OneWeb wins unanimous approval for ‘historic’ push into Brazil
Taxpayer-backed satellite giant OneWeb has won unanimous approval from Brazil’s telecommunications watchdog for landing rights in the country, in a “historic” milestone for the company.
It means the British communications darling can build satellite hubs known as gateways, critical pieces of infrastructure for solid satellite connection across Latin America and the Caribbean.
The 15-year deal, signed off by the Agência Nacional de Telecomunicações, also known as Anatel, forms part of a pledge by the Brazilian government to strengthen digital infrastructure in the country.
While Brazil is the most active internet user in Latin America, the licence will help boost connectivity for countries such as Uruguay, Nicaragua, Panama, El Salvador and Honduras, where less than four million residents in each state on average regularly use the internet, according to Statista.
Executive chairman of OneWeb and billionaire entrepreneur, Sunil Bharti Mittal, hailed the entry into the Brazilian market is a “significant milestone”, after the company and US rival Starlink signed a frequency sharing agreement – promising to move past sour comments each have made about each other’s systems to the US communications watchdog.
“With the historic license approval from Anatel, and our planned satellite gateways in Petrolina and Maricá, we are now in prime position to deliver on our central mission of improved access to connectivity for communities across the whole of South America,” he said.
The approval comes just months after Starlink, a subsidiary of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, was also awarded the right to operate in the country from the Brazilian telecoms regulator.
However, Musk’s wild ambition and at-times rocky relationship with regulators saw Anatel grant Starlink a five-year contract.
The regulator said it had considered granting the rights until 2033, but decided to shorten the time frame of authorisation given the venture’s “pioneering nature” and “possible unforeseen impacts”.
“It is in the company’s interest to provide internet access to customers throughout the Brazilian territory, which will certainly be very opportune for schools, hospitals, and other establishments located in rural and remote areas,” Anatel’s interim president, Emmanoel Campelo, said in a statement at the time.
Starlink, which will operate through a legal entity set up in Brazil about a year before the license to operate was granted, plans to put 4,408 satellites into orbit as part of its widely-criticised goal of building a satellite constellation of a scale not yet seen before.
Alongside supporting connectivity in schools and hospitals, Musk and Brazilian communications minister Fabio Faria in November discussed using the technology to protect the Amazon rainforest, via the monitoring of deforestation and illegal fires.