Eutelsat Communications announced the selection of its ground infrastructure providers — General Dynamics and Hughes Network — to operate its KONNECT satellite and associated broadband services.
Eutelsat has selected General Dynamics SATCOM Technologies to offer and deploy seven antennas. General Dynamics SATCOM Technologies’ solution will provide seven 9-metre antennas to support traffic exchange between the satellite and its ground network system.

Eutelsat said it has selected Hughes Network Systems to provide JUPITER ground network system. Hughes will provide its Jupiter platform for KONNECT’s ground network system, including baseband equipment and new generation user terminals.

KONNECT, with 75 Gbps of capacity, is a new generation multi-beam satellite scheduled for launch at the end of this year. Once in service in 2020, the all-electric satellite will serve the broadband Internet market on a large scale throughout Western Europe and Africa.

“The satellite, which has completed its construction and is starting its test phase, will benefit from high-performance ground and in-orbit infrastructure on a cost-efficient basis to deliver competitive services to our customers,” Yohann Leroy, deputy chief executive officer and chief technical officer of Eutelsat, said.