Paris, 17 November 2020. – Nearly a year after its launch, Eutelsat’s next generation High Throughput satellite Konnect has now entered into services at its orbital position 7 degrees East, the company announced.
The spacecraft was launched in January 2020 but could not start because the Covid lockdown delayed the roll-out of the ground segment, Eutelsat said.
Eutelsat Konnect is an all-electric satellite, built by Thales Alenia Space and the first to use Thales Alenia Space’s new Spacebus Neo platform. With 75 Gbps of capacity across a network of 65 spot-beams, “it delivers significant resources for broadband services, and sets a benchmark for flexibility in High Throughput Satellites leading to optimized fill rates”, the Paris-based company said.
The new satellite “also comes with compelling economics, with a cost per sellable Gbps substantially lower than for existing in-orbit assets”.
The satellite covers France, Italy, Germany, Spain, the UK, and Africa; the entire French capacity has already been contracted, on a wholesale basis, by Orange, Eutelsat said.
