SoftBank seeking extra connectivity investments
February 8, 2018
By Chris Forrester
Japanese media and technology conglomerate SoftBank is looking for new investment possibilities in the satellite and related connectivity sectors. SoftBank already has a significant $1 billion+ investment in Low Earth Orbit business OneWeb, and Alex Clavel, an EVP at SoftBank told delegates at the SmallSat Symposium in California that his company was actively seeking to make new investments in smaller satellites.
He told conference delegates that the sector was at an inflection point. OneWeb’s plan is for its constellation to girdle the planet with high-capacity bandwidth feeds.
OneWeb has a couple of constellation plans in development. The first is a 700-satellite fleet and where the first batch of 10 satellites are now being built by Airbus in readiness for a launch this coming May with a planet-wide service starting in 2020.