AT&T taps OneWeb to extend enterprise broadband beyond fiber’s reach

AT&T is the latest operator to look to the sky to extend the reach of its broadband network by teaming up with OneWeb to serve enterprise and government customers in remote locations outside of its fiber footprint. John Wojewoda, AT&T AVP, stated that while it’s still early days, OneWeb’s service is expected to provide speeds of nearly 200 Mbps. In addition to serving up broadband for enterprise and government customers in hard-to-reach locations, Wojewoda said AT&T can also use this connectivity for cell site backhaul where direct fiber isn’t available, as well as for disaster recovery solutions. AT&T noted that while more than 9 million business customer locations are within 1,000 feet of its fiber network, there are still plenty of remote areas that remain beyond its reach. OneWeb’s in-orbit constellation tallied 288 satellites as of August 2021. It expects to begin delivering connectivity above the 50th parallel by the end of 2021, and plans to grow its constellation to 648 satellites by the end of 2022.