OneWeb ready to go live in Thailand
November 6, 2024
By Chris Forrester
Eutelsat’s OneWeb low Earth orbiting system will be officially launched in Thailand in December and go fully ‘live’ in January for commercial users, according to The Bangkok Post. OneWeb and the nation’s National Telecom (NT) will co-launch the system which is being tested this month.
OneWeb’s gateway teleport facility is expected to support more than 50,000 users in Southeast Asia, excluding Thailand, within its first year of operation, according to NT president Col Sanphachai Huvanandana.
The move came after the regulatory board of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) granted approval to the partnership to provide a satellite broadband internet service internationally under NT’s landing rights.
Eutelsat OneWeb and NT have reportedly invested more than $25 million in the local infrastructure to make Eutelsat OneWeb services possible in Thailand and the wider region.
Bala Balamurali, VP/Southeast and East Asia at Eutelsat OneWeb, said with the completion of this Thai gateway site, OneWeb’s low-latency, high-speed services can be activated to provide critical connectivity solutions across Thailand and throughout Southeast Asia and the Asia-Pacific region.
The new OneWeb gateway can support communications through OneWeb’s LEO satellite network across the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Taiwan, South Korea, and parts of Indonesia.