OneWeb low-earth orbit broadband service launching in South Africa

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Starlink rival OneWeb beats SpaceX to South African launch

Satellite operator Eutelsat and its country partners will soon launch its OneWeb low-earth orbit (LEO) broadband service in South Africa.

The service aims to provide high-speed, low-latency Internet access in regions where traditional connectivity might be challenging or previously non-existent.
 
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Yeh... firstly, when is launch date and what are prices like?
Also, the article seems to indicate that Starlink doesn't offer business services when they do... poor wording

"SpaceX’s Starlink product also uses LEO satellites. However, it is offered to individual customers, while OneWeb is currently sold exclusively to enterprises, businesses, and governments."
Should read:
"SpaceX’s Starlink product also uses LEO satellites. However, it is offered to individual customers as well as enterprises, businesses and governments, while OneWeb is currently sold exclusively to enterprises, businesses, and governments."
 
Well this is interesting, I assume Starlink have to cave here and meet the requirements to sell in SA
Or loose out on clients, to a rival
 
JimboBob said:
Well this is interesting, I assume Starlink have to cave here and meet the requirements to sell in SA
Or loose out on clients, to a rival
Click to expand...
Without pricing, you can't make this assumption. It might as well be that they ask 3k a month, and the moment Starlink launch at 999 or something like 1.5k, these guys will become obsolete.
 
"...while OneWeb is currently sold exclusively to enterprises, businesses, and governments."
Sooooo, this is how you get a service like this in SA.
LOTS of palm grease.
 
lkpat said:
Yeh... firstly, when is launch date and what are prices like?
Also, the article seems to indicate that Starlink doesn't offer business services when they do... poor wording

"SpaceX’s Starlink product also uses LEO satellites. However, it is offered to individual customers, while OneWeb is currently sold exclusively to enterprises, businesses, and governments."
Should read:
"SpaceX’s Starlink product also uses LEO satellites. However, it is offered to individual customers as well as enterprises, businesses and governments, while OneWeb is currently sold exclusively to enterprises, businesses, and governments."
Click to expand...
Individuals cannot buy Oneweb because of its price point and capacity and application. Its like comparing cars and trucks and claiming they the same thing.
 
Grieta Thanburg said:
Without pricing, you can't make this assumption. It might as well be that they ask 3k a month, and the moment Starlink launch at 999 or something like 1.5k, these guys will become obsolete.
Click to expand...
The pricing is not comparable. Oneweb is way more expensive than Starlink. It connects whole communities not individual homes.
 
r00igev@@r said:
The pricing is not comparable. Oneweb is way more expensive than Starlink. It connects whole communities not individual homes.
Click to expand...
Then I would imagine it would be used for the backhaul for rural/non NLD fibre route connected FNOs or WISP?
Which if they jumped through the hoops to get it launched locally there must be a demand for, or see a business case for it.
 
DStvNothingOn said:
Then I would imagine it would be used for the backhaul for rural/non NLD fibre route connected FNOs or WISP?
Which if they jumped through the hoops to get it launched locally there must be a demand for, or see a business case for it.
Click to expand...
Correct, a rural WISP would use it as a backhaul. Probably even mobile operators.
It is also a fail safe link for many normal POPs, even in cities. Example you can put it at the end of a long fibre run which could then protect against a break with less capacity than the fibre but still workable capacity, especially for voice.
 
r00igev@@r said:
Individuals cannot buy Oneweb because of its price point and capacity and application. Its like comparing cars and trucks and claiming they the same thing.
Click to expand...
I get that, my point is Starlink has business plans and consumer plans. That wasn't clear in the article. Perhaps you were saying Oneweb is aiming to fill a gap in the upstream provider market.
 
I know of a lot of companies that do not want to do business with spacex. From a commercial perspective unless you have more than 100 starlink dishes or do $1 mil + per month then you are in the same pot as everyone else. So pay via credit card, no contractual price fix or service sla. For many companies that are reliant on connectivity they dont want to rely on Elon waking up tomorrow and deciding that Starlink is now $x per month and has a cap of Y gb. They have a real fear of the Elon effect on his products. If they then look at alternatives, traditional vSat is insane and in the LEO area its only OneWeb at this point. Amazon Project Kuiper is still a couple years away.

I have heard that OneWeb is multiples more expensive than Starlink and also has no answer on cell congestion. SpaceX launches Starlink sats every couple of days. OneWeb has none further planned, the current constellation is also not fully aligned for commercial service at this stage.

Starlink is currently a grudge purchase for some companies and hence don't underestimate the limited competition on the commercial side of LEO offerings.
 
JacD said:
I know of a lot of companies that do not want to do business with spacex. From a commercial perspective unless you have more than 100 starlink dishes or do $1 mil + per month then you are in the same pot as everyone else. So pay via credit card, no contractual price fix or service sla. For many companies that are reliant on connectivity they dont want to rely on Elon waking up tomorrow and deciding that Starlink is now $x per month and has a cap of Y gb. They have a real fear of the Elon effect on his products. If they then look at alternatives, traditional vSat is insane and in the LEO area its only OneWeb at this point. Amazon Project Kuiper is still a couple years away.
Click to expand...
So OneWeb are offering price fixes and their FUP is fixed over the contract period? What is that period?
JacD said:
I have heard that OneWeb is multiples more expensive than Starlink and also has no answer on cell congestion. SpaceX launches Starlink sats every couple of days. OneWeb has none further planned, the current constellation is also not fully aligned for commercial service at this stage.
Click to expand...
This is my understanding too... the talk of 'first to launch in SA' is a bit premature.
JacD said:
Starlink is currently a grudge purchase for some companies and hence don't underestimate the limited competition on the commercial side of LEO offerings.
Click to expand...
I can't imagine it being a grudge purchase when there's nothing else to compare it to.
 
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