Photo: Open Cosmos

Open Cosmos has secured the award to Liechtenstein’s priority Ka-band spectrum filings and plans to deploy a sovereign satellite broadband constellation for Europe, the company announced Wednesday. 

The Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) constellation is designed to provide high quality, high security communication capabilities to government and enterprise customers, Open Cosmos CEO Rafel Jorda Siquier told Via Satellite. Open Cosmos is not announcing the name of the constellation or sharing the overall target number of satellites at this point. 

The Liechtenstein high priority Ka-band filings were previously held by Rivada Space Networks, but Rivada’s license was rescinded in 2024. 

“This decision underscores Liechtenstein’s commitment to making use of the frequencies allocated to us. We are pleased that, through this filing, with Open Cosmos, we are putting them to good and effective use,” Liechtenstein Minister of Home Affairs, Economy and Sport Hubert Büchel said in a statement. 

Open Cosmos plans to deploy the first two satellites by the end of the first quarter. It has selected Rocket Lab as a launch provider and the satellites will launch from New Zealand. 

Siquier said the company “beat its own record” to produce the satellites in time to deploy this quarter. The demonstration satellites were manufactured at the company’s headquarters in Harwell, Oxfordshire in the U.K. with teams across Spain, Portugal, and Greece contributing. The two satellites are around 100 to 150 kilograms in mass each. 

“We have a track record of delivering with 100 percent reliability so far, very complex and challenging missions for governments,” Siquier said. “That track record, with our financial performance, with the quality and the complexity of the satellites we had delivered so far, put us in the best spot possible to be trusted with this tremendously valuable asset.” 

Open Cosmos has agreements to provide national Earth Observation satellites for Greece and Spain, and recently launched a 6G demonstrator satellite. In all, the company has launched 13 satellites to date and has around 48 satellites under delivery not including this constellation, Siquier said, adding that Open Cosmos has been profitable for five years and is able to fund its investment in the constellation. 

Open Cosmos plans to work with terrestrial telecommunications operators so the satellite connectivity benefits their services. Siquier expects interest from governments, telecom operators, and large corporations — citing automotive connectivity as a potential market. 

“No one wants to rely only on what one or two individuals own,” he said, talking about the constellation offering an alternative to Starlink and Amazon Leo. “We want to have a market dynamic that is plural and that enables competition and diversity to be offered for something as critical and essential as communication.” 

Siquier spoke to the importance of these spectrum filings and future capability for Europe. 

“It’s no secret that Europe is strengthening its sovereign capabilities. Being able to communicate securely — not only across the continent, but anywhere in the world — it’s essential. To make sure that when there is a catastrophic event like a flood or a wildfire or something happening at a border, we can have reliable, non-terrestrial communications,” Siquier said. “In this overall geopolitical mood where everything changes every other day, I think it’s particularly important that governments and corporations can rely on trusted sovereign assets.” 

U.K. officials applauded the award to Open Cosmos, with Space Minister Baroness Liz Lloyd commenting, “Securing these valuable spectrum filings is a testament to British ingenuity and ambition, and I’m delighted to see a U.K. company leading the way in building reliable satellite communications systems for the future.” 

Via Satellite has reached out to Rivada for an update on its spectrum and the constellation deployment plan for the Outernet. Recent statements from the company cite it has secured more than $18 billion of business globally for its LEO network. 

Last year, Rivada CEO Declan Ganley told Via Satellite he expected the Liechtenstein license to be restored. Rivada also has an additional International Telecommunications Union (ITU) filing through Germany.