OneWeb Satellites lift Eutelsat's LEO revenues 69.5 percent to €297m

European satellite operator Eutelsat has reported that revenues from OneWeb's constellation of ultrafast broadband satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) rose by 69.5 percent to €297m in the year ended 30 June 2026, a figure the company said "beat expectations". The LEO business now accounts for 25 percent of the group's overall revenues.

The results, published on 7 August 2026, put total group revenue at €1,235.9m, with adjusted EBITDA of €632.4m at a 51.2 percent margin. A year earlier LEO had made up about 15 percent of group revenue. The figures followed the closing of a comprehensive equity and debt financing plan worth around €5bn in March 2026.

OneWeb was originally rescued from bankruptcy by the UK government and Indian group Bharti Global, before later becoming part of Eutelsat with concessions attached. Eutelsat has its headquarters in Paris, while OneWeb operates commercially as Eutelsat OneWeb, with its centre of operations remaining in London. BT and others have previously worked with OneWeb on several UK rural broadband trials.

The current constellation

The operator currently has 654 small first-generation (GEN1) LEO satellites in space, each weighing around 150kg and orbiting at an altitude of 1,200km. About 600 of them are used for coverage, with the rest held for redundancy. The combined business pairs this OneWeb network with Eutelsat's geostationary (GEO) fleet to serve government, enterprise, maritime, aviation and telecom customers.

LEO spacecraft are designed to have a short operational life of roughly five years before gravity and atmospheric drag pull them back down. The first-generation OneWeb satellites will be gradually de-orbited as they reach the end of their useful lifespan.

The results also showed that the OneWeb side of the business now has 496 employees, slightly down from 510 the year before.

Renewing and expanding the fleet

Eutelsat plans to renew and enhance the constellation under the "Eutelsat Next" programme, with a further 440 satellites planned for launch starting later in 2026. The latest results confirmed an Export Credit Agency (ECA)-backed financing facility of roughly €1 billion to support the purchase of those new satellites from Airbus Defence and Space.

"These satellites will provide full operational continuity for OneWeb LEO constellation customers, gradually replacing existing satellites at the end of their operational life," the company said.

The first of the second-generation satellites are due to be delivered around the end of 2026. The replenishment fleet is designed to carry digital channelisers and hosted-payload capability, and will gradually replace the aging first-generation spacecraft.