Prime Minister Askar Mamin has met with Sunil Mittal, head of the British company One Web. The company is planning to launch its global network of satellites and therefore is interested in cooperation with Kazakhstan, the prime minister’s press service reported.
One Web is creating a global network of satellites at a low orbit to provide access to high-speed internet (5-50 Mb/s). So far, the company has launched 110 satellites. Over the next two years, it’s going to launch another eight satellites from the cosmodrome of Baikonur. There will be 648 satellites in the One Web network in total. All of them will be deployed at 18 different orbits about 1,200 kilometers above the surface of Earth. Kazakhstan’s part of the network will be put into operation by the end of 2021.
During the meeting, both sides discussed how the project can help Kazakhstan to spread broadband internet coverage all over its territory, including rural and remote areas. Given the high importance of the project, Kazakhstan’s government has suggested One Web use the technical infrastructure of the National Space Center in Nur-Sultan for assembling the satellites. Kazakhstan is also ready to allow the company to set its gate station on its territory to share internet access with other Central Asian countries.
