Eutelsat announced on January 2nd the restoration of services across its low Earth orbit (LEO) OneWeb broadband network following a two-day outage. The disruption, affecting a network that provides coverage across the Americas, Europe, Asia, and other regions, stemmed from a software issue within the ground segment.
Delays in building and gaining approval for OneWeb’s ground infrastructure have previously hampered global service deployment, despite achieving worldwide coverage in 2023. The company aims to fully launch services for government and enterprise customers, including aviation, this spring.
According to Eutelsat spokesperson Joanna Darlington, the software problem originated from an oversight in accounting for 2024 as a leap year. She confirmed to SpaceNews that partial service restoration occurred 36 hours after the initial disruption on December 31st. “With the service fully restored a full investigation will take place indeed to ensure it does not recur,” she stated.
Eutelsat highlights its multi-orbit capabilities—combining LEO and geostationary satellites—as a competitive advantage against Starlink's LEO dominance. While Eutelsat's geostationary fleet offers network redundancy, it wasn't utilized during this outage. The company recently placed an order for 100 additional OneWeb satellites from Airbus Defence and Space, anticipating the end of life for existing satellites in 2027 and 2028.