access to broadband is not an issue. However for many, especially in rural and northern areas, access and affordability is a big issue. OneWeb explained the key technical issues and provided some suggestions on how the Government might want to move forward.

It comes as no surprise that OneWeb Satellites, the joint venture between Airbus Defence and Space and OneWeb, selected Florida as its manufacturing base for the majority of the 900 satellites it wants to build. Rumour of an impending deal was circulating as early February. Now that the deal is done, it doesn’t preclude Canadian companies providing parts or services to OneWeb.

The advent of small satellites is not new. For several years small satellites have been on the rise. However, 2015 can be seen as the year small satellite constellations leapt to the forefront of the news with the announcements by OneWeb to launch 900 small satellites and SpaceX to launch up to 4,000 small satellites.

MDA is the latest high profile company to partner with OneWeb in its effort to build a constellation of over 900 small satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to provide affordable broadband services to areas of the Earth that are underserved.