Re: OneWeb must be coming online soon too...
The ministers comments on the linked to article said:-
"Our access to a global fleet of satellites has the potential to connect millions of people worldwide to broadband, many for the first time, and the deal presents the opportunity to further develop our strong advanced manufacturing base right here in the UK."
Which certainly implies that the minister is interested in the broadband rather than a SatNav aspect. It probably also will supplement the Skynet programme, although I doubt that the OneWeb sats are laser, EMP and jamming proof they probably do well for most purposes and free up bandwidth.
The BBC's editorial comments say about it being part of a global sat nav system to replace Galileo, citing a white paper on the subject from the "Satellite Applications Catapult", which personally i'd take with about the same credibility as a report from Gartner.
This article:-
https://insidegnss.com/uk-sees-a-way-back-into-galileo-through-the-leo-door/
Basically says that the UK can on national security grounds ban other countries (ie; the EU) from having access to OneWeb and implies that those national security issues over allowing EU countries access might go away if the EU's objections to the UK using Galileo went the same way, which would appear to be a more credible and useful method of using a broadband system as a satnav.
That of course would be petty, but reciprocally so.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
