Eutelsat has confirmed it has reached an agreement to sell its European broadband retail activities to an “experienced private operator”.
It means that Eutelsat is withdrawing from businesses run by its affiliate Bigblu Operations Ltd and other European retail activities in the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Hungary, and Greece.
The satellite operator will instead concentrate on its wholesale go-to-market model to distribute its satellite broadband capacity over Europe. It follows major wholesale deals signed with Orange (France), TIM (Italy), Hispasat (Spain) and Swisscom (Switzerland) for capacity in their respective markets on the Eutelsat KONNECT satellite. The private operator will also become a wholesale distributor in existing markets.
New satellite KONNECT VHTS is expected to come online in the second half of 2023, with 230 beams over Europe and MENA, representing a Ka capacity of 500 Gbps.
Firm commitments have already been secured for part of this incremental capacity by operators including Orange, TIM and Swisscom.
