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IPFS News Link • Internet

OneWeb is a step closer to bringing its global, satellite-based internet services to Earth

• https://techcrunch.com, by Jonathan Shieber

The billionaire-backed corporation, which has raised over $1.7 billion from Virgin Group, SoftBank, Coca Cola, Bharti Group, Qualcomm and Airbus; just announced an exclusive $190 million contract with Echostar subsidiary Hughes Network Systems to provide some of the terrestrial infrastructure necessary to distribute its internet services.

Through the deal, Hughes Network Systems will manufacture a ground network system to support OneWeb's low earth orbit satellites.

The contract is an extension of an earlier agreement the companies signed in June 2015 and leaves OneWeb on track to deliver its first connectivity services by 2019.

Through the deal, Hughes Network Systems will produce gateway sites with several access points for satellite tracking to smooth the handoff of high-speed user traffic between satellites.

In all, the deal brings the total contract between OneWeb and the Echostar subsidiary to roughly $300 million.


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