European industry players discussed how the EU’s proposed LEO connectivity constellation — announced by the European Commission at the close of 2020 — may take shape during SATELLITE 2021’s EMEA + Asia Digital Forum.
EC spectrum management official Dominic Hayes said the key objectives are to make broadband available everywhere in the EU and to provide secure, autonomous connectivity for government applications: “There are still places in Europe that don’t have the necessary coverage.” The consortium of commercial players has made initial proposals on frequency and orbital characteristics, with firm deliverables expected in weeks, and discussions with EU member states and the European Parliament planned by year-end.
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Thales Alenia Space EVP Marc-Henri Serre said Thales is “discussing” with the consortium whether its own LEO filings could be used in the project. Hayes acknowledged the head start of Starlink, OneWeb, and Lightspeed, but saw it as positive: “They are the ones that will establish the market, and we will come in later. We won’t have the first-mover advantage, but we will potentially take advantage of some of the economies of scale in the development of receiver technologies.”
SES CTO Ruy Pinto said Eutelsat’s OneWeb investment makes the landscape “a little bit more complicated, but it’s not necessarily bad. It’s just the nature of a competitive market.” He said SES prefers a mostly private model for the EU constellation, and expressed confidence because the EC is pre-funding and driving requirements from the start: “It’s not post-funding. It’s pre-funding, so that conversation makes it different.”
ESA Director of Telecommunications Elodie Viau said ESA is ready to support the project across 5G, quantum computing, optical technology, and AI. VS
