E. NEW-GENERATION SATELLITE NETWORKS

For forty years, all telecommunications satellites have been placed in geostationary orbit (GEO), at an altitude of approximately 36,000 km. At this altitude, a satellite orbits at the same speed as the Earth and appears stationary in the sky, allowing a fixed antenna to remain constantly pointed at it. This stability comes at a price: the distance imposes a round-trip latency of around 550 to 600 ms, rendering these satellites unusable for interactive applications (videoconferencing, gaming, VoIP). The new generation of low-Earth orbit constellations is fundamentally changing this paradigm.

1. LEO megaconstellations

Satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO), at altitudes of between 300 and 2,000 km, cannot remain stationary relative to a point on Earth: they move rapidly and pass over a stationary observer within a matter of minutes. To provide continuous coverage, hundreds to thousands of satellites operating in a constellation are therefore required, taking turns to cover every point on the globe at all times. These mega-constellations reduce latency to 20–60 ms, comparable to a good ADSL or 4G connection, whilst offering global coverage, including over oceans, in mountainous areas and in the most remote rural regions.

Starlink, operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, is by far the most advanced commercial satellite constellation. Launched in phases since 2019, it had more than 6,800 active satellites in 2025, covering over 100 countries. SpaceX has managed to drastically reduce launch costs thanks to its reusable Falcon 9 rockets, enabling an unprecedented deployment rate. Starlink’s commercial offerings cover several segments: the residential package at around €50 per month for 50 to 200 Mbps with a latency of 20 to 60 ms; the Business package for enterprises with guaranteed speeds of up to 500 Mbps and SLAs; and the Maritime and Aviation packages for ships and aircraft. In 2024–2025, Starlink launched a Direct to Cell service enabling standard smartphones (without a special antenna) to connect directly to satellites, in partnership with T-Mobile in the United States.

OneWeb, renamed Eutelsat LEO following its merger with the European satellite operator Eutelsat, operates a constellation of 648 satellites at an altitude of 1,200 km. Aimed primarily at businesses, maritime transport operators and governments, OneWeb offers global coverage with latencies of 50 to 80 ms. Amazon Kuiper, Jeff Bezos’s constellation, began deployment in 2024 and aims to launch commercial service in 2025–2026 with a constellation of over 3,000 satellites, which is expected to intensify competition and price pressure. AST SpaceMobile, meanwhile, is developing a radically different approach: large satellites capable of communicating directly with standard smartphones without modification, targeting the 3 billion people living in areas without mobile coverage.

2. High-capacity GEO satellites

The new generation of geostationary satellites (HTS, High Throughput Satellites) is also modernising traditional GEO satellites. By using multiple small spot beams that reuse the same frequencies across different geographical areas, these satellites achieve total capacities of several hundred Gbps, ten to twenty times more than their predecessors. TheEutelsat KONNECT VHTSsatellite, launched in 2023, offers 500 Gbps of total capacity over Europe, with speeds of up to 100 Mbps for end users, targeting European white spots not yet covered by FTTH. SES operates its O3b mPOWER constellation in MEO orbit (8,000 km) with a latency of around 150 ms, offering very high speeds for businesses, ships and oil platforms.