Eutelsat Boosts Deployment of OneWeb LEO Satellite Broadband for Aviation

Eutelsat has announced that their OneWeb network, which is a global constellation of broadband satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) that is still partly supported by the UK government (11% stake), is “now live and operational” for commercial and business aviation customers (airlines etc.) and they’re “ramping up” related deployments.

OneWeb (aka – Eutelsat OneWeb) currently has 654 small (c.150kg) first generation (GEN1) LEO platforms in space – orbiting at an altitude of 1,200km (c.600 of them for coverage and the rest for redundancy). The network was completed in March 2023 (here), promising both ultrafast broadband speeds and fast latency times. But a further 15 satellites (plus one GEN2 prototype) were then launched in May 2023 to add “resiliency and redundancy to the network” (here) and then 20 more in October 2024 (here).

In case anybody has forgotten, OneWeb actually signed its first aviation deal for satellite broadband back in 2022 with Gogo Business Aviation (here), which is widely used by a number of airlines for in-flight Wi-Fi, such as British Airways (BA). But at the time it was still in somewhat of a beta / pilot (no pun intended) stage and has only now reached true commercial maturity.

According to Eutelsat, over 100 certified antenna installations for OneWeb’s service have already been completed and the first commercial and business aircraft are now flying using this connectivity. In addition to its long-established geostationary (GEO) aviation services, Eutelsat is also working with Intelsat, Hughes and Panasonic Avionics to deliver LEO and multi-orbit solutions to the commercial aviation market.

Air Canada is the first commercial airline to deploy the new multi-orbit GEO/LEO service, through Intelsat, with additional world-class carriers also beginning installations and commercial flights with multi-orbit solutions on board.

In business aviation, Eutelsat confirmed they’d still partnered with industry leader, Gogo, to equip the first Embraer Phenom 300 with LEO services, while aircraft manufacturer, Textron, will be installing solutions on the Cessna Citation Longitude, Latitude and Ascend models as well as Airbus Corporate Jets on all Airbus ACJ types.

Cyril Dujardin, President of the Connectivity Business Unit at Eutelsat, said:

“Eutelsat’s LEO aviation services, powered by the OneWeb constellation, provide high speed, low latency, and premium performance to meet the evolving connectivity needs of airlines and business jets globally.

With a robust backlog and expanding reach across both commercial and business aviation, we are confident in the long-term growth of our aviation services. We believe that a fully integrated IFC ecosystem will transform in-flight connectivity, providing airlines with flexible, responsible, and scalable solutions that enhance the passenger experience and support the future of air travel worldwide.”

Together, Eutelsat’s aviation services have a combined backlog of over 1,000 aircraft scheduled for installation. Credits to one of our members (The Wee Bear) for spotting this.