Open Cosmos advances broadband plans with spectrum once held by Rivada

TAMPA, Fla. — Open Cosmos deployed two satellites Jan. 22 to activate Ka-band spectrum filings reassigned by Liechtenstein last week, racing to meet deployment deadlines to bring the frequencies into use for sovereign and enterprise broadband.

Rocket Lab placed the satellites into a 1,050-kilometer circular low Earth orbit, where they will undergo testing covering payload performance, network integration and operational resilience over the coming months.

Rafel Jordà Siquier, Open Cosmos’ founder and CEO, said the results will directly inform the cadence of subsequent launches and the planned expansion of service capabilities later this year.

“Ultimately, this marks the first step in bringing to market a new class of sovereign-ready, enterprise-grade space infrastructure,” he told SpaceNews, “one built to meet the real-world needs of government and commercial customers, and to deliver capabilities that have not previously been available.”

The prototypes were built at the company’s headquarters in Harwell, England, leveraging teams across Spain, Portugal and Greece. Other details, including performance and the ultimate size of the constellation, remain under wraps.

Siquier said Open Cosmos is seeking financing from existing and new investors for the project. The company touts more than a decade of in-house manufacturing experience, and a vertically integrated satellite platform that would help reduce development timelines and costs as the constellation scales.

“The system is being developed to serve existing and prospective government and enterprise customers from a pipeline built over ten years, providing clear geographic and market focus from the outset,” he added. 

“Open Cosmos also views connectivity as part of a wider architecture linking data, analytics and operational insight, with this program completing capabilities the company has been assembling incrementally over time.”

Last year, Open Cosmos acquired Connected, a Portuguese startup developing 5G narrowband connectivity payloads for satellites, broadening the British firm’s capabilities beyond Earth observation and data services.

Open Cosmos has deployed 15 satellites to date, including the two broadband prototypes, and has 48 spacecraft in development for other customers.

Open Cosmos takes the spectrum baton

The prototypes are operating under Spain’s regulatory framework for satellite registration and operational licensing.

Open Cosmos announced Jan. 14 that it had been awarded the Ka-band spectrum, more than two years after Liechtenstein’s telecoms regulator rescinded Germany-based Rivada Space Networks’ rights under the country’s 3ECOM filings.

Rivada Space Networks, owned by U.S. wireless technology company Rivada Networks, had hoped to reclaim the rights to two of the filings, covering 288 satellites each, following what it described as a difference of opinion with the regulator over the timing of a required performance bond deposit.

Instead, Rivada plans to use Ka-, Q- and V-band spectrum licensed through Germany under its Outernet-1 filing for its planned broadband constellation of 576 satellites.

Rivada said the Outernet-1 filing is specifically tailored to the company’s business model and future growth, providing priority access across the United States and other key markets.

“In addition, Outernet-1 is not tainted by the Chinese lawfare around the Liechtenstein filings and has fewer limitations than Liechtenstein’s 3ECOM filings,” the company said in a statement, without elaborating.

The Liechtenstein filings had previously been tied to a protracted legal dispute involving German startup Kleo Connect, backed China Telecom and Shanghai Alliance Investment, raising concerns among Rivada executives about potential license-based litigation and control over the spectrum.

“Keeping the old Liechtenstein licenses out of the hands of communist China was of paramount importance because of the potential havoc that China could have caused with those filings,” the Rivada statement continued. “Since Rivada has largely dispatched that threat, the danger of license-based lawfare is greatly reduced.”

Rivada has not detailed how it plans to finance Outernet, which it says is supported by commitments from sovereign wealth funds. According to the company, it also has $18.5 billion worth of early agreements with future customers that would be served through the Outernet-1 filing.

In February 2023, Rivada awarded a $2.4 billion contract to Florida-headquartered Terran Orbital, now owned by Lockheed Martin, to build 300 satellites ahead of 3ECOM deployment deadlines requiring 288 of them to be deployed by mid-2026: 144 by June and another 144 by September. Under International Telecommunication Union rules, a proposed constellation is typically capped at twice the number of satellites deployed by that 50% milestone.

However, Rivada said last year it only plans to begin deploying test satellites for the constellation in 2026, followed by operational Outernet spacecraft in 2027.

In July 2023, the company received a waiver allowing it to miss an earlier requirement to deploy 10% of the 576 satellites covered under the filings by September that year.

Liechtenstein’s telecoms regulator did not respond to a request for comment.

“Liechtenstein has awarded Open Cosmos the license according to its regulatory processes,” Siquier said in response to SpaceNews questions. “The country is fully backing our initiative. Today was a key step in the development of these filings and we have accomplished it successfully.”

Rivada’s Outernet-1 filing was submitted in late 2024, giving the company until 2032 to deploy 10% of its proposed 576 satellites, and until 2036 to reach the 50% milestone under International Telecommunication Union rules.

Open Cosmos’ plans come amid Europe’s IRIS² public-private partnership with operators SES, Eutelsat and Hispasat, which aims to provide initial services from a multi-orbit sovereign broadband network in 2030, with full capability expected a year later.