Russia denies OneWeb permission to operate in Russia
Russian government agencies this week denied permission to OneWeb to operate and provide internet services within Russia, even though Russia is launching a large bulk of OneWeb’s satellite constellation.
One agency denied them permission to use certain radio frequencies. Another has said no because it claims the satellites could be used for espionage. The first denial, in 2017, came from Roscosmos, which is also the agency launching OneWeb’s satellites.
The latest refusal of OneWeb was a sign that the country’s authorities remain keen to continue tightening their control of internet access, said Prof Christopher Newman at Northumbria University.
“[Satellite internet] presents an existential strategic threat to their trying to limit internet activity within their boundaries,” he told the BBC. “There are going to be large swathes of Russian territory… that are going to become very dependent on internet from space.”
Russia continues its sad slide back to Soviet-style authoritarianism and poverty.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
Russian government agencies this week denied permission to OneWeb to operate and provide internet services within Russia, even though Russia is launching a large bulk of OneWeb’s satellite constellation.
One agency denied them permission to use certain radio frequencies. Another has said no because it claims the satellites could be used for espionage. The first denial, in 2017, came from Roscosmos, which is also the agency launching OneWeb’s satellites.
The latest refusal of OneWeb was a sign that the country’s authorities remain keen to continue tightening their control of internet access, said Prof Christopher Newman at Northumbria University.
“[Satellite internet] presents an existential strategic threat to their trying to limit internet activity within their boundaries,” he told the BBC. “There are going to be large swathes of Russian territory… that are going to become very dependent on internet from space.”
Russia continues its sad slide back to Soviet-style authoritarianism and poverty.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
Exactly how will they regulate One Web while they fly over Russia?
Will they just refuse them the ability to sell transceivers in Russia? More than likely.
Or require them to shut down while over Russia? Low chance since One Web will also be servicing all nations around Russia.
In the end all they will do is create a black market for OneWeb Devices.
I don’t see how OneWeb will be able to compete with StarLink. Launching many more satellites on the partially-reusable F9 will make StarLink so much cheaper and more capable than OneWeb.
It’s worse than just a cost disadvantage – bad as that is. Wyler deliberately crippled his network by building sats with no cross-links and, therefore, no routing capability. On-orbit routing allows an end-run around national-level Web censorship. Neither Russia nor China would permit a system with on-orbit routing they didn’t control to operate in their national territories. At the same time, the U.S. DoD would not be a potential customer for such a network and neither, one imagines would any other military who didn’t want the Russians and/or Chinese able to control, or shut off, their network access.
So Wyler decided to cast his lot with the totalitarians. And now the Russians – having already arranged to own 49% of any OneWeb Russian operation – have decided OneWeb’s services are simply not required after all. Given that the Chinese already plan to field their own broadband Internet constellation, it would come as no shock if the Chinese also elect to stiff-arm Wyler.
If this happens, Wyler looks to be royally screwed. The entire First World and Third World will have access to the better and cheaper Starlink, with Kuiper also on the way. So who will need OneWeb?
Whom the gods would destroy and all that.
I think Doug is right about Starlink from SpaceX being potentially cheaper, and if not Starlink, then another service from another competitor. This will be a competitive and interesting market soon.
It’s obvious why Russian authorities don’t want OneWeb. It allows a little more freedom, considered a feature to most of us, but a bug to some.
Which space-broadband offering promotes the most freedom is an interesting question. It’s my understanding that some designs rely more on extensive use of ground stations spread out all over the world. Other designs carry the end-user traffic more fully from satellite to satellite. This means that once the originating ground station, located in, say, US, UK or anywhere with free media, transmits some data to a Starlink node overhead, it bounces among other nodes until beamed down to an end-user with one of those pizza box sized transceivers.
I’m not explaining this perfectly, but the point is, one might expect a few very small antenna smuggled into Russia, China, NK, wherever. A traditional big ground support antenna, next to its support building(s) and power conditioning, is too big to hide. So, some kinds of space based Internet are good for everyone, others are more easily controlled and thus more friendly to authoritarian regimes.
This “freedom bonus” is a side effect, though. Which offerings succeed will be determined by the market.
Ah, I see Dick just made my point before I could hit Send. And better than I made it. :) On-orbit routing is the term I was looking for.
So, I have no information on this, at all, but here’s a wild guess.
In just a few years, the Tesla vehicles produced in China will not have the option for a Starlink receiver. An American business person relocating to China for a couple of years, and bring their Tesla with them (I know, it’s expensive, but people do it, sometimes) would have the car inspected, and any Starlink receivers removed or disabled.
Does this sound about right?
Let’s just say I wouldn’t be shocked if that happened.