TAMPA, Fla. — One of Hungary’s largest communications providers is on a mission to transform the country into a major European space player.
4iG, a terrestrial telecoms and IT specialist that made nearly $1.7 billion last year, is looking to build out a vertically integrated space company following a series of investments inside and outside Hungary.
“We would like to develop, design, manufacture and test our own satellites,” said István Sárhegyi, acting CEO of 4iG’s recently created space and defense technologies division.
“We don’t want to own our own rockets and launch facilities, but we would like to operate the satellites with our ground stations [and] also have the downstream part, especially focusing on geographical data” from geostationary Earth orbit (GEO).
Nearly 200 of the more than 8,000 people 4iG employs across southeastern Europe are working to expand the company’s space segment.
Sárhegyi said the company has the financial resources to continue growing its team and capabilities to become a leading space company in Europe.
“We are not just visioning and dreaming,” he said.
Journey to space
Shortly after acquiring Hungarian telco and satellite TV broadcaster DIGI in 2021, 4iG announced plans to buy 51% of Israeli geostationary operator Spacecom to accelerate its transformation into a space company.
Spacecom operates one of its communications satellites from a geostationary orbital slot leased from Hungary that covers Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
This lease was due to expire in 2024 but is currently being renegotiated.
CarpathiaSat, a joint venture 4iG shares with local companies, ultimately plans to order Hungary’s first privately owned geostationary communications satellite after taking over the orbital slot.
However, Israeli government resistance and Spacecom’s financial issues have stalled 4iG’s geostationary ambitions.
4iG has only been able to amass a 20% stake in Spacecom amid reported concerns from Israel’s government about the operator’s satellites coming under the control of a company with ties to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
4iG hopes a $150 million loan it agreed to lend Spacecom to repay other debts, under a financial settlement recently approved by an Israeli court, will help grease the wheels.
“We will see after the debt settlement process what the next steps are in the future,” he said.
“But it is a strict and very long process, especially with Israeli law and other legislation.”
LEO ambition
While 4iG ultimately plans to become a vertically integrated space company, Sárhegyi said CarpathiaSat will seek to outsource manufacturing for Hungary’s first geostationary satellite internationally.
To develop non-geostationary satellites, 4iG earlier this year bought a 45% stake in REMRED Space Technologies, a spin-off of the Hungarian Centre for Energy Research.
“This is the largest investment in Hungary’s history regarding the space sector,” said Sárhegyi, REMRED’s cofounder who owns the other 55%.
REMRED is currently developing subsystems for major NASA and European Space Agency-led space programs, including the Artemis lunar landing mission.
Alongside the acquisition, Sárhegyi said Space and Defence Technologies is investing around $25 million to build a 4,000 square-meter manufacturing, assembly, integration and testing facility. The facility would be capable of producing non-geostationary (NGSO) satellites up to 400 kilograms after construction is due to end in two years.
“First, we would like to develop our own small satellite bus for Earth observation purposes,” Sárhegyi said, and then branch out into other payloads such as communications.
Space ecosystem
REMRED is one of three core pillars under 4iG’s space strategy.
4iG Space and Defence Technologies also aims to expand its ground segment infrastructure, which the company currently uses to distribute satellite TV, to control and operate its own satellites in GEO or NGSO via its Hungaro Digitel subsidiary.
The third pillar would see the company analyze the Earth observation data it downloads from proprietary satellites to sell to customers.
“We have the data centers for it,” Sárhegyi added, “so we have several synergies with our telecommunication leg [and] we don’t have to invest a lot.”
In the meantime, 4iG is on the lookout for more acquisitions that could help accelerate its space presence.
In July, the company announced plans to buy the Hungarian customer base of Canal+, a French media and telecommunications conglomerate, to add 155,000 satellite TV subscribers to its business.
