With LeoSat gone, OneWeb in Chapter 11, two of the major Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) players that had ambitious plans won’t see the light of day. Ironically, all eyes will now be on Canadian operator Telesat which out of all the big traditional Geostationary (GEO) operators has the greatest LEO ambitions.
Dan Goldberg, Telesat’s CEO, said despite the bankruptcy, OneWeb’s accomplishments as a startup were “impressive,” as it hired a team of professionals, secured significant financing, built a high-volume manufacturing facility, and successfully launched 74 satellites. “We estimate that our constellation, compared to OneWeb’s for example, will deliver approximately 100 times more capacity to any spot on the Earth with vastly more total useable system capacity at a dramatically lower cost-per-unit of useable capacity,” he said.
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Mark Dankberg Says OneWeb is a Cautionary Tale
Mark Dankberg, Viasat’s CEO, says: “The most important point is that the industry, and capital markets, consider the OneWeb story carefully when evaluating both new startups as well as existing players – and take a balanced view of the advantages and disadvantages of broadband at LEO in the context of alternative solutions.”
“If the main advantage of LEO is lower latency, then emerging markets are going to be the least interested in paying a premium for LEO bandwidth. Low latency is a first world desire, not an emerging market necessity.”
Ex-COO Suzi McBride Calls it a ‘Perfect Storm’
Suzi McBride, the Iridium COO and former COO of OneWeb, said: “Companies with deeper pockets have now started to enter and change the landscape with more supply, so honestly I wasn’t surprised, but I was shocked at the seeming finality of the announcement. Funding a LEO network and business is a large endeavor. When you factor that into the current impact the COVID-19 is having on the market, it was unfortunately the perfect storm in terms of timing.”
History Lessons from Iridium
Matt Desch, Iridium’s CEO, says: “I think the news speaks more to the situations at LeoSat and OneWeb than it does about the overall satellite industry, which remains healthy. These failures are to be expected with entrepreneurial activity – it’s just that failures in developing constellations are much more spectacular given the levels of capital that must be spent before you can tell if they are even minimally viable.”
LeoSat Alum Recognized Serious Challenges
Ronald Van Der Breggen, the ex-CCO of LeoSat, says: “This is so bad for our industry and for the many customers who are looking to our industry for solutions they cannot get from the terrestrial industry. They will have to wait again.”
NSR Analyst Saw Red Flags Ahead of COVID-19
Claude Rousseau, a senior analyst at NSR, says: “There is not really a direct relation between COVID-19 and the OneWeb bankruptcy, it has only accelerated their demise.” VS
