Starlink, the current benchmark for satellite internet, could soon have another competitor on the French market. Indeed, Orange must soon launch its own service. Initially unveiled this summer, this new offer will be available from November 2023 if we are to believe the latest statement from the historic operator.
Remember, in July 2023, Orange made a surprise announcement: the French operator wants to venture into the satellite internet market. This sector has experienced exponential growth in recent years, driven in particular by Elon Musk’s giant Starlink, or even Amazon Kuiper, an ambitious project in which the American firm has invested no less than 10 billion dollars. We must also not forget Eutelsat Group, a new entity born from the merger between Eutelsat and OneWeb.
Never mind, Orange wants its piece of the pie (in France at least) and wishes to offer an alternative to Starlink and others in the white areas of France. Via a partnership with NordNet, the operator intends to rely on latest generation KonnectVHTS satellites from Eutelsat. As a reminder, these satellites offer a theoretical throughput of 500 Gb/s.
“The Orange satellite with Nordnet will be offered digitally and in all Orange stores and customer services, at a price equivalent to that of an optical fiber offer. Christel Heydemann, CEO of Orange, said at the time.
Orange wants to launch its satellite internet offer in November 2023
However, we have just learned this Thursday, October 12, 2023 that this new satellite internet offer will be launched in November 2023. It will be offered to the general public, but mainly targets users residing in white areas which are not eligible for optical fiber. Of course, many details are still missing from this formula, starting with the price of the subscription and equipment such as satellite dish.
If we are to believe Orange, the idea is to offer a price similar to that of a fiber optic offer. Fact, we could count on a subscription around €40 per month. This is probably the threshold to reach for Orange, especially since Starlink has reduced its prices. In fact, Elon Musk’s service has been priced at just €40 per month since the summer of 2023. At the start of 2022, users still had to pay €100 per month to take advantage of the SpaceX division’s satellite internet network.
Source : The Parisian
