Why space internet is important?

Just a quick reminder, in the previous newsletter, I shared information about Leaf Space, a company that offers ground station antenna services for satellite management.

Hello,

In today's post, I'm sharing something similar, but this company serves as the primary builder of space-based connectivity infrastructure.

They also build ground stations, although it's not their main business offering; it's part of their core operations, as you'll learn more about in the next few lines.

OneWeb

The next generation of Satellites communication.

Based in London, Uk.

Founded: 2012.

Money raised: $2.4 Billion total fund.

Oneweb is building low earth orbit satellites constellations (group of satellites) providing low latency and speed connectivity unlike GEO (Geostationary Equatorial Orbit).

From anywhere on earth, in any remote area, Oneweb has built full global coverage, they provide you with access to the internet.

The company is redefining the concept of the World Wide Web by providing internet access to unconnected areas, all at a lower cost and with lower latency.

The primary goal is to assist governments and various large enterprise businesses in making better use of space technology.

It seems that they’re wining this market by dual strategy.

First, lower costs for companies that want to launch their services in hard-to-reach and rural areas, like mobile operators. This saves them the cost of building terrestrial networks (on-earth networks).

The second winning differentiator strategy is connection accessibility from anywhere with low latency and high speed.

The current connectivity gap, risk, and cost

Connectivity gap means that many of us are unable to access critical services in areas that include healthcare, education, financial services, and government.

The risk is real that businesses with unreliable or slow network connections will fall even further behind their better-connected competitors.

Mobile network operators have traditionally filled this connectivity gap in many rural areas, particularly in developing countries.

However, only 75% of the worldwide rural population has access to 4G networks, with 88% falling within the range of 3G. This leaves 12% still connected to 2G networks.

Mobile networks on 4G and 5G can offer fast speeds, low latency, and many devices at different price points.

The main challenge lies in the cost of the fibre rollout needed to backhaul traffic from cell towers to the core network.

Space internet connectivity will flourish the next-gen of technologies

There are many new technologies, such as drones, robotic shipping, autonomous vehicles, and IoT devices, that cannot perform optimally with our current internet network.

The only and better, faster internet connectivity is through space technology.

In the years to come, we will witness IoT devices operating through space internet technology, like a marionette (puppet) controlled by data stored in the cloud, communicating through satellite internet.

Oneweb Satellites:

The company operates 648 satellites at an altitude of about 1,200 km above the Earth's surface, resulting in significantly lower latency and faster connectivity at low earth orbit.

Out of the 648 satellites, 588 are active and are divided among 12 planes. Think of it as 12 lanes separated by 4 km to prevent satellite collisions. The remaining 60 satellites are kept as spares orbiting in the space.

The way it works, satellites communicate with gateway infrastructure (spread out in secure places) for connection to the internet, and then the end-user terminal connects to satellites for internet connection.

As their satellites rotate in the orbit, the end-user terminal will search for the next satellite and switch in 2-3 minutes to prevent any connection loss.

My previous post was about a ground station antenna-as-a-service model business opportunity. Oneweb has over 40 ground stations to manage their satellites in support of their core business offering.

Sectors they are serving

The company provide their services to the following sectors in B2B model:

• Carriers and Enterprises

• Governments

• Maritime

• Aviation

• Land Mobility

Let me stress this again, so you understand the importance of building space network.

Connectivity, and communication in remote areas and crucial operations, require high-speed and high-throughput voice and data communications with fiber-like latency to successfully conduct and manage operations in real-time on land, in the air, and at sea.

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Lastly, On 28 September 2023, Eutelsat announced the completion of its merger with OneWeb in $3.4 billion and the creation of a new "Eutelsat Group" company.

Knowledge and Tips:

Low earth orbit: an orbit that is relatively close to Earth's surface. It is normally at an altitude of less than 1000 km.

So many space opportunites lies in LEO.

Geostationary Equatorial Orbit: a circular geosynchronous orbit 35,786 km in altitude above Earth's equator, 42,164 km in radius from Earth's center.

GEO not the best for faster, high-speed connectivity and low-latency. It might be for other things that I will cover in the future.

Thats it for today.

Thanks for reading.