Starlink rival Eutelsat plans OneWeb expansion after €1 billion satellite order

By Gianluca Lo Nostro

Sept ‌10 (Reuters) - Satellite operator ​Eutelsat ​said on Thursday it will replenish and expand its OneWeb network through 2034 after the Franco-British operator signed a deal ‌with Airbus for 229 additional low Earth orbit satellites.

The new order, ⁠representing an investment of €1 billion ($1.16 billion), will be added to the 440 Airbus-built satellites ‌ordered in 2024 and 2025. ‌Deliveries of those previous orders are expected to begin in the fourth quarter.

After raising roughly €5 billion to weather the financial strain stemming from ​its $3.4 billion merger with OneWeb, Eutelsat's expansion plans aim to bolster the company's ambition of challenging Elon Musk's currently dominant Starlink.

Eutelsat is considered ⁠strategically important by the French and British governments, because it operates the only low Earth orbit ​satellite network outside Starlink, providing secure communications and broadband internet services.

The agreement extends Eutelsat's low Earth orbit fleet roadmap ​beyond previous plans, under which the company ‌expected to spend about €2 billion to procure and launch the 440 satellites by 2030.

OneWeb currently comprises more than 600 ⁠satellites, though CEO Jean-François Fallacher told Reuters in March that Eutelsat expected its fleet to exceed 1,000 "very soon".

Starlink, meanwhile, has more than 11,000 satellites in orbit, although OneWeb ⁠requires far fewer to provide global coverage, because its satellites operate at a higher ​altitude and the company focuses on government, enterprise and telecom customers rather than mass-market consumers.

The 229 additional satellites are intended to ensure service continuity until the commercial deployment ‌of IRIS², the European Union's planned secure communications constellation of 348 satellites, expected to enter service around the ‌end of the decade.

In a separate announcement at the Paris space summit on ⁠Thursday, Eutelsat — also a SpaceX ‌customer — said it had ​booked two Ariane launch missions to carry OneWeb satellites in 2027 and 2028.

($1 = 0.8611 euros)

(Reporting by Gianluca Lo Nostro; Editing by ‌Joe Bavier)

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