Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group and electronics firm Qualcomm are backing a venture to launch 648 low-earth orbit satellites to provide broadband Internet access to communities worldwide, according to reports.

The project is spearheaded by former Google employee Greg Wyler and his OneWeb Ltd startup, which was previously called WorldVu and counted Elon Musk and Google among its backers. According to The Register, OneWeb originally planned to launch 700 satellites but has modified its plans.

The Register reports Branson has confirmed he has an “order” from OneWeb to launch the satellites on Virgin Galactic’s LauncherOne rockets as soon as next year. LauncherOne is said to be able to carry up to 265 pounds payloads to “high-altitude sun-synchronous orbit, more than double that to low-earth orbit,” according to The Register. According to Wall Street Journal, however, OneWeb’s satellites reportedly weigh 285 pounds and are designed to orbit at 750 miles above Earth, which is higher than LauncherOne’s orbit.

Another issue is financing, as Wyler told the Journal he needed between $1.5 billion and $2 billion to get OneWeb satellites in orbit; multiple LauncherOne missions will be required to launch the 648 satellites. Although Virgin is projecting costs per launch to be in the $10 million range, overruns could drive the total budget higher.

Qualcomm’s chief executive Paul Jacobs said in a press release he was an “initial investor” in OneWeb, adding the company would help “fund initial technical feasibility work for the satellite system.” However, the publicly traded company did not disclose additional details.