UK to invest £500m in OneWeb as Galileo alternative

The UK plans to invest more than £500 million in bankrupt satellite company OneWeb. The UK plans to use the investment to deploy the constellation as an alternative navigation system to Europe’s Galileo.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is said to have promised the amount of 500 million pounds or 549 million euros, writes The Financial Times. The investment would give the British government a share of more than twenty percent in OneWeb.

OneWeb filed for bankruptcy in March after being unable to secure new investments. Since then, the company has been looking for new investors. Other countries such as France and China have also expressed an interest in OneWeb. The UK also invested 20 million in the company in 2019.

OneWeb is building a satellite constellation that should eventually consist of more than 600 satellites. They must ensure worldwide internet coverage. The company currently has 74 satellites orbiting the Earth. Despite the bankruptcy, they are still managed.

In particular, the United Kingdom would like to invest in OneWeb as it seeks an alternative to Galileo. That is the European satellite navigation system. Since Brexit, the UK no longer participates in that program, despite significant previous investments.

The UK had previously suggested building its own satellite navigation system, but the cost was soon estimated at unrealistic billions of pounds.

The UK government has not yet provided technical details on how it would use the OneWeb satellites for navigation. Galileo satellites, and alternatives such as GPS and Glonass, consist of about 30 satellites orbiting about 20,000 kilometers. OneWeb satellites are small, have no atomic clocks on board, and fly in low Earth orbit. A possible alternative is what the Japanese QZSS does. The same signals are sent as with GPS, but from a lower orbit.