In an earlier post, I updated the status of three Chinese low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite Internet constellations. This one looks at four western competitors: OneWeb, Telesat, Amazon Project Kuiper, and IRIS². While Starlink is far ahead of each of them and only OneWeb is in operation at this time, I expect each of these and the Chinese constellations to survive and eventually compete with Starlink (stay tuned for the next post).
OneWeb
Bill Gates and two partners founded Teledesic, a would-be LEO satellite Internet service provider, in 1990, but the technology was not yet ready, and Teledesic declared bankruptcy in 2002.
The next potential LEO Internet service provider, OneWeb, was founded by Greg Wyler, who had extensive experience with networking in developing nations, with the mission of “bridging the digital divide by 2027.” However, it entered bankruptcy in 2020. The company was reorganized and emerged from bankruptcy, and in 2023, it merged with the established geo-stationary satellite (GEO) operator Eutelsat, creating the "Eutelsat Group" company, with subsidiaries "Eutelsat" and "Eutelsat OneWeb.”
In spite of that rocky start, OneWeb is the only company other than Starlink that is offering LEO satellite Internet service today. OneWeb LEO revenue was 187 million euros ($216 million) for the 12 months ending June 30,2025, representing around 15% of total Eutelsat Group sales. Starlink revenue for 2024 was $2.7 billion. OneWeb’s market share, and more importantly, global capacity, are minuscule compared to those of Starlink.
That sounds grim, but given Elon Musk’s political activity, Trump’s MAGA/isolationist policy, and the military value of LEO Internet, Europe will not let OneWeb fail unless there are viable alternatives to Starlink. This is evidenced by European support of OneWeb in Ukraine, including German funding of OneWeb and a recent British investment.
Finally, note that the Eutelsat Group can offer multi-orbit service, switching seamlessly between Eutelsat GEO and OneWeb LEO satellites or offering OneWeb service to other GEO providers. They signed their first multi-orbit contract three years ago and have added others since.
While this gives them an in-house advantage, SES, which operates a middle-Earth orbit constellation, will partner with any LEO or GEO provider to provide multi-orbit service.
Telesat
Telesat, an established Canadian GEO satellite operator, was the next LEO Internet company. Telesat recognized the trend to LEO, but decided not to offer consumer connectivity.
Telesat has been beset by delays and has reduced its initially planned constellation size, but they have contracted (with SpaceX) to begin launching satellites next year. Trump’s immigration and tariff policies, along with talk of annexing Canada, assure us that the Canadian government, which, along with Quebec, has invested in Telesat, will not allow it to fail.
Its initial “Lightspeed” constellation will consist of 198 satellites with a mass of 750 kg, roughly that of Starlink V2 mini satellites. SpaceX is slated to deploy them over the course of a year, starting in mid-2026. Telesat has been booking customers, and their LEO backlog now exceeds their GEO backlog. They plan to provide global service with polar and inclined sub-constellations, are seeking a ground station partner, and have terrestrial deals with Vocus, Orange, and Space Norway.
While Telesat will not bundle its own LEO and GEO services, they have tested a hybrid deployment between LEO and GEO using the Telesat Lightspeed emulator, showing seamless integration without any issues. Software like the emulator is part of their strategic decision to use Aalyria Spacetime, a multi-layer, multi-orbit operating system for a temporospatial network, which they acquired from Google when the Loon project was abandoned.
Amazon Project Kuiper
Project Kuiper, which has launched 153 satellites, is far behind Starlink, which has over 8,000, but Amazon has many things going for it. From the time it was founded, Amazon was an infrastructure company, and Project Kuiper is an orbiting infrastructure that will be strategically paired with Amazon’s complementary terrestrial infrastructure, like fiber and datacenters. Amazon has vast experience in manufacturing and logistics that will stand them in good stead with the manufacturing of terminals as well as satellites.
Project Kuiper is a wholly-owned subsidiary and an initiative of Amazon, and Jeff Bezos is the founder of both Amazon and the Blue Origin launch company, which will launch some Project Kuiper satellites. Amazon itself will also be a significant Kuiper user, and Kuiper will use Amazon’s ground station service.
That’s the good news, but Amazon faces an FCC deadline to launch half the constellation by July 30, 2026, and the remainder by July 30, 2029. They say they will be able to receive, test, and pack 100+ Kuiper satellites per month into the appropriate fairing and claim to have secured 80 launches, but how fast can they manufacture them? They will apply for a waiver from the FCC if necessary, and, like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos has a lot of money and attended Trump’s inauguration. Earlier, Musk might have stopped an Amazon waiver, but now Trump is looking into deporting him, and Bezos has made editorial changes at the Washington Post, which he owns. A political contribution might solve the FCC deadline.
IRIS²
IRIS² (Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite) is a €10.6bn project with 61 percent funded publicly and the balance coming from the SpaceRise industrial consortium, led by Eutelsat, Hispasat, and SES. SpaceRISE will design, deliver, and operate IRIS² for a period of 12 years.
They have contracted for 274 satellites in LEO and 18 in MEO, with first launches anticipated for 2029 and completion in 2030. Eutelsat will act as prime contractor leading the design of the LEO segment and co-leading the development of common system elements. SES will be responsible for procurement, integration, and operation of the MEO satellites, and Hispasat will lead the very-low orbital layer of the constellation and design, deliver, and operate the ground segment, manage operations, and interconnection with terrestrial networks. They also expect to eventually add a GEO sub-constellation.
This is a unique and complex organization that will have to manage suppliers like Airbus, Thales, OHB, Deutsche Telekom, and Orange. Bureaucracy might be a problem, but Europe can not rely on Starlink as Ukraine has during the war with Russia.
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