TAMPA, Fla. — France’s state-backed Expansion Ventures fund has invested about $10 million in Constellation Technologies & Operations, a two-year-old French startup with plans for 1500 small 5G broadband satellites in very low Earth orbit (VLEO).
The startup said Oct. 14 the seed funds enable the completion of engineering studies for its first two satellites, slated to launch in 2026, which would use cellular frequencies from terrestrial partners to deliver services to user terminals developed in-house.
The funds also support initial end-to-end tests via a payload that founder Charles Delfieux said would be hosted on a spacecraft from Italy’s D-orbit, booked for launch in June on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare mission.
“We are completely on schedule to integrate and test our payload by December,” Delfieux told SpaceNews in an interview, “and then it will be integrated at D-Orbit’s facility and [shipped] to Florida.”
Delfieux said the idea for the startup came during work managing large World Bank infrastructure programs to improve access to basic services.
“Basic services in 2024 encompasses access to connectivity,” he said, which remains challenging in many areas.
According to Delfieux, the growing convergence between terrestrial and satellite networks and companies creates new opportunities for addressing this connectivity challenge.
Space technology is the only “economically feasible enabler to complement terrestrial telecommunication networks and to achieve ubiquitous connectivity,” he said.
Several European telcos have already expressed interest in revenue-sharing agreements with the venture, he added, and at least one telco has signed up to help test technology during the orbital demonstration next year.
Joining the fray
Constellation Technologies & Operations is offering terrestrial operators access to a rapidly growing high-speed, low-latency satellite broadband market, currently dominated by SpaceX’s Starlink as Amazon and other entrants plan their own low Earth orbit (LEO) networks.
Some telcos are already lending frequencies to Starlink and other space companies developing direct-to-smartphone constellations, which promise to bring basic connectivity services to subscribers beyond the reach of cell towers in the coming years.
According to Delfieux, telcos could also repurpose some of their capacity, typically in the 26 gigahertz band, to deliver higher bandwidth 5G services from space to flat panel electronically steered antennas measuring 30 by 30 centimeters.
As a result, partner telcos would get access to a space-based internet market that GSMA Intelligence analysts say could be worth $35 billion by 2035.
“This also comes with the advantage of leveraging [and] monetizing this 5G spectrum,” he said, “which today has been largely underused across the world.”
Operational challenges
Like direct-to-smartphone players, Delfieux said Constellation Technologies & Operations would need to prove its satellites do not interfere with terrestrial communications networks and clear multiple regulatory hurdles before operating commercially.
While VLEO enables speedier communications and potentially smaller terminals than LEO and higher orbits, the startup must also overcome air drag and other challenges of operating 335 kilometers above Earth. The lowest approved orbit for Starlink broadband services is 525 kilometers, though SpaceX has sought permission to operate lower.
Delfieux said its 350-kilogram satellites would be about the size of a large kitchen table when solar panels are not included, and have “a very specific aerodynamic profile” enabling them to last seven years in VLEO before running out of fuel and breaking up naturally in the atmosphere within a year.
The startup is designing the payloads and user terminals, but Delfieux said it would outsource manufacturing from unnamed partners.
He said the startup plans to kick off mass production and deploy the full global constellation between 2027 and 2029.
Constellation Technologies & Operations currently employs 30 people across offices in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines and Toulouse, France.
French investment firm Bpifrance runs the Expansion Ventures space and air mobility fund on behalf of the country’s government as part of the France 2030 strategic investment plan.