OneWeb completes third round installations of high-speed internet satellites for northern regions including Alaska

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - OneWeb moves one launch closer to bringing high-speed internet to all regions north of latitude 50, including Alaska and many of its hard-to-reach rural villages and towns.

Sunday marked another successful launch for the satellite communications company. Their rocket, carrying 36 low Earth orbit satellites, lifted off from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia.

This is the third of five planned launches that will be required to get the project up and running by June. The newly launched satellites now make it 182 LEO satellites in orbit, which will make up part of OneWeb’s 648 LEO satellite fleet.

“These are exciting times at OneWeb as we get ever closer to bringing our connectivity services to some of the world’s hardest to reach places,” said OneWeb CEO Neil Masterson in the release. “With this third successful launch in our ‘Five to 50′ program, we are rapidly building momentum.”

While reaching all locations north of latitude 50 is the early goal for the company, eventually, they plan to expand into a global operation. OneWeb intends to make global service available in 2022.

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