Eutelsat has concluded a seven-year agreement with its American counterpart Intelsat to provide it with connectivity capacities in Europe, the Middle East and the Pacific, and access to the network of OneWeb, announced the European satellite operator in a press release Thursday March 9.
This partnership, which "represents several million euros " is "a perfect illustration of the potential opportunities offered by the merger project between Eutelsat and OneWeb", according to the press release. The merger between Eutelsat and Britain's OneWeb, announced in July and due to be finalized in 2023, should give birth to a European giant in the race for internet from space against the juggernaut Starlink headed by Elon Musk (Satellifacts, 15 November).
Eutelsat had already entered into a partnership in 2019 with Gogo Commercial Aviation, a company which Intelsat acquired in 2020. The new contract is "multi-orbit ", i.e. it associates the constellation of satellites in low orbit of OneWeb with the geostationary satellites of Eutelsat. "This truly hybrid approach paves the way for the implementation of complete connectivity solutions, whether in the sky, at sea or on the ground," said Cyril Dujardin, Managing Director of the connectivity branch of Eutelsat and Ben Griffin, vice-president mobility of OneWeb, quoted in the press release.