STOCKHOLM - Eutelsat, the world's third-biggest satellite operator by revenue, launched 20 satellites for its communications network on Sunday, using Elon Musk's SpaceX in its first move since the merger of two European companies last year.
"This is the first OneWeb launch of the satellites since the merger," CEO Eva Berneke told Reuters in an interview."We will be launching more satellites over the coming years." "We really want to integrate into the telco ecosystem," Berneke said."Satellites are an interesting niche in the overall connectivity ecosystems where telcos are the big boys in the class and satellite will always be a smaller part."The company, which has a backlog of orders of $4 billion, is waiting for countries such as India and Saudi Arabia to open up.
"We have some of our backlog sitting in the Indian market... It sits there until India gets open, the day it gets open, we'll start building," Berneke said.