UK’s OneWeb ready to launch 34 satellites from Kazakhstan ’s Baikonur Cosmodrome
Kazakhstan Prime Minister Askar Mamin on February 5 received the Chief Executive Officer of UK-based global communications company OneWeb Adrian Steckel to discuss implementation of a project to cover the territory of Kazakhstan, including remote and inaccessible areas, with high-speed broadband Internet via communication satellites, the prime minister’s press service reported.
Steckel reported on his company’s readiness to launch 34 satellites from Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Cosmodrome on February 7, 2020, as part of the OneWeb global satellite network. In total, this year it is planned to carry out 8 launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The global satellite network will consist of 504 satellites in 12 orbit planes at an altitude of 1,200 km. Full commissioning of the satellite network in the operation and maintenance of the territory of country is expected at the end of 2021.
The parties also considered prospects for implementing a project to assemble satellites for OneWeb on the basis of the Spacecraft Assembly and Testing Complex at the National Space Center in Nur-Sultan, as well as the creation of a joint venture to deploy a gateway station for the subsequent exclusive distribution of OneWeb satellite Internet to the countries of Central Asia, the Caucasus, Iran and Afghanistan.
Late in January, OneWeb signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC), the largest financial hub in Central Asia, to accelerate broadband connectivity in Kazakhstan.
The MoU marked the start of a partnership focused on achieving two important goals in Kazakhstan and Central Asia: providing the first low-latency satellite broadband in Kazakhstan and establishing a technical hub in the country to support OneWeb’s communication service delivery across Central Asia, OneWeb said in a press release.
The MoU was signed by the Governor of AIFC Kairat Kelimbetov and OneWeb’s CEO Adrian Steckel during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland where they discussed how OneWeb will enhance the implementation of a key government program called “Digital Kazakhstan” and other initiatives for greater collaboration between OneWeb and Kazakhstan.
Digital Kazakhstan aims to provide high-speed broadband across country by 2022, boosting development of the country’s economy and improving the quality of life of Kazakhstani citizens by means of digital technologies. As a part of this effort, Digital Kazakhstan seeks to expand the country’s telecommunication networks and prioritizes providing broadband access by satellite in 6,600 rural and remote communities.
OneWeb plans to engage local telecom operators among its distribution partners to provide its ubiquitous, high-speed, low-latency “fiber-like” broadband connectivity across the private and public sector, including businesses, schools, hospitals and civil services in Kazakhstan.
A technical hub serving the greater Central Asia region will also be one of the projects under consideration, enabled by existing space communications infrastructure in Kazakhstan. OneWeb is considering setting up a joint venture in the jurisdiction of AIFC to operate this Central Asia technical hub.
Source: Times of Central Asia
