French satellite operator Eutelsat and Indian maritime service provider Station Satcom have signed a multi-year agreement to extend OneWeb's LEO communications services to Station Satcom's maritime fleet. The agreement is based on the previous activation of 2025 year, which covered hundreds of Station Satcom vessels, and expands the number of ships, using OneWeb services, to over 1000 units.
For reference: Eutelsat OneWeb is a subsidiary of the French Eutelsat group. Founded in 2012 year as WorldVu, later renamed to OneWeb, the company filed for bankruptcy in March 2020 year and became part of Eutelsat in 2021 year.
The companies plan to start providing services from 2026 year with a gradual increase in deployment. The OneWeb LEO constellation has approx 650 satellites, the first batches of which were launched in 2019 year. Eutelsat Chief Communications Officer Joanna Darlington said, that the company recently ordered from Airbus 440 replacement satellites, which are planned to be launched from the end 2026 year before 2028-2029 years to ensure continuity of constellation services.
Eutelsat-OneWeb зосередила свою стратегію на державних та промислових клієнтах, де морський зв’язок є одним з ключових сегментів. Дарлінгтон зазначила, що майбутнє зростання LEO-сервісів залежатиме від попиту в трьох сферах: урядових замовленнях, стаціонарному зв’язку та транспортному секторі (sea, небо, залізниця).
Source: https://spacenews.com