Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

OneWeb files for bankruptcy

oneweb.world

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 127 posts

Re: OneWeb files for bankruptcy

#21

Post by shantara »

RivieraKid wrote: post #19
jessriedel wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except Iridium recently launched an entire new generation of satellites to replace their old one, and it is expected to be profitable. Likewise, lots of people expect SpaceX to make a killing on Starlink. There were good reasons to be skeptical of OneWeb, but "consumer satellite communication companies have gone bankrupt before" is not one of them.

> lots of people expect SpaceX to make a killing on Starlink What lots of people expect is kind of irrelevant... OneWeb going bankrupt suggests that profit margins will be low at best, negative at worst. Cheaper launch cost is not enough to change the business from to non-viable to hugely profitable. Who will be the customers of Starlink? Internet is a commodity for the average person, you can't make money in that ma…

>OneWeb going bankrupt suggests that profit margins will be low at best, negative at worst

It's too early to speculate about profit margins before the company has finished launching its constellation and started providing a commercial service.

Re: OneWeb files for bankruptcy

#24

Post by lukevp »

RivieraKid wrote: post #19
jessriedel wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except Iridium recently launched an entire new generation of satellites to replace their old one, and it is expected to be profitable. Likewise, lots of people expect SpaceX to make a killing on Starlink. There were good reasons to be skeptical of OneWeb, but "consumer satellite communication companies have gone bankrupt before" is not one of them.

> lots of people expect SpaceX to make a killing on Starlink What lots of people expect is kind of irrelevant... OneWeb going bankrupt suggests that profit margins will be low at best, negative at worst. Cheaper launch cost is not enough to change the business from to non-viable to hugely profitable. Who will be the customers of Starlink? Internet is a commodity for the average person, you can't make money in that ma…

I grew up in a rural area. We had dial-up for years until we got point to point wireless, which capped out at 1.5 mbps. 3 of my team members live in a rural area and have similar internet. They’re all waiting to throw money at spacex as soon as it goes live. There’s millions of people in the US like them that would sign up. My wife and I are planning to move further from the city, but one of our concerns is getting decent internet (we have symmetric gigabit fiber now).

Also I don’t think you truly grasp the cost efficiencies spacex has and will achieve. Elon originally said that they could lower launch costs under $1m if the only cost was propellant and minor refurbs, compared to hundreds of millions. Even today their confirmed cost is 6x less than average [1]. This is not a 20% reduction or something. It is incredibly significant. one web was launching on other companies’ rockets, so that’s an additional disadvantage since spacex is only incurring the cost of the launch and no margin since there will be recovered from the internet service.

[1]: https://www.google.com/amp/s/theconversation.com/amp/how-spa...

Re: OneWeb files for bankruptcy

#25

Post by irjustin »

RivieraKid wrote: post #19
jessriedel wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except Iridium recently launched an entire new generation of satellites to replace their old one, and it is expected to be profitable. Likewise, lots of people expect SpaceX to make a killing on Starlink. There were good reasons to be skeptical of OneWeb, but "consumer satellite communication companies have gone bankrupt before" is not one of them.

> lots of people expect SpaceX to make a killing on Starlink What lots of people expect is kind of irrelevant... OneWeb going bankrupt suggests that profit margins will be low at best, negative at worst. Cheaper launch cost is not enough to change the business from to non-viable to hugely profitable. Who will be the customers of Starlink? Internet is a commodity for the average person, you can't make money in that ma…

> Internet is a commodity for the average person, you can't make money in that market.

This assumes that razor thin margins are bad, which is usually a safe assumption but in the case of Starlink, I say it's not open minded enough.

To boot Starlink online requires a minimum cost for service area (sats), but once you've got that area booted, onboarding new customers is trivial (vs laying fiber, cable, digging holes).

The user terminal is for each individual - "Looks like a thin, flat, round UFO on a stick."[0]

If you were offered $40 per Gb/s would you switch, 30? 20?

Personally I would switch because it's simply not f'ing Comcast.

[0] https://www.businessinsider.sg/spacex-starlink-user-terminal...

Re: OneWeb files for bankruptcy

#27

Post by kilroy123 »

shantara wrote: post #16

I don't think it's exactly fair of them to blame "financial impact and market turbulence related to the spread of COVID-19" for their bankruptcy. The history of space industry is full of companies that ran out of money when attempting to launch massive satellite constellations. And let's be frank, an attempt to out-compete SpaceX on mass satellite production and cheap launches was doomed to fail.

Well I always thought they were insane not utilizing SpaceX for launching and bringing down costs.

Iridium used SpaceX very successfully to get their entire new constellation up.

Re: OneWeb files for bankruptcy

#30

Post by mrfusion »

blackhaz wrote: post #9
londons_explore wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oneweb's satellites are 'bent pipes', which means they don't decode/route the data. They act like a mirror just reflecting signals back. That used to be a great design when satellites were expected to last 30 years, and the 'bent pipe' design meant data compression, encoding, error correction and modulation could be upgraded without changing the satellite hardware. In today's world where satellites are lower, cheaper…

I wonder what happens with the satellites. Are they just expected to decay?

I’m almost positive they have the means to De orbit them if they decide to.
Post reply on HN