Eutelsat has launched a new satellite ground station site in Yellowknife, Canada.
“Welcome to Yellowknife, Northern Canada - and our new Satellite Network Portal (SNP),” the company posted on LinkedIn last week. “Last Friday, we were delighted to launch our new ground station in Yellowknife, alongside our partners at Northwestel and in collaboration with the SSC - Swedish Space Corporation.”
Eutelsat-owned OneWeb and SSC first announced plans to partner back in May 2023. Eutelsat said the SNP will deliver increased bandwidth, performance, and resiliency to its live services across Northern Canada and the Arctic region.
Howard H W Stanley, Eutelsat OneWeb's VP for Canada, said: "This achievement is a result of the hard work and expertise of our partners, Northwestel and Swedish Space Corporation. With our LEO connectivity reaching coast to coast to coast, adding Yellowknife's site boosts our network's strength across Northern Canada, including the entire Arctic region."
The company worked with the Yellowknives Dene First Nation, Det’on Cho Development Corporation, and Nahanni Construction Ltd. on the project. The new site sits on the traditional territory of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation and Det’on Cho Environmental provided local guidance on environmental assessments and permitting.
SCC operates 10 ground station locations globally – including the Inuvik Station in Northern Canada – plus services from eight more in partnership. The Inuvik Satellite Station currently houses three SSC-owned antennas, one 7.3 and two 13-meter antennas, supporting multiple frequency bands including S-Band and X-Band.
Northwestel is a subsidiary of Bell, providing service to the traditional territories of Indigenous peoples across Canada's North, serving communities across Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, British Columbia, and Alberta.
Eutelsat’s Low Earth Orbit unit OneWeb is developing more than 40 ground station sites to manage its 600-strong satellite fleet, with around 22 thought to be in development in 2020 at the time of its bankruptcy.
By the end of 2022, the company said its ground network included coverage of the UK, Northern Europe, Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, and Arctic seas.
OneWeb has seen number of sites going live globally in recent months. The company launched a teleport facility in Cali, Colombia, alongside Speedcast earlier this month.
Earlier this year, OneWeb inaugurated a new SNP at Telespazio’s teleport in Maricá, Brazil. It is reportedly one of two gateways in Brazil and one of seven across Latin America.
The company is also set to deploy a ground station off the coast of Africa on the island of St. Helena in partnership with local telco Sure, and one in Sweden at Arctic Space’s site in Piteå. Other deals have been signed with Paratus in Luanda, Angola, and Vivacom in Bulgaria. In 2021 the satellite company announced plans to build a ground station in Kazakhstan.
However, Eutelsat recently admitted OneWeb's Low Earth Orbit (LEO) network was “running behind schedule” due to ground station delays.
Thailand’s state telco National Telecom (NT) is reportedly at risk of losing its partnership with OneWeb over permitting delays. The satellite company is reportedly meeting with Taiwanese telcos to explore placing infrastructure there instead.
While still building it out, Paris-based Eutelsat is reportedly looking to sell its ground infrastructure in a potential €800 million ($850m) deal. The company is said to have been reviewing its strategy since its merger with rival provider OneWeb, first announced in 2022, closed last year.
