Eva Berneke describes her first 12 months on the helm of the world’s third-largest satellite tv for pc firm as a “whirlwind.” That’s an understatement. Since she took excessive job at Eutelsat in January 2022, the Danish CEO has turn out to be a direct competitor to Elon Musk, been accused by the Ukrainian authorities of aiding Russian propaganda, and located herself within the thick of bitter Brexit politics—and that’s earlier than you even point out the Iranian sabotage try.
Regardless of all this, Berneke gives the look that she has all the pieces beneath management. When she arrived at Eutelsat, the French firm’s bread-and-butter enterprise was beaming TV channels into houses utilizing geostationary satellites—which transfer on the similar velocity as Earth and so keep in a hard and fast place. The group she inherited was steady and stable, she says—but additionally stagnating in an trade that’s present process radical change. Though was beginning to use its geostationary fleet to supply satellite tv for pc web, its TV revenues have been dwindling.
The doorway of two of the world’s richest males—Elon Musk with SpaceX’s Starlink community and Jeff Bezos with Undertaking Kuiper—was additionally starting to alter the best way incumbents considered their future. “When you could have two of the most important enterprise innovators getting interested by your trade, you must count on a bit of little bit of shaking up,” says Berneke.
Undaunted, Berneke responded by initiating her personal shake-up. In July, the corporate introduced plans to merge with struggling British satellite tv for pc supplier OneWeb. As a part of the deal, Eutelsat absorbed OneWeb’s constellation of 648 low-orbit satellites. At simply 1,200 km above Earth, the OneWeb fleet delivers quicker web speeds than Eutelsat’s geostationary satellites, which sit 35,000 km above the planet’s floor.
OneWeb is Eutelsat’s ticket to the booming low-orbit satellite tv for pc market. Rural houses, ships, airways, militaries, and autonomous autos are turning to satellite tv for pc web to remain related in locations beforehand thought of useless zones.
“Even in France, a rustic with very excessive fiber and 5G protection, it’s estimated that round 4 p.c of households are with out good connectivity,” says Berneke. She expects this determine to rise to fifteen p.c of households in international locations with much less fiber and 5G. “So it’s not that small a distinct segment.”
The OneWeb-Eutelsat merger has been touted as Europe’s entry into the house race. It’s the solely firm at present competing with Musk’s Starlink within the low-orbit market. However to say its title as a European house big, Eutelsat first has to navigate messy post-Brexit politics. Each France’s Eutelsat and Britain’s OneWeb have been part-owned by their respective governments, and the 2 international locations will proceed to personal stakes within the new enterprise.
Berneke admits Brexit has introduced challenges. “However there’s been a willingness on each side to achieve throughout the Channel to try to discover a great way of collaborating,” she says. If Europe needs a homegrown satellite tv for pc big, Britain and France should resolve their variations. “[OneWeb’s fleet] goes to be one of many solely non-US-based constellations for some time,” she says.
Brexit politics are usually not the one hurdle. OneWeb’s Gen One satellites want upgrading, and Eutelsat is planning to have extra superior Gen Two satellites in orbit by 2027. Berneke says this improve will price 3 billion to 4 billion euros ($3.3-4.4 billion), a daring transfer for an organization with a fame for enjoying it secure.
