Eutelsat wants OneWeb partners
September 23, 2024
By Chris Forrester
Eutelsat CEO Eva Berneke, speaking to FT, candidly admitted that developing its ‘next generation’ of OneWeb satellites would take time, unless it could bring partners on board.
“We could fund the development of Gen 2 on our own,” she insisted. But it would be “a stepwise approach over years”.
OneWeb already has 630 satellites in space but business is slower to arrive than originally expected.
“A lot of our customers are saying how can we help you because we do want an alternative [to Elon Musk’s Starlink],” Berneke told the FT.
“There will be four, maybe five players in this market,” she said. “In most connectivity markets you see […] at least three players, if not four. When you look behind, who is going to be another number four? I am not sure I am seeing many candidates out there.”