Eutelsat’s OneWeb secures Intelsat contract
March 20, 2024
By Chris Forrester
Eutelsat’s OneWeb division already has a bandwidth relationship with Intelsat. It has extended that agreement in a “multi-year” deal worth up to $500 million (€461.2m) over the next seven years, and with an initial commitment of $250 million.
Intelsat’s intention is to tap into OneWeb low-Earth orbiting constellation and integrate services such as connectivity for aircraft, government and mobility sectors.
The new agreement, announced at the Washington Satellite 2024 event, kicks off in mid-2024 and includes options for further extensions. Intelsat will also cooperate with Eutelsat on OneWeb’s ‘next-generation’ satellites.
“Innovation and technological advancement and the opportunity to incorporate Intelsat’s input into the build-out of the Next generation OneWeb constellation as one of its major practitioners will form key elements of the partnership. Such collaboration will help to further enhance the OneWeb system as it evolves to support complex, next-generation communication needs and offer robust and reliable connectivity solutions that are second to none,” stated Eutelsat.
“Over the past couple of years, Intelsat has leveraged our partnership with the Eutelsat Group to initiate our strategy of enabling multi-orbit solutions in the commercial aviation and government markets. Today’s announcement takes that partnership to a new level, enhancing our ability to offer new, true multi-orbit services and solutions across our portfolio of customers and business segments,” said Dave Wajsgras, CEO at Intelsat.
Eva Berneke, CEO at Eutelsat Group, added: “This expanded partnership with Intelsat represents a strong vote of confidence in the capabilities of the OneWeb satellite constellation, today and well into the future, as well as showcasing the necessity in today’s world for major satellite operators to be able to offer multi-orbit solutions to their customers. We are also delighted to further deepen our collaborative approach with Intelsat going forward, leveraging its unparalleled experience in the key verticals of Aviation and Government.”