An artist’s rendition of the OneWeb constellation. Photo: OneWeb

OneWeb continues its momentum by announcing another new deals with BT Group and Leonardo DRS. OneWeb and British telecommunications company BT have agreed on a new distribution partner agreement to provide Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite communication services across BT Group. This deal was announced Nov.2.  This builds on an initial MoU signed in July and means BT is testing how LEO satellite technology integrates with its existing terrestrial capabilities to meet the communications needs of customers.

On successful completion, BT will commence the first live trials with customers from early next year. The partnership will span a growing range of connectivity solutions around the world as well as specific opportunities for the United Kingdom market. OneWeb is expected to deliver global coverage by June 2022 through a constellation of 648 LEO satellites and is poised to deliver services from the North Pole to the 50th parallel, covering the entire United Kingdom, later this year.

“Space is an emerging and enormous digital opportunity, and this is an important step towards harnessing its potential for BT’s customers across the globe. We will put OneWeb’s technology through its paces in our U.K. labs with the goal of delivering live trials in early 2022. Delivered securely and at scale, satellite solutions will be an important part of our plans to expand connectivity throughout the U.K. and globally, and to further diversify the range of services we can offer our customers,” Philip Jansen, chief executive of BT Group, said in a statement.

In a separate announcement, OneWeb, announced today that it has formed a partnership with Leonardo DRS to jointly offer LEO service for the U.S. Department of Defense. OneWeb’s global connectivity platform will provide high-bandwidth and low-latency connectivity to expand Leonardo DRS’ information and technology solution systems, products and technologies to support military and government markets. The partnership will enable expanded connectivity to offer versatile, agile, and capable US government mission support throughout the United States and overseas.

OneWeb and DRS Leonardo’s partnership will aim to benefit DoD naval and maritime systems, ground combat mission command and network computing, global satellite communications and network infrastructure, avionics systems, and intelligence and security solutions. Utilizing OneWeb’s network, Leonardo DRS will aim to augment its existing delivery of end-to-end Information and Communications Technology (ICT) solutions that are reliable, resilient, and secure by adding low latency service.

“We are excited to add OneWeb’s LEO capability to the Leonardo DRS ICT Ecosystem because it reinforces our commitment of providing best value solutions to our customers. Resiliency is a key attribute of our ICT Ecosystem and we achieve this by integrating multi-band, multi-orbit satellite services with our geographically diverse and redundant terrestrial network that is secured to U.S. government and military risk management framework standards. By adding the OneWeb LEO service, we increase resiliency in the space segment of the Leonardo DRS ICT Ecosystem,” David Fields, Leonardo’s vice president and general manager, said in a statement.