Vocus and FSG Have Opportunity to Expand in Critical Verticals with OneWeb Services

M. Rogers

Summary Bullets:

• Vocus’ deal with OneWeb will greatly enhance its ability to provide connectivity services to the most remote sites using Vocus fiber as the backbone and OneWeb LEO as the last mile.
• Partnership with OneWeb will enable FSG to accelerate its rural LTE/5G network rollout and increase its capabilities to offer private networks to the mineral and energy verticals.

OneWeb, a UK-based satellite connectivity company, recently announced two new partnerships with telecommunications providers in Australia.  The deals will see Vocus and Field Solutions Group (FSG) resell OneWeb’s wholesale and retail low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite connectivity services to consumers, governments, and enterprise in Australia.  Compared to traditional satellite connectivity, which is provided via geosynchronous orbit (GEO) satellites, LEO is much closer to the earth’s atmosphere and provides much higher-bandwidth, lower-latency broadband.  For example, in March 2021, OneWeb demonstrated speeds of 500 Mbps and 32ms latency in tests with its fleet of satellites.  By comparison, NBN’s GEO service, SkyMuster, has a maximum wholesale speed of 25 Mbps downlink and 5 Mbps uplink, with independent tests putting latency around 600ms.  OneWeb’s capabilities will give Vocus and FSG opportunities to expand their business in the critical energy and mining sectors in regional and rural Australia.