Eutelsat Rambouillet Teleport in France

Eutelsat Rambouillet Teleport in France

Eutelsat Communications S.A. is the French-based satellite operator. Providing coverage over the entire European continent, as well as the Middle-East, Africa, India and parts of Asia and the Americas, it is one of the world’s three leading satellite providers (SES, Intelsat & Eutelsat) in terms of revenues.

Eutelsat’s satellites are used for broadcasting 5,800 TV’s, of which 600 are in HD, and 1100 radio stations to over 250 million cable and satellite homes. They also serve requirements for TV contribution services, corporate networks, mobile communications, Internet backbone connectivity and broadband access for terrestrial, maritime and in-flight applications. Eutelsat is headquartered in Paris, France.

Eutelsat’s biggest Teleport is Rambouillet, south of Paris. The Teleport is housing over the 200 antennas in C-, Ku- and Ka-band sizing from 3.8m to 13.5m.

The European Telecommunications Satellite Organization (Eutelsat) was originally set up in 1977 as an intergovernmental organization (IGO) to develop and operate a satellite-based telecommunications infrastructure for Europe. It started operations with the launch of its first satellite in 1983.

Initially established to address satellite communications demand in Western Europe, Eutelsat rapidly developed its infrastructure to expand coverage to additional markets, such as Central and Eastern Europe in 1989, and the Middle-East, the African continent, and large parts of Asia and the Americas from the 1990’s.

Eutelsat Communications S.A. was the first satellite operator in Europe to broadcast television channels direct-to-home (DTH). It developed its premium neighborhood of five Hot Bird satellites in the mid-1990’s to offer capacity that would be able to attract hundreds of channels to the same orbital location, appealing to widespread audiences for consumer satellite TV.

In July 2022, Eutelsat reached an agreement to merge with the LEO satellite operator OneWeb, aiming to establish a unified and influential global player in connectivity and to compete effectively against SpaceX’s Starlink. This merger, valued at 3.4 billion USD and structured as an all-stock transaction, was successfully finalized in September 2023. Eutelsat will maintain its headquarters in Paris, while OneWeb will continue to operate as a subsidiary under the name Eutelsat OneWeb, with its primary operational center remaining in London. The merged company came with a new logo, the Eutelsat OneWeb Group, and represents the only GEO-LEO operator in satellite communications capable of delivering a seamless and widespread connectivity service.