Eutelsat opens OneWeb ground stations to Earth observation with Ka-band boost

TAMPA, Fla. — Eutelsat has teamed up with French satellite connectivity startup Skynopy to offer Earth observation operators spare capacity on the ground stations used for OneWeb, its low Earth orbit (LEO) broadband service.

The partnership covers 600 Ka-band antennas across 42 sites worldwide, Skynopy announced Sept. 11, marking a major expansion from the startup’s current network of 30 S- and X-band antennas across 15 sites.

“It is spare capacity of this network, but this spare capacity is enormous,” Skynopy co-founder and CEO Pierre Bertrand said via email, “because sometimes per site you have spare antenna that are never really used, or you have active antenna used 40% of the time.”

According to Bertrand, today’s Earth observation networks rely on fewer than 30 active X-band ground stations worldwide, typically achieving latencies of no less than 30 minutes. 

By contrast, he said, LEO Earth observation satellites will almost always be in view of at least one Skynopy ground station, enabling near real-time connectivity. Ka-band downlinks can also be up to five times faster than current X-band networks, reaching 10 gigabits per second per pass.

Skynopy plans to use its software to retrofit OneWeb antennas to make them compatible with Earth observation applications, while also adding its own antennas at OneWeb sites in the S, X, and Ka-bands. 

This hybrid approach, similar to Skynopy’s arrangement with French smallsat operator Kinéis and other partners, is intended to support Earth observation operators still using X-band while enabling a future transition to higher-bandwidth Ka-band services.

The startup said the transition is being driven by the rapid evolution of onboard payload technologies that increasingly generate massive volumes of data, from hyperspectral and radar imagery to video. At the same time, critical use cases such as defense and disaster response demand fresh, near-instant access to data.

A first phase of experimentation is slated to begin in the coming months with a one-year beta testing program for selected satellite operators interested in Ka-band capabilities, ahead of a full-scale rollout targeted within five years.

The project, called Akar, is supported by French government funding and billed as the first Ka-band ground station network designed to deliver real-time, high-speed connectivity for the Earth observation market.

“The partnership with Skynopy allows us to unlock the commercial potential of our OneWeb ground station network and address a new market segment, complementary to [geostationary] satellites and broadband LEO constellations,” Eutelsat CEO Jean-François Falalcher said in a statement.

“By reusing this unique existing asset, Akar has the potential to revolutionize the ground segment — and to do so within just five years.”

The deal comes after Eutelsat carved out its ground infrastructure and sold most of it to private equity firm EQT Partners to roll out a ground-station-as-a-service business.