Europe signs off on €10.6B IRIS² satellite broadband deal

A competitor for Elon Musk's Starlink satellite broadband constellation is on the way after Eurocrats signed the concession contract for the Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite (IRIS²).

The earmarked budget for IRIS² is €10.6 billion, with €6.5 billion coming from public funding (including €550 million from ESA’s Partnership Projects). More than €4 billion will be funded by private industry.

According to the European Space Agency (ESA), the constellation will comprise approximately 300 satellites, spanning across Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and Medium Earth Orbit (MEO). The thinking is that by utilizing both orbits, the constellation will benefit from LEO's low latency and MEO's wider coverage.

SpaceX's Starlink has dealt with the coverage issue by launching thousands of satellites into LEO.

The SpaceRISE industry consortium, led by Eutelsat, Hispasat, and SES, put the number of satellites at 290 and said it expected service to begin in 2030 as part of the 12-year IRIS² contract.

The European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) said the constellation was "set to provide secure communication services to the EU and its Member States as well as broadband connectivity for European citizens, private companies and governmental authorities."

It added that IRIS² "will put an end to dead zones in Europe as well as the whole of Africa using the constellation's North-South orbits through a resilient and ultra-secure space and ground-based system."

"Relying on quantum cryptography through the European Quantum Communication Infrastructure (EuroQCI), and enhanced cybersecurity through a secure-by-design approach for the infrastructure, the system will bring an unprecedented security level to its users.

"EUSPA is already actively involved in building secure satellite communication infrastructure for Europe through the coordination of the first phase of GOVSATCOM [Governmental Satellite Communications] on which IRIS² will be based."

The EU has been making noises about building out its own satellite constellation for a few years now, with an estimate of €6 billion made for the system. Two years on, the funding number is considerably higher, and the constellation considerably later.

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• EU reaches agreement on satellite comms project: Opens Iris

From 2025, the plan is to make use of existing satellite capacity already owned by member states. According to the EC, "IRIS² full governmental satellite connectivity services based on EU-owned infrastructure will be delivered by 2030."

Eutelsat's participation may raise an eyebrow or two. The business merged with OneWeb in 2022. OneWeb already operates a broadband satellite constellation with more than 630 spacecraft. The Register asked Eutelsat if OneWeb's capabilities or technology would be leveraged for IRIS² and we will update this article should we receive a response.

As for why existing constellations, such as Starlink, could not be used, the EC said, "As global satellite connectivity is rapidly becoming a strategic asset for security, safety and resilience, the EU needs to urgently act in order to ensure guaranteed access in an unrestricted manner without third-party dependencies." ®