ONEWEB PLANS TO DEPLOY 648 LOW-ORBIT SATELLITES FOR RURAL BROADBAND
Qualcomm has joined The Virgin Group as investors in a startup company that aims to deploy a low-orbit constellation of 648 microsatellites to bring high-speed Internet to rural areas.
WorldVu Satellites, operating as OneWeb, said Thursday that Virgin’s Richard Branson and Qualcomm Executive Chairman Paul Jacobs would join its board of directors.
The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Qualcomm declined to provide additional details, including the amount it invested.
“We have a shared vision to bring connectivity to underserved areas around the world,” said Jacobs in a statement. “We are pleased to join Virgin as an initial investor, and we look forward to helping fund initial technical feasibility work for the satellite system.” OneWeb said in a statement that it plans to bring in additional investors to fund construction, launch and operation of its satellite cluster. It will use Virgin Galactic’s LauncherOne program to carry its satellites into orbit.
Source:
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2015/jan/16/Qualcomm-Virgin-OneWeb-Worldvu-satellite-internet/
