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The telecom diligence is undergoing its smashing period of flutter since the telegraph , as company work out to open up space as the next frontier for communications . French startup Constellation hopes to take part by repurposing 5 G technical school to provide a Starlink - comparable satellite broadband that uses telecoms ’ existing assets .
Constellation Technologies & Operations , to call it by its full name , plans to launch a constellation of satellite in very low Earth orbit and work directly with telecom operator to provide high - speed internet access via small ( but stationary ) user terminal .
The caller would do this by repurposing terrestrial 5 gee spectrum for space - based connectivity — cellular signals can in reality reach to and from area if handled right . Constellation would bring home the bacon the capacity and terminals but the client would pay off the telecommunication company for the service , with that subscription revenue partake in .
Constellation founder and CEO Charles Delfieux acknowledged in a recent interview that the quad sphere is at a turning full point : “ For the first time in the chronicle of space and telecommunication , we are basically witnessing a converging between space and tellurian connectivity in term of performance and price , ” he said . “ That converging is basically create those essay - after , price - efficient result to turn in connectivity as something that is completely achievable . ”
An applied scientist by training , Delfieux spend the majority of his life history work on at the World Bank , where he represent as program manager conduct the structuring and financing of large substructure projects in emerging countries . He witnessed firsthand how access to reliable internet remains a challenge for millions of people . With the financial support of a first investor , he resigned from the World Bank and found Constellation in 2022 .
“ If you want to really accomplish ubiquitous , universal connectivity , the only way to do that is to leverage space technologies , ” he tell .
He acknowledge that the most successful example to escort is Starlink , whose functioning and cost is pay back closer and closer to what terrestrial solutions furnish . But Delfieux say the Constellation team eventually realized that the most hopeful business architectural plan is to basically influence with , not against , sublunar telecom operators . By doing so , he sees monolithic opportunity to provide ecumenical internet access regardless of locating or existing connectivity .
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The plan is bolster up by some technical innovation , namely the development of a artificial satellite cast factor that will be capable of operating in very miserable Earth orbit , around 375 kilometers , which Delfieux says will serve encourage the performance of the system . Constellation also aims to repurpose part of the 5 G spectrum allocated to the telecom operators on the primer coat for its space communications service .
By doing so , Delfieux say the inauguration will help telecoms to monetise the full extent of their 5 G networks — and more meaningfully compete with new entrants like SpaceX and Amazon ’s Kuiper .
“ set up national , regional , traditional telecommunication operators , they are picture these very powerful , very influential players , new entrants in telecom sphere , that start operating a broadband constellation , that start hand over broadband services from space … they are more and more aiming at taking their own blank within the telecommunication sector , in unmediated rival with established national and regional telecommunication operators . So it ’s a threat . We basically need to be the single put up a phone service - favorable root for the telecom operator . So tomorrow they can contend with those new entrants . ”
By using 5 G spectrum , Constellation can also integrate within the design of its exploiter terminal and satellite payloads mass - produced , cheap components that are already being produced for tellurian communication networks so as to drive down costs , he added .
The company has secured a € 9.3 million ( $ 10.2 million ) seed round to accelerate its plans . The novel funding come from Expansion Ventures , Bpifrance and a previous unnamed investor .
configuration judge that its clientele poser will need a constellation of 1,500 satellites to provide global reporting — an ambitious figure by any metre — with performance rates of 150 Mbps downlink and 50 Mbps uplink and a latency of less than 30 msec .
The caller plan first on launch a host cargo to field by June 2025 to carry out an death - to - end run of the service . From there , it will plunge two paradigm satellites by the end of 2026 with the aim of deploying product satellites the next year .
