UK’S Oneweb closes Alaska site amid battle with Spacex
THE British satellite champion Oneweb has shut down one of its first test sites in Alaska amid its struggle with Elon Musk’s rival company Spacex.
Taxpayer-backed Oneweb closed the facility after claims by Alaskan telecoms executives that its service was impractical and costly. Other services remain online in the state.
It comes as Spacex muscles in on Oneweb’s effort to connect rural Americans in Alaska to satellite broadband.
In a letter to the US Federal Communications Commission, the Alaska Telecom Association and local cable providers said Oneweb’s service continued to be available in a limited capacity but added: “The service is too costly to adopt.” The executives, whose businesses face competition from satellite networks, said: “One long-running test installation of Oneweb’s service was discontinued due to ongoing technical difficulties”.
Oneweb – which was nationalised by the British Government in 2020 following an intervention by Dominic Cummings, then a senior Whitehall adviser – is developing a satellite network that would bring internet connectivity to the most remote corners of the globe.
The company is launching a 600-strong satellite constellation that it hopes can link up communities to broadband from space. But it faces increasing competition from Spacex, whose satellite dish service, Starlink, is already up and running across the US.
The Alaskan telecoms executives noted that Mr Musk’s service was now on offer across the state.
Oneweb has long held up its Alaskan operation as a successful pilot project, linking remote towns and a tribal community in Akiak. The village of Akiak, which still relies on Oneweb’s signals, is only accessible by boat or plane.
However, the company’s ambitions have been delayed by the war in Ukraine, which cut off its main source of rocket launches. It has since been forced to rely on Spacex rockets to fire more of its satellites into orbit. A launch of 40 satellites was due to go ahead at Cape Canaveral, Florida, late last night.
Sources familiar with Oneweb’s Alaskan operations said the site it had shut down was small and not commercialised. Its services remained online in other parts of the state in deals with local networks.
Last July, ministers announced that Oneweb would be merged with French satellite-maker Eutelsat.
Last year, the Government announced it had signed a deal to trial Starlink’s satellite dishes at a series of remote sites, to see if they could offer an alternative to fibre connectivity.
Ministers said at the time they continued to discuss a future deal with Oneweb to provide satellite broadband in Britain.