OneWeb

OneWeb is no longer a company. It is the low-orbit half of Eutelsat: 648 satellites at 1,200 kilometres, sold wholesale through distribution partners into maritime, aviation, cellular backhaul and government networks, and paired inside the group with a shrinking geostationary television business.

What the merger produced is a European sovereign operator, not a Starlink competitor. The French State became the largest shareholder at 29.65 per cent after a €1.5 billion recapitalisation, the French armed forces placed their first order under a national framework, and the group is central to the EU's IRIS2 programme. The proposition is that European governments and defence buyers want capacity that is not American and will pay for it.

The economics are harder than the growth rate suggests. Low-orbit revenue grew 69.5 per cent in the year to June 2026 while group revenue stayed flat, because that growth is replacing the declining television business rather than adding to it, and margins fell because the new business earns less per euro than the old one. Meanwhile the constellation is wearing out. Satellites launched between 2019 and 2021 are reaching the end of their design lives, so more than €1 billion has to be spent replacing a constellation that never earned back what it cost to build the first time, and financing that required a French State guarantee on top of the French State becoming the largest shareholder. IRIS2 capital spending arrives on top from 2027. And where Starlink publishes 10.3 million subscribers, a wholesale business publishes none.