OneWeb Starts 2nd-Gen Work, Partners With AT&T

The second-generation of OneWeb's low earth orbit broadband constellation could come with such features as lower latency and thermal imaging capabilities, OneWeb Executive Chairman Shravin Bharti Mittal said Wednesday at Satellite 2021. Appearing via livestream, Mittal said the company raised more funding than was needed for its first-gen constellation, giving it a cushion to allow it to start planning work on the second-gen. He said the first-gen constellation should provide constant coverage of northern latitudes including Alaska, Greenland and northern Russia within 60 to 90 days. He said all 648 planned satellites should be in orbit and providing global coverage by May or June 2022. Mittal and OneWeb said Wednesday the company signed an agreement with AT&T for the telco to use OneWeb capacity to improve remote coverage for businesses. Eutelsat said Wednesday it completed its $550 million OneWeb investment announced in April (see 2104270055).