Joint Venture (Gonets / OneWeb)

In 2017, OneWeb entered a joint venture with the Gonets company to sell the company’s satellite communications services in Russia in compliance with Russian law. Initially, OneWeb had a 60% of the joint venture’s stake, but the share decreased to 49% in 2019. Further, there were widespread reports that Russia was concerned that OneWeb’s satellites might circumvent Russia’s tight grip on internet activity by its citizens.

In 2020, OneWeb began the process of exiting in Chapter 11 bankruptcy restructuring and decided to end its controversial joint venture. The company’s shares were transferred to Gonets. In 2022, Roscomos reorganized the previous joint venture as the operator of the “Sphere” satellite constellation (380 satellites include 7 “Ekspress,” 4 “Ekspress-RV”, 12 “Skif” satellites for the broadband internet access, and 264 “Marathon” IoT satellites). It was also declared that the new operator would work closely with Gazprom Space Systems and Russian Satellite Communications Company.