OneWeb Demonstrates LEO Offerings to Humanitarian Organizations

Headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva, Switzerland.

OneWeb had demonstrated how its satellites and services can make a real impact in the humanitarian community. The company announced Aug. 17 that it took part in a successful demonstration of Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite capabilities last month at the headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva, Switzerland. OneWeb, successfully streamed 4K video feeds, ran Microsoft Teams and GoogleEarth applications at up to 150 Mbps download speeds; up to 29 Mbps upload speeds; and latency levels as low as 70 ms.

The meeting saw attendance from local organizations and virtual attendance from a number of United Nations’ humanitarian organizations. The annual event allows IT and telecoms managers from across the major non-governmental organizations to experience new technology solutions in the market, relevant to their efforts and to enable discussions with key providers on their needs.

OneWeb showcased the network’s capability to deliver high-speed, low latency communications through two different user terminals. First was with the recently launched Kymeta Hawk u8 user terminal which is suited for fixed applications and mountable on moveable vehicles and vessels. Secondly, the team showcased the new human-portable flat panel INSTER, which slides into a backpack for increased portability for ‘any situational’ comms on the pause (COTP) and will be available in the second half of this year.

“The OneWeb offering works on many levels for organizations like Red Cross. We can operate multiple service plans on one device so the network slice can adapt and work across various teams — be it operational traffic for critical comms or welfare links for everyday internet use. This really helps with flexibility of budget splits and makes the offering more accessible,” Charlie Clark, director of Government, OneWeb said in a statement.