Broadband Bites: OneWeb developing a 'beam-hopping' satellite

Also in this roundup: India adopts rules to advance satellite Internet; US Treasury urged to fund more underserved areas; FCC Commissioner wants big tech to pay for broadband.

• UK-based OneWeb announced this week that it's leading a consortium of space firms, including SatixFy, Celestia UK and Astroscale UK, to develop a "beam-hopping satellite" that OneWeb will test next year for its second-generation satellite constellation. The consortium has received $45 million in funding from the British government for the initiative. In a press release, OneWeb said that the satellite ("nicknamed 'Joey-Sat' for its beam-hopping abilities") will be able to "switch which part of the world they cover, managing real-time surges in commercial demand or responding to emergencies such as natural disasters." UK Science Minister Amanda Solloway said: "From helping during a disaster to providing broadband on planes, this amazing technology will show how next-generation 5G connectivity can benefit all of us on Earth." OneWeb currently has 182 satellites in orbit, with another launch of 36 planned for today following a delay.

• In more space news, India's Telecom Engineering Centre (TEC), the technical wing of the Department of Telecommunications, recently changed rules in order to advance satellite broadband in the country. According to Light Reading contributor Gagandeep Kaur, the new rules allow satellite firms to deploy smaller antennae, thus reducing cost and improving efficiency; and prior caps on data rate and uplink have been removed. Currently, 50% of the Indian population is yet to be connected to the Internet. Read more on Light Reading: India changes rules to advance satellite communications

• Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) sent a letter to US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen this week requesting that the Treasury Department expand the number of communities eligible for federal funding through COVID-19 relief legislation by updating its rules to make dollars available to those without access to 100Mbit/s symmetrical speeds. Currently, the department relies on the FCC's definition of high-speed Internet, making communities with access to 25/3 Mbit/s ineligible. "I urge you to clarify that underserved locations include anywhere affordable, reliable broadband of at least 100 Mbps symmetric is not available," wrote Sen. Wyden.

• In an op-ed in Newsweek, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr pitched an idea for who should pay to close the digital divide in the US: big tech companies. "Big Tech has been enjoying a free ride on our internet infrastructure while skipping out on the billions of dollars in costs needed to maintain and build that network," writes Carr, the senior Republican at the FCC. He points to a study showing that streaming services from Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime, Disney+ and Microsoft account for 75% of all traffic on rural broadband networks; and that 77-94% of network costs are related to adding capacity or otherwise supporting streaming delivery, which he argues consumers have been paying for. Carr also calls for overturning the tax Americans pay on their phone bills, which goes toward the FCC's Universal Service Fund to support rural Internet builds. Carr says that it would take just 0.009% of the aforementioned tech companies' revenue to eliminate that tax. "Tech companies have been running a decades-long campaign to avoid paying their fair share. It is time to end this sweetheart deal," he said.

Featured image source: Roscosmos, Space Center Vostochny, TsENKI via OneWeb