OneWeb says the acquisition of the Texas-based company – creating a US government-focused subsidiary – will enable it to offer its Low Earth Orbit (LEO) network and connectivity services to U.S. government clients.
“OneWeb’s acquisition of TrustComm underpins our strategy to rapidly scale satellite communications service to the U.S. Department of Defense and other government agencies as they look to integrate high throughput, low latency solutions to meet new connectivity demands,” said OneWeb’s Head of Government Services Dylan Browne. “We are excited to have TrustComm join our team and leverage their strong reputation providing the remote communications our customers want, particularly in Alaska and the Arctic.”
Under the terms of the agreement, a newly acquired proxy subsidiary of OneWeb will be led by TrustComm’s current CEO Bob Roe.
The terms of the transaction haven’t been revealed, but it is expected to close in 2021, subject to regulatory approvals.
TrustComm was established in 1999 as a provider of managed satellite communications and professional services to commercial organisations and governments. Its services range from broadband Internet access, VoIP and voice, video conferencing and data communications for business continuity to emergency response and tactical field deployment.
“The TrustComm team is thrilled to be joining OneWeb at the dawn of this new era of satcom services,” said Roe. “TrustComm’s heritage and customer-focused support teams will enable us to expand the portfolio of services we offer and allow us to pursue new opportunities. This is an exciting development and we look forward to taking our government business to new heights in the coming year.”
DoD
In March we reported on a demonstration (pictured above) of OneWeb’s turnkey satellite-based communications system to the United States U.S. Department of Defense, recording data rates up to 500Mbps at latency levels down to 32ms.
The demonstration also illustrated the handover of connectivity between multiple LEO satellites as they passed overhead, said OneWeb.
See also: France buys stake in OneWeb