Hughes Network Systems will invest $50 million in the consortium that will acquire OneWeb out of bankruptcy.
The winning consortium is led by the U.K. Government and Bharti Enterprises. In addition to investment of $50 million, Hughes will continue as a technology and distribution partner to OneWeb.
OneWeb, the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite operator, had launched 74 satellites before filing for Chapter 11 protection in March.
Pradman Kaul, president of Hughes, said: “This consortium brings the right players together to fulfill the promise of the OneWeb constellation in deploying low-latency services for communities, enterprises, governments, airplanes and ships – complementing geostationary connectivity.”
Sunil Bharti Mittal, Founder and Chairman, Bharti Enterprises, said: “The investment by Hughes underlines OneWeb’s exciting commercial prospects, reflected in the discussions with some of the world’s leading strategic and financial investors.”
Hughes Communications India and Bharti Airtel are in the process of combining their satellite broadband operations in India.
