Design and production of the first 10 satellites will be carried out at Airbus’s facilities in Toulouse, France, while the full volume will be produced at a dedicated plant in the US. OneWeb said it formed a joint venture with Airbus for the project. Techniques from its A350 aircraft production were used to speed up the production of the satellites and ensure low costs for making several satellites per day. OneWeb is also designing its own user terminals, that use the satellite signal from the sky and still connect with LTE, 3G and Wi-Fi networks on the ground.
OneWeb was founded by Greg Wyler, who also started the company O3b Networks, a Google-backed venture already providing satellite backhaul around the world. OneWeb's board also includes Qualcomm executive chairman Paul Jacobs and Virgin group founder Richard Branson.
