All news

Projects like OneWeb unlikely to have commercial success — expert

At the same time, another Russian expert believes that space internet technologies are necessary and feasible

MOSCOW, August 15. /TASS/. Projects to create satellite constellations, similar to OneWeb, are realistic from the technical point of view but unlikely to be commercially successful, said Yevgeny Buidinov, the Deputy Director General at the Russian Satellite Communications Company.

"Multi-satellite constellations, providing personal communication services, have already been in operation for quite a while, and almost all major satellite system projects have gone through the stage of bankruptcies and acquisitions. It will be very hard to create a commercially successful system with such a great number of satellites. A minimal number of users for such a system should be counted in hundreds of millions. Besides, user devices available at costs not exceeding $100-$500 should also be designed, which is impossible at the moment. Besides, prices for their services should be comparable to those provided by cellular service providers," he said.

Buidinov added that a communications system of thousands of satellites should have a global coverage.

"At the same time, 50% of the planet’s population lives within the 200-kilometer coastal zone, while 70% of the global population inhabit 7% of the global territory. It turns out that the efficiency of a truly global coverage will be fairly low due to a low number of users. At the same time, densely populated areas with great demand and capacity to pay, already have ground-based mobile service operators, which by that time will switch to the new 5G standard," he said.

"From the commercial point of view, funds invested into such a system are unlikely to ever pay back, considering the demand for such technologies. However, a system of this kind is technically possible even at the present level of scientific development," the expert added.

Another point of view

At the same time, Andrey Ionin. a member of the Tsiolkovsky Russian Academy of Cosmonautics, believes that space internet technologies are necessary and feasible.

"Space internet - and, first of all the OneWeb system - are not a rival to ground-based services. It is an element of the digital economy, which is being widely discussed in Russia and abroad. Moreover, digital economy would simply be impossible without such systems," he said.

"First of all, only space systems can make the digital economy truly global - for example, to ensure that its elements, such as transport, are operable at any location. Secondly, space internet will be crucial in situations of natural and man-made disasters, when ground infrastructure of the digital economy, its communication links and energy systems can be knocked down completely or in part," Ionin added.

"In those cases, access to communication technologies and internet is of utmost importance, first of all for organizing rescue efforts. Space technologies will be the only system that remains operable no matter what disasters take place on the ground," he continued.

Increased cybersecurity is another advantage of space-based internet, the expert said.

"I’m sure that systems similar to OneWeb will definitely be feasible as an element of the digital economy that complements and backs up ground-based services," he went on.

Satellite telecoms firm OneWeb plans to create a grouping of a large number of satellites to provide broadband Internet access to users across the world by covering the entire Earth’s surface. In 2015, Russia signed a contract for the launches of 21 Soyuz rockets with OneWeb satellites from 2017 to 2019.

OneWeb said earlier it intended to launch a larger number of its satellites with the help of Russian carrier rockets. Overall, OneWeb plans to launch 882 satellites to join the first generation of the grouping’s space vehicles while the second generation is expected to comprise about 2,000 satellites.