OneWeb offers Russia a share in the project in exchange for frequencies
Recently, representatives from the OneWeb satellite operator project met with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. At the meeting, the company proposed an agreement to the Russian government: 12.5% in the project in exchange for a certain range of frequencies in Russia, as reported by Vedomosti.
Russia is an important market for One Web. The fact is that there are a lot of regions in the country where there is no broadband Internet connection, so One Web relies on customers from these locations.
To work in Russia, the company has created a joint venture with Roscosmos, which has received the name "Uanweb". 60% of the company's capital belongs to the global company OneWeb, and 40% to the Gonets satellite communications system, which is controlled by Roscosmos. By 2021, it was planned to launch satellites on the Soyuz family of rockets from such cosmodromes as Baikonur (Kazakhstan), Vostochny (Russia) and Kourou (French Guiana). As mentioned above, a total of 21 Soyuz were contracted with a total value of $ 1 billion. The contract became the largest order for Russian launch services. Work on the delivery of satellites into orbit was to begin on February 15, 2019.
Earlier, “Oveweb” filed several applications at once to the State Commission on Radio Frequencies for obtaining the frequency spectrum in Russia. Unfortunately, these applications were not satisfied. Moreover, in October, a representative of the FSB announced that the company was a threat to Russia's national security and could be used for intelligence purposes.
According to Reuters, the Russian government is still discussing the OneWeb proposal and the issue of allocating frequencies. If the Russian Federation succeeds in obtaining a minority stake in OneWeb, the country will be represented on the project’s board of directors, gaining access to its technical documentation. However, the government wants this access even before the deal is signed.
OneWeb spokesman Christopher Torres declined to comment on the situation, saying only that the company is holding discussions with virtually all countries around the world.
At the moment, OneWeb has received more than $ 1.7 million from investors, including Airbus, Bharti, Coca-Cola, Hughes, Virgin Group, Qualcomm and SoftBank.