French telco Orange and European satellite operator Eutelsat have launched a new ground station site in the Caribbean.

The companies this week announced the inauguration of a new teleport hosting Eutelsat’s satellite gateway in Lamentin, Martinique. The site will strengthen satellite coverage for the OneWeb constellation in the Caribbean region.

The teleport, built and operated by Orange on behalf of Eutelsat, hosts 14 antennas.

“With this ground station now operational in Martinique, our OneWeb low Earth orbit (LEO) service is available across the Caribbean, providing new high-speed connectivity options for island communities and regional networks. It also closes the final coverage gap over the Atlantic, ensuring greater continuity and reliability along key transatlantic maritime routes. Together with Orange, we are strengthening the Caribbean’s connectivity infrastructure for the long term,” said Fabio Mando, chief operations officer, Eutelsat.

Martinique is an overseas department and region of France located in the eastern Caribbean Sea. The island is the landing point for four subsea cables (Arimao, ECFS, Kanawa, and Southern Caribbean Fiber), with one more (Celia) due to land there in 2027. As well being the sole investor on the Kanawa cable, Orange is part of the consortia for ECFS and the upcoming Celia cable, which will connect several Caribbean islands to the US.

Eutelsat said the Lamentin site was the company’s 40th ground station to go live.

“Our partnership with Eutelsat exemplifies Orange’s commitment to building resilient and sovereign connectivity by combining the complementarity of multi-orbit satellite networks with our advanced terrestrial and submarine infrastructures. This project in Martinique is part of a European strategy of trust and digital independence, where collaboration and innovation are essential to ensuring reliable, secure, and sustainable connectivity for our territories,” added Jean-Louis Le Roux, EVP Orange International Networks.

OneWeb has dozens of ground station sites live globally to serve its LEO fleet. At the same time, Eutelsat has a large portfolio of its own ground stations for its Geostationary fleet. Eutelsat is set to carve out its ground station infrastructure into a separate company after signing a $831m sale-leaseback deal with EQT late last year.

Orange has previously struck deals with Canadian satellite firm Telesat to host ground station infrastructure at the telco’s Bercenay-en-Othe Teleport in France.