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)