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Iridium and OneWeb to Collaborate on a Global Satellite Services Offering
MCLEAN, Va. and LONDON, Sept. 17, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: IRDM) and OneWeb today announced they have entered into a
About this update from Iridium Communications Inc
[{"type":"text","content":"MCLEAN, Va. and LONDON, Sept. 17, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: IRDM) and OneWeb today announced they have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to work together toward a combined service offering. This combined service offering would be designed to make it easier for their mutual partners to offer unique bundling and co-marketing opportunities for the Iridium Certus® L-band services and OneWeb's Ku-band service. The offering would leverage the strengths of their respective low-Earth-orbit (LEO) networks. This is the first time that LEO operators have collaborated to deliver services in L-band and Ku-band. \n\n \nThe MoU also creates opportunities for companies that manufacture both OneWeb and Iridium CertusTM terminals. Such new options could include Iridium-OneWeb companion packages in addition to providers being able to offer combined equipment or even new dual-constellation terminals. \nWhile both are LEO constellations, Iridium® and OneWeb services have different capabilities on their respective bands (L-band and Ku-band), which can create a complementary, full-service option for applications such as heads of state comms, critical tactical services, maritime, disaster response and more. \n\"It's an exciting time for the industry, and we see great potential for this offering,\" said Matt Desch, CEO of Iridium. \"Our services are unique and complementary, and we know that customers are looking for the capabilities of both our low-Earth-orbiting networks.\"\nAdrian Steckel, CEO of OneWeb said: \"We believe our new offering can bring many benefits for our distribution partners. By combining the strengths of our services, we can ensure our partners are able to deliver the most innovative, seamless services to their subscribers across many markets, and in all the places that don't yet have access to the internet.\"\nDue to the physics associated with L-band and Ku-band spectrum, the two come with different yet complementary attributes. The OneWeb network will deliver very high-speed broadband connectivity that transfers large amounts of data. It is ideal for applications including Inflight WiFi, Government, and Maritime networks that require global reach, high speed and low latency. Iridium's crosslinked satellite constellation brings seamless truly global connectivity with highly weather re...