Eutelsat’s New 75Gbps KONNECT Broadband Satellite Goes Live

European space operator Eutelsat has today confirmed that their new all-electric (propulsion) broadband satellite, KONNECT, which was launched into Geostationary Orbit (7° East) around the Earth in January 2020 (here), has finally entered into commercial service and should soon be available from ISPs in the UK and EU.

At present many of Eutelsat’s existing broadband packages tend to be powered by their KA-SAT satellite (previously sold via the “Tooway” banding), which often offers top download speeds of up to 30-50Mbps alongside some quite meagre usage allowances (unless you’re willing to pay a lot more money).

The new KONNECT platform – weighing 3.6 metric tons at launch and with a designed lifespan of 15+ years – aims to boost all this by sharing 75Gbps of capacity across a network of 65 spotbeams using the Ka-band, which will reach across much of Africa and a big chunk of Europe – primarily focused on France, Italy, Germany, Spain and the UK.

According to the operator, availability of KONNECT had been delayed due to Covid-related interruptions in the rollout of the ground segment, but having now completed its testing, the spacecraft is now operational and will gradually ramp up with 80% of the capacity in service by year-end and 100% by March 2021.

Company Statement

The availability of EUTELSAT KONNECT marks a major step in Eutelsat’s Connectivity strategy, contributing to making 2021 a turning point in Fixed Broadband. The entire French capacity on the satellite has already been contracted on a wholesale basis by Orange.

Moreover, Eutelsat’s recent acquisition of BigBlu Broadband adds a retail pillar to its distribution network which will accelerate the ramp up of the satellite and prepare the ground for the entry into service of KONNECT VHTS in the course of fiscal year 2022-23.

We note that the Konnect VHTS (very high throughput) platform is a very different satellite, which is currently still under construction by Thales Alenia Space. The VHTS is expected to weigh 6.3 tonnes and have a massive Ka-band capacity of 500Gbps, although it will launch into a very different market from today’s KONNECT.

Otherwise Eutelsat has previously claimed that today’s KONNECT satellite should be able to “provide internet access services for both companies and individuals” at speeds of up to 100Mbps and, as hinted in the statement, the operator’s acquisition of European and UK ISP BigBlu (here) is likely to play a key role.

However we were a little surprised to visit BigBlu’s UK website today, only to find that the ISP is no longer taking on new customers and aren’t showing any packages. Not the best first impression to give on the day your new satellite goes live. We have shot a message across to Eutelsat in the hope of getting some clarification on their plans for the UK.

The other challenge for Eutelsat is that their new spacecraft arrives at a time before great change, not least from the imminent arrival of additional competition via the new generation of smaller Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellations – SpaceX, Amazon and OneWeb etc. Unlike GEO satellites, LEOs can offer significantly faster latency and early speedtests are already into “ultrafast” (100Mbps+) territory (here), albeit quite pricey.