Hispasat closes an alliance with Eutelsat to reduce the digital divide

Hispasat, the Spanish satellite telecommunications operator of the Red Eléctrica Group, and the French operator Eutelsat have formed an alliance to promote the initiatives to reduce the digital divide in Spain and Portugal that Hispasat already has underway.

Through this agreement, the Spanish operator will complement its current capabilities with those that Eutelsat's Konnect satellite has over both countries and, in this way, it will operate and market in collaboration with Eutelsat quality broadband connectivity at 100 Mbps to operators and telecommunications service providers.

This agreement is part of the lines of action proposed by Hispasat in its 2020-25 Strategic Plan, aimed at transforming the company from an infrastructure operator into a satellite services and solutions company. This evolution will be carried out by strengthening its current business, with actions such as this alliance with Eutelsat, and promoting its growth to adapt to new market trends by diversifying its offer through new technologies, services and strategic alliances.

To Miguel Ángel Panduro, CEO of Hispasat, "digitization cannot be addressed without having previously guaranteed the connectivity of the entire territory. Satellite technology has evolved and allows access to the Internet at 100 Mbps immediately from any point, no matter how inaccessible it may be. At Hispasat we are fully committed to the purpose of allowing all citizens access to the Internet and contributing to the digitalization of economic activity regardless of their geographical location and for this reason we have closed this alliance with Eutelsat to complement our current capacity.”

Rodolphe Belmer, CEO of Eutelsat, stated that "we are very satisfied with this strategic agreement with Hispasat, with whom we have been collaborating for many years. Following the wholesale agreements reached in France and Italy and a distribution agreement for Germany, this latest commitment with a satellite operator to cover the territories of Spain and Portugal confirms the importance of powerful and profitable next-generation geostationary satellites as an immediate solution to the ubiquitous deployment of guaranteed, high-speed broadband."

Digital divide

According to estimates by the Secretary of State for Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructure, by the end of 2021 more than 1 million Spanish homes will not have 100 Mbps Internet access. A large part of this population that still lacks high-quality connectivity is found in rural environments, where the deployment of terrestrial infrastructure (fiber optics and
5G) is insufficient. In Portugal, 30% of rural households lack access to high-speed Internet.

This digital divide (which not only households suffer, but also SMEs) is a determining factor in the depopulation of rural areas. Only quality connectivity will allow the social structure of the entire territory to be articulated around digitalization, the deconcentration of the population and its activities, and equal rights and opportunities for all citizens.

Universal coverage and its rapid deployment make satellite an ideal technological solution to democratize Internet access and take it to places where other alternatives do not reach. For this reason, Hispasat advocates technological neutrality and the complementarity of technical solutions that allow us to respond now to the connectivity objective for 100% of the population set by the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan of the Spanish government for 2025.