OneWeb is moving fast and is expected to complete its constellation of 648 satellites around the world very soon. Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched 36 satellites for OneWeb on early Sunday. Around 10% of the satellites for OneWeb would be launched by ISRO, said Shravin Mittal, Managing Director, Bharti Global. OneWeb would again use ISRO's LVM3 rocket to launch another 36 satellites into space in January 2023, reported IANS. For the launch of 72 satellites in total, OneWeb would be paying Rs 2,000 crore to ISRO.
OneWeb's merger with the French satellite company Eutelsat Communications is likely to be completed by April or May 2023. For the launch of 36 satellites earlier today, OneWeb would be paying Rs 1000 crore to ISRO. The same amount of money would be due to the Indian space agency once it launches another batch of 36 satellites.
Right now, over 462 satellites from OneWeb have already reached the LEO (low earth orbit). This means that more than 70% of its planned 648 satellites have been launched. The presence of a company such as OneWeb in India would mean that consumers across the length and breadth of the country would be able to get connectivity services. The great thing about satellite broadband services is that the limitation of reach of networks that are present with the terrestrial networks is not there.
