Hughes Gets $250M Contract From OneWeb to Develop Ground System for LEO Constellation; Pradman Kaul Quoted

OneWeb has awarded Hughes Network Systems a three-year, $250 million contract to develop and manufacture essential ground system technology for the low Earth orbit constellation, Hughes reported on Wednesday. The company will develop the gateway electronics for the OneWeb system, in addition to the core module.

"Today's announcement of a continued technology partnership with OneWeb reflects our position as the trusted innovator in the industry," said Pradman Kaul, president of Hughes. "The ground system we develop will enable reliable, low latency broadband data, ideal for a wide range of customer applications."

Hughes will develop and manufacture the core module for the OneWeb user terminals, which will be adaptable across fixed, aeronautical and maritime mobility terminals, for electronically or mechanically steered antennas.

Hughes’ team of engineers designed the OneWeb gateways to be capable of ten thousand hand-offs per second. The gateways will be able to orchestrate handover and track hundreds of gigabits of data. 

Seven gateways have been installed and multiple gateways are in development across various stages of production. Hughes has increased production on the gateway equipment and resumed testing on the installed systems.

"OneWeb is building a global broadband network to deliver high-throughput, low latency enterprise grade connectivity services for a wide range of government, commercial, and mobility use cases. Our goal is to commercialize services in a year, and our partnership with Hughes will be vital in helping us launch a secure, trusted, resilient, space-based network,” Neil Masterson, CEO, OneWeb, said.