Eutelsat has terminated its five-year Ka-band agreement with Via Sat Brasil due to a “material breach” by the satellite broadband venture.
Via Sat has in turn launched a multi-billion lawsuit against the Parisian satellite operator, which was due to…
Eutelsat has terminated its five-year Ka-band agreement with Via Sat Brasil due to a “material breach” by the satellite broadband venture.
Via Sat has in turn launched a multi-billion lawsuit against the Parisian satellite operator, which was due to lease five spotbeams on its Eutelsat-3B satellite to Via Sat from the start of this month.
Eutelsat contends that Via Sat did not respect the terms of the conditions of the contract, but would not comment on the specifics of the case as it is now in the hands of lawyers.
Brazilian news outlet Teletime reported that Via Sat is claiming R$2.8bn (US$1bn) in its action, which is how much revenue it said it expected to generate over the lifetime of the contract. Eutelsat has filed its own motion rejecting Via Sat’s demand.
SatelliteFinance understands that the issue could be resolved later this month, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Via Sat and Eutelsat announced their agreement in May 2014, days prior to Sea Launch successfully placing Eutelsat-3B on 26 May using its Zenit 3SL rocket.
The contract would have seen Via Sat, formed in 2011 to become the first telecom operator to provide satellite broadband in certain parts of Brazil, cover the entire country for the first time.
Eutelsat-3B has a tri-band configuration with 51 C, Ku and Ka band commercial transponders.
