UK BUYS SHARE IN SATELLITE FIRM
THE UK government has raised eyebrows with a £500m investment in a company that specialises in satellite internet.
OneWeb has not been a huge success, though – it filed for bankruptcy protection in the US just three months ago, and to date has launched only 74 of the 650 satellites it had planned to put in low Earth orbit.
The cash boost from the UK, which is mirrored by a further £500m being put in by Indian telecom company Bharti Global, will allow OneWeb to complete its network. It says it will be resuming its work shortly.
There is some speculation that the move is in response to the UK losing access to the EU’s Galileo GPS satellite network after its departure from the Union.
But that’s different technology to internet connectivity. It remains to be seen what the UK government plans to do with its 20% stake.