On Wednesday 26 October, Jean-Hubert Lenotte,Eutelsat’s Chief Strategy Officer, and Peng Zhao, Director of Government Affairs and Policy at OneWeb, sought to calm the concerns of European and EU stakeholders at the ‘European Space Forum’, according to our information.
Mr Lenotte, speaking on behalf of Eutelsat - a French company caught up in the controversy of a possible conflict of interest since the announcement of its participation in the OneWeb project while showing a willingness to take part in the EU constellation project (see EUROPE 13002/20) - sought to reassure and put forward proposals during his speech.
In his view, OneWeb could work hand in hand with the European Commission’s proposed project because of their complementarity: the former is firmly focused on commercial activities, while the latter is primarily focused on secure government activities, according to him.
However, the EU constellation also has a strong trade component, which is a source of much political discussion between Member States and MEPs regarding the most sensitive government activities (see EUROPE 12938/35).
In addition, Lenotte said that Oneweb has radio frequency rights that may be of interest to the European Commission. Access to the best radio frequencies has been a source of tension until this summer within the EU institution, potentially threatening the sustainability of the European constellation project (see EUROPE 12964/5).
In addition, the Eutelsat representative added that the UK government had special rights over OneWeb that were ultimately quite limited. In any case, he proposed that the most sensitive activities could be controlled by Europeans on European soil and that less sensitive communications could be established on other constellation networks.
For his part, Peng Zhao, of OneWeb, insisted that his company had a very strong European base, notably with the French company Eutelsat. For him, the European market is of great interest because there are comparatively far fewer regulatory barriers than in other parts of the world, thanks to the liberalisation of the telecommunication operators’ market that began some 20 years ago.
One thing is certain, he insisted, and that is that the European Union must remain an open market to encourage reciprocal market access, which is of paramount importance to the operators of low earth orbit constellations. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)