Engineers at IABG Ottobrunn test the antenna belonging to EDRS-C's hosted payload, Avanti's HYLAS 3. The telecom payload's antenna will deploy once the satellite reaches its final position in geostationary orbit, providing a broadband service to Africa.

EDRS-C is the second node to the European Data Relay System, a unique public–private partnership between ESA and Airbus. The system – dubbed the SpaceDataHighway by industry – provides data relay between low orbiting satellites and the EDRS nodes over optical links, with the information sent down to Europe in near-real time.