SoftBank Group Corp. agreed to invest about US$500 million more in U.S.-based satellite broadband provider OneWeb LLC, a person familiar with the details told The Wall Street Journal.
The additional cash infusion would reportedly bolster OneWeb's plan to provide faster internet connections on a global scale, as compared to traditional systems, either terrestrial or space-based, according to the report.
SoftBank's total financial contribution in the project would now be at about US$1.5 billion, although the source, along with others close to the talks, said that the exact amount and structure of the Japanese conglomerate's investment could change. SoftBank currently has a 40% stake in OneWeb, according to the report.
The sources also said that OneWeb's founder and Executive Chairman Greg Wyler and SoftBank founder and CEO Masayoshi Son, in recent talks, agreed in principle on the cash infusion, with the caveat that SoftBank's shareholding in OneWeb would stay below 50%.
Wyler announced over the weekend that his company has started designing and looking for suppliers for a more powerful generation of satellites, according to the report.
OneWeb's initial fleet of over 700 small, low-altitude satellites is "generally on schedule" for launches starting 2018, with an aim of marketing services over Alaska in 2019 and expanding globally by the end of 2020, Wyler reportedly said in an interview. The U.S. company also expects to deploy about 900 second-generation, higher-orbiting satellites by the mid-2020s, which are projected to increase speeds to 2.5Gbps.
In June, SoftBank-backed OneWeb terminated its planned merger with Intelsat S.A. after the latter failed to get enough bondholders to support the deal. As a result, SoftBank also canceled the planned share purchase agreement with Intelsat to invest $1.7 billion in shares of what would have been the merged entity.
