Europe’s Largest Telco Deutsche Telekom Turns to Eutelsat for Satellite Broadband

Artist rendition of the Eutelsat KONNECT VHTS satellite. Photo: Eutelsat

Eutelsat has signed a broadband deal with a major European telco. The company announced Oct. 7 that Deutsche Telekom, Europe’s biggest telco, will provide high-speed satellite broadband via the Eutelsat KONNECT satellite. Deutsche Telekom has agreed to commercialize Eutelsat Konnect high-speed broadband internet offers for households in Germany that have limited internet options, starting at the end of 2021.

Deutsche Telekom and Eutelsat have also agreed to discuss an extension of their partnership in the future. This closer cooperation would result in Deutsche Telekom offering its own products via Eutelsat’s current and future infrastructure.

In addition, Eutelsat and Deutsche Telekom are also piloting an initial deployment in the city of Heimerzheim, Germany, where the fixed network was badly affected by floods in July. Crucial connectivity has been re-established via satellite connection providing WLAN coverage for an information point where both relief workers and affected residents can access the Internet free of charge.

“Our fiber roll-out remains one of the key building blocks for digitization in Germany. In the coming years, Deutsche Telekom will make a massive contribution to further increasing the number of fiber connections for households and companies in Germany. The cooperation with Eutelsat is a perfect complement of our portfolio in the coming years to offer high-speed broadband via satellite in regions where we have no high speed currently and for remote areas,” André Almeida, managing director of Private Customers at Telekom Deutschland said in a statement.

This marks another major satellite broadband/telco deal after OneWeb signed a distribution agreement with AT&T last month.