Eutelsat OneWeb: Constellation - General Thread

[FutureSpaceTourist]

https://twitter.com/planet4589/status/1756523752135839812

The OneWeb constellation has been pretty reliable, but looks like OneWeb SL0094 may be being retired, or at least redeployed with a bigger height change than usual

[Teppich]

TAMPA, Fla. — Eutelsat has decided to hold off deploying significantly upgraded OneWeb broadband satellites to instead focus on adding continuity of service capacity for customers with long-term contracts, the French fleet operator said Feb. 16.

The shift to a progressive approach for improving low Earth orbit satellite capacity and performance shaves off nearly one third of the company’s previous $4 billion budget for a second-generation constellation, Eutelsat CEO Eva Berneke said during an earnings call.

Berneke said the strategy still leaves Eutelsat open to potential public sector funding from programs such as IRIS˛, Europe’s sovereign broadband project, for financing the development of new technologies that could be added to the constellation.

“But it’s also really to make sure that the timeline works,” she continued, “I mean, it’s very important to us that we keep the continuity of service with our customers in these multi-year contracts and set them up over time, and then bring the new functionality when it’s ready.”

https://spacenews.com/eutelsat-scales-back-oneweb-gen-2-upgrade-plan/

This is a somewhat confusing justification to me - how would launching the Gen 2 sats impact continuity of service? Doesn't seem to be an issue for Starlink for instance

[DistantTemple]

This is a somewhat confusing justification to me - how would launching the Gen 2 sats impact continuity of service?

By bankrupting the company. (Again)

The Gen 2 sats are either just not ready, or too expensive, etc. Maybe there is still plenty of technical development needed, and considerable R&D funding. Conversely building Gen 1 (Or 1+) replacements is straightforward, affordable, and necessary in case of failures.
My Guess - IAN in the comms industry!

[Asteroza]

TAMPA, Fla. — Eutelsat has decided to hold off deploying significantly upgraded OneWeb broadband satellites to instead focus on adding continuity of service capacity for customers with long-term contracts, the French fleet operator said Feb. 16.

The shift to a progressive approach for improving low Earth orbit satellite capacity and performance shaves off nearly one third of the company’s previous $4 billion budget for a second-generation constellation, Eutelsat CEO Eva Berneke said during an earnings call.

Berneke said the strategy still leaves Eutelsat open to potential public sector funding from programs such as IRIS˛, Europe’s sovereign broadband project, for financing the development of new technologies that could be added to the constellation.

“But it’s also really to make sure that the timeline works,” she continued, “I mean, it’s very important to us that we keep the continuity of service with our customers in these multi-year contracts and set them up over time, and then bring the new functionality when it’s ready.”

https://spacenews.com/eutelsat-scales-back-oneweb-gen-2-upgrade-plan/

This is a somewhat confusing justification to me - how would launching the Gen 2 sats impact continuity of service? Doesn't seem to be an issue for Starlink for instance

Is there a weird interplay between abandoning Gen1 to start Gen2 before any license deadlines? How far is Gen1 from being minimally functional?

[Zed_Noir]

Msnip>
This is a somewhat confusing justification to me - how would launching the Gen 2 sats impact continuity of service? Doesn't seem to be an issue for Starlink for instance

Think Starlink have upgrades or experimental tryouts with a few of their comsats with each production batch. If upgrade/tryout works out then put it in effect with one of the next production batches. If the upgrade/tryout didn't work out, decommission and de-orbit the comsats with the bad upgrade/tryout. There is enough Starlink bandwidth capacity to make up for the reduction in service of the decommissioned comsats with fail experiment.

[cpushack]

TAMPA, Fla. — Eutelsat has decided to hold off deploying significantly upgraded OneWeb broadband satellites to instead focus on adding continuity of service capacity for customers with long-term contracts, the French fleet operator said Feb. 16.

The shift to a progressive approach for improving low Earth orbit satellite capacity and performance shaves off nearly one third of the company’s previous $4 billion budget for a second-generation constellation, Eutelsat CEO Eva Berneke said during an earnings call.

Berneke said the strategy still leaves Eutelsat open to potential public sector funding from programs such as IRIS˛, Europe’s sovereign broadband project, for financing the development of new technologies that could be added to the constellation.

“But it’s also really to make sure that the timeline works,” she continued, “I mean, it’s very important to us that we keep the continuity of service with our customers in these multi-year contracts and set them up over time, and then bring the new functionality when it’s ready.”

https://spacenews.com/eutelsat-scales-back-oneweb-gen-2-upgrade-plan/

This is a somewhat confusing justification to me - how would launching the Gen 2 sats impact continuity of service? Doesn't seem to be an issue for Starlink for instance

Does Gen 2 require different ground equipment to ensure that continuity of service?
The statement feels like Gen 2 is not really compatible with Gen 1

[edzieba]

If Gen 1 and Gen 2 user terminals lack direct and transparent interoperability (i.e. you do not need twinned terminals, or do not need to switch terminal operation modes, etc) then the statement makes perfect sense. Launching Gen 2 satellites would mean asking customers to buy two terminals and set up failover, or switch to a new terminal and suffer reduced service until a full Gen 2 constellation is in place. If Gen 2 satellites needed extra host equipment to work with both Gen 1 and gen 2 user terminals, that would mean larger satellites and fewer satellites per launch, further increasing time (and cost) to full availability.
Putting the same funding into building out the Gen 1 constellation further means enhancing the service for actual paying customers, which a non-cross-compatible Gen 2 would not - it's no good investing in a future 'better' constellation if by the time you can offer services on it you've gone bust because your existing customers have gotten fed up with your existing service.

[RedLineTrain]

Is OneWeb having problems introducing its service?  I have been keeping my ear to the ground on Starlink and came across the news that Sure in the Falklands has withdrawn its OneWeb service, after several months of issues.  Apparently, these issues have been very vaguely described, causing a loss of confidence.  I assume that the ground station that was installed by Intelsat is quite spendy, at least from the perspective of locations like the Falklands.

https://www.openfalklands.com/there-has-been-quite-a-lot-of-action-since-part-4-was-published-here-are-the-recent-public-announcements-concerning-starlink-in-the-falkland-islands/

[gongora]

That doesn't really say much about the quality of OneWeb's service, just that their local network had problems when they tried to integrate it.  Not necessarily a OneWeb problem.

[RedLineTrain]

That doesn't really say much about the quality of OneWeb's service, just that their local network had problems when they tried to integrate it.  Not necessarily a OneWeb problem.

Agreed, could be an Intelsat issue or a Sure issue.