On June 25th 2015 OneWeb announced that it will bring affordable high speed internet in rural areas in Tanzania where there is a lack of access to this service.
Mobile operator Airtel who owns a minority stake in OneWeb though its holding Baharti, will be a preferred distributor of the service in Africa, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka with a strong focus on rural markets.
The communications network with an initial constellation of 648 low earth orbit (LEO) satellites developed by Airbus Defence & Space, will provide connectivity to billions of people around the world.
OneWeb has attracted USD 500 million worth of investment from Airbus Group, Hughes Network Systems, (Hughes), a subsidiary of EchoStar Corp., Intelsat, Qualcomm Incorporated, The Coca-Cola Company, Totalplay, a Grupo Salinas Company, Virgin Group, and Bharti Enterprises.
“Access to affordable high-speed Internet is a powerful tool for economic development and empowerment of populations, particularly, in emerging economies.” Said Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman of Bharti Enterprises.
“Our vision is to make the internet affordable for everyone, connecting remote areas to rest of the world and helping to raise living standards and prosperity…” was mentioned by Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group.
Currently mobile internet services are provided in Tanzania by Airtel, Tigo, Vodacom and Zantel.
According the the latest funding of the Tanzania Conservation Resource Centre (TZCRC) the cost per Megabyte (MB) in Tanzania is between TZS 0.93 and TZS 25 depending on the packages available.
