Bharti Group-backed satellite company OneWeb and Saudi Arabia's Neom Tech and Digital Holding Company have signed a pact for USD 200 million joint venture to provide satellite-based services to the Middle East and East African countries.
The joint venture firm will see the deployment of OneWeb's Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellation to provide connectivity to enable Neom's ecosystem of cognitive technologies.
Neom Tech and Digital Holding Company is the first holding company to be established as a subsidiary of Neom, a region in Saudi Arabia.
The Middle East nation is building up the Neom region in the northwest part of the country on the Red Sea as a living lab that will focus on development of the latest technologies.
Neom Tech and Digital Holding Company and OneWeb, the only licensed operator in Saudi Arabia, expect to complete ground infrastructure in 2022.
The agreement also includes a long-term strategic partnership regarding research and development of future connectivity systems.
India's Bharti Group, UK government, Softbank, Hughes and Eutelsat are stakeholders in OneWeb. In 2020, OneWeb was acquired by the UK government and the Bharti Group.