Eutelsat hails EC’s IRIS-2 project to take on U.S. NTN providers
Executive Summary:
The European Commission (EC) has announced the next steps for the IRIS2 [1.] project after reaching an implementation agreement with the prime contractors, one of which is Eutelsat. The EC agreed terms with the SpaceRISE consortium – comprising Eutelsat, Hispasat and SES – for deploying the satellite system, which includes adding 66 more low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites dedicated to defense, security and emergency services, and launching services from 2029.
Note 1. IRIS² Backgrounder:
IRIS² is the European Union’s secure-connectivity LEO satellite program: Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite. It is intended to provide sovereign, resilient communications for EU governmental users while also supporting commercial broadband and connectivity in underserved areas. IRIS² is planned as a multi-orbit constellation of 290 satellites, principally in low-Earth orbit (LEO) and medium-Earth orbit (MEO). Combining LEO’s lower latency with MEO’s wider coverage is meant to support secure, high-availability communications across Europe and beyond.
IRIS² was established under Regulation (EU) 2023/588, the Union Secure Connectivity Programme for 2023–2027. The Commission awarded a 12-year concession in December 2024 to the SpaceRISE consortium—SES, Eutelsat, and Hispasat—with major European aerospace, satellite, and telecom companies participating as subcontractors.
The current planning cited by ESA anticipates first satellite launches in 2029, initial services in 2030, and full operations targeted for 2031. In the interim, initial governmental capability is to draw on pooled national satellite resources through GOVSATCOM.
IRIS² is commonly described as the EU’s third flagship space program after Galileo and Copernicus. Its strategic rationale is European digital and communications sovereignty: reducing reliance on non-European satellite systems, improving resilience against cyber and physical disruptions, and sustaining a European space/telecom industrial base. It is not simply a European retail satellite-internet competitor to Starlink; secure governmental connectivity and strategic autonomy are central design objectives.
A good part of the motivation to build the IRIS2 satellite system is to reduce reliance on U.S. satellites internet providers (e.g. Starlink, Amazon LEO), especially for sensitive military and government communications.
Principal uses of IRIS2 include:
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Secure communications for EU institutions, Member States, defence/security users, embassies, and critical infrastructure.
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Crisis management, disaster/humanitarian response, border or surveillance-related applications.
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Broadband, transport connectivity, satellite trunking, and service in terrestrial coverage gaps.
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Integration with 5G/non-terrestrial-network technology; the Commission’s 2026 terminal-industrialization call explicitly includes 5G NR NTN-compliant modem/baseband capabilities.
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Eutelsat CEO Jean-François Fallacher said this is “a very important milestone” that moves the project on from design and preparation to an “operational phase” and confirms Eutelsat’s role as the program’s “LEO lead.” Fallacher shared a high-level view of some of the system’s new technology that is hoped to give it an advantage over larger U.S. rivals. He said the multi-orbit MEO-LEO constellation is “very advanced,” and will have “much more” capacity than satellite internet provider OneWeb has today.
He also confirmed it will be based on 5G non-terrestrial network (NTN) standards, which is “important.”
“We use 5G NTN technology. For IRIS2, we want to normalize the technology … This is also a way to fight against the American giants because today each of the technology used by ourselves on OneWeb (now owned by Eutelsat), by Amazon or by Starlink are full proprietary technologies,” he said. “Going to normalized technologies such as 5G NTN will also help [in] bringing the cost down [and] having antennas which will be cheaper and of a smaller size.”
Eutelsat, which also operates 31 geostationary orbit (GEO) satellites, gained its LEO constellation with the acquisition of OneWeb in 2023. It is a distant second LEO operator with around 650 satellites, compared to Starlink’s more than 10,000. They both operate LEO constellations, but Eutelsat has a “fundamentally different constellation with different target customers, business models and scale.” LEO connectivity accounted for 25% of Eutelsat’s total revenue of €1.23 billion (US$1.41 billion) for the fiscal year ending June 30, and LEO revenue grew 70% year-over-year.
Photo Credit: HJBC/Alamy Stock Photo
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For IRIS2, Eutelsat will design and operate 264 dual Mil-Ka/Ku band and 66 Mil-Ka band satellites. The company said it will invest €2.23 billion ($2.57 billion) in the shared infrastructure and €1.16 billion ($1.34 billion) in the commercial infrastructure (which includes Ku payload and commercial ground equipment), with spending phased from 2027 to 2034. According to its concession agreement with the EC, the company said it expects revenue from IRIS2 activity to be more than €10 billion ($11.6 billion) from 2032 to 2040. The Ka-only satellites are planned to start launching in 2029, while the commercial Ku LEO system is expected to be operational by mid-2032. Eutelsat also said it plans to add 229 satellites to OneWeb through 2034 in addition to 440 new first-generation satellites for an investment of €1 billion ($1.2 billion).
https://www.lightreading.com/satellite/eutelsat-hails-5g-ntn-to-take-on-american-giants
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ITU-R WP 4B treatment of 3GPP NTN specs:
WP 4B does not edit, amend, or “correct” 3GPP technical specifications. It evaluates a submitted 3GPP NTN Radio Interface Technology (RIT) or Set of RITs (SRIT) against ITU-R satellite-IMT requirements, then develops an ITU-R Recommendation that identifies and references the applicable 3GPP specifications.
Separation of responsibilities
Body Role
3GPP Creates, maintains, and changes the normative NR-NTN, IoT-NTN, 5G Core, RAN, protocol, RF, and conformance specifications.
ITU-R WP 4B Establishes satellite-IMT requirements and evaluation methodology; evaluates candidate RIT/SRIT submissions; determines whether the proposed technology meets the requirements; and drafts the ITU-R satellite-IMT Recommendation.
ITU-R SG 4 Approves the WP 4B draft through the ITU-R Recommendation approval process.
Thus, WP 4B may determine that a submitted 3GPP technology does not yet demonstrate compliance with a required characteristic, lacks needed documentation, or must be evaluated further. It can communicate observations, requests for clarification, or technical concerns to 3GPP through formal liaison mechanisms. But it cannot make a change to a 3GPP TS or TR; only 3GPP’s relevant Technical Specification Groups and Working Groups can approve that change.
What WP 4B can change
WP 4B can change the ITU-R layer, including:
The ITU-R satellite-IMT vision, performance requirements, and evaluation criteria.
The scope, conditions, and presentation of a candidate RIT/SRIT in an ITU-R Recommendation.
Which 3GPP Global Core Specification versions, features, bands, or profiles are referenced as the basis of the recognized satellite radio interface.
Supplementary ITU-R material on system characteristics, satellite service performance, availability, spectrum compatibility, and earth-station matters.
For example, Recommendation ITU-R M.2177 recognizes the 3GPP 5G-NTN RIT and SRIT, but it does so by referencing externally maintained 3GPP specifications. The normative details remain under 3GPP version control.
Practical consequence for Release 19
If WP 4B concludes that a Release 19 NTN capability—say, regenerative payload operation or an IoT-NTN enhancement—does not meet a satellite-IMT requirement as submitted, it may withhold its recognition of that capability or request additional evaluation evidence. It may also recommend that 3GPP address a gap.
But the result would be one of these outcomes, not a WP 4B rewrite of the specification:
3GPP revises the relevant Release 19 or later specification through its ordinary change-request process, then resubmits or provides an updated reference.
WP 4B recognizes a narrower profile of the 3GPP submission that has demonstrated compliance.
WP 4B defers inclusion of the feature until supporting specification and evaluation material are mature.
WP 4B updates M.2177 to reference an approved later 3GPP specification version after the feature has been accepted.
“Rubber stamp” is therefore too strong, because there is an independent ITU-R evaluation and consensus step. But “specification modification” is also inaccurate: WP 4B evaluates and references 3GPP work; it does not exercise change control over it.
Source: Perplexity.ai