Can Eutelsat become Europe’s alternative to Starlink?
France sees Eutelsat as a strategic being in the EU’s technological sovereignty.
Benoit Tessier | AFP through Getty Images
France for years Eutelsat Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite is trying to establish a European alternative to wide band service.
In 2023, the company merged with the British satellite initiative Oneweb and combined the region’s satellite communication industry to keep up with Starlink owned by SpaceX.
Last week, the French state invested Eutelsat Eutelsat 1.35 billion-EURO ($ 1,58 billion), which became the largest shareholder of the company with a shares of approximately 30%.
In the European global space race, it is largely behind the USA. Starlink’s more than 7,000 satellite constellations Eutelsat’s dwarfs. Meanwhile, Europe’s launch capabilities are more limited than the US. The region is still relying on America for certain launch services, a market dominated by SpaceX.
Eutelsat has a market value of 1.6 billion euros, which is much lower than the estimates for the value of Starlink owner SpaceX and fixed to $ 350 billion in a secondary share sale last year. Analysts at Morgan Stanley in 2020 said that Starlink had seen that they increased to $ 80.9 billion in “basic case values” for the company.
Network monitoring company Ookla’s industry analyst Luke Kehoe shows that France’s investment in Eutelsat is a “strategic asset in the country’s” Eutelsat’s “Eutelsat now a commercial telepho and more as a double -use critical shortfighter provider” and the European Union’s driving pressure for technological supervisory.
However, it will not be an average success to build a European contestant in Starlink.
A scale issue
Communication industry experts say CNBC, Eutelsat’s efforts to create a satellite internet provider in Europe, and will require a significant increase in investments in the US rival Starlink (LEO), which challenges Starlink, US rival Starlink.
Eutelsat’s OneWeb branch runs 650 Leo satellite, which is less than one -tenth of Starlink’s global satellite constellation.
“To contain more capacity and scope, [Eutelsat] It has to increase the number of satellites in space, so that most of the satellites of OneWeb approached the end of their life and be changed before they expanded the size of the constellation.
Ookla’s Kehoe reiterated this view. “Eutelsat’s chances of providing parity with Starlink in the mass market satellite in the next five years in the next five years, considering the unique global scale in SpaceX’s Leo infrastructure, is limited.” He said.
“Even if it is the latest capital injection from the French state, Eutelsat, capital, production yield, launch access, spectrum and user terminals continue to be delayed behind Starlink in various key areas.”
However, the company, which gives priority to judicial control and sovereignty according to the raw constestation capacity, thinks that it is a good positioning to be successful in security and is a good position to be successful in its business segments. The corporate segment means market for corporate space customers.
Can Eutelsat replace Starlink in Europe?
This is definitely hope. Emmanuel Macron from France urged Europe to increase its investment in space last week, saying that space has become an international indicator of international power “.
When Eutelsat announced his investment from France last week, the firm emphasized as the “only European operator with a completely operational Leo network” and “the strategic role of Leo constellation in France’s model for sovereign defense and space communication”.
Earlier this year, Eutelsat was told that he went on a run to replace Starlink in Ukraine. Starlink has offered satellite internet services to Ukraine’s army for years to help the war efforts between Russia’s ongoing invasion.
Relations between the US and Ukraine stemmed after the election of the President Donald Trump and reports have shown that US negotiators have increased the likelihood of Ukraine’s access to Starlink.
Germany established 1,000 Eutelsat terminal in Ukraine to provide an alternative-place for the 50,000 terminals in the country where Starlink’s war diaped.
Since then, US-Ukraine tensions have cooled down, and Starlink has been the primary satellite broad band provider of the Ukrainian army.
Eutelsat’s former CEO Eva Berneke admitted that the company could not yet match the scale of Starlink.
“If we were to take over all the connection capacity for Ukraine and all citizens – we could not do this. Let’s be very honest,” In an interview with POLITCO in April.
Berneke changed to CEO by Jean-Francois-Fallacher, former ruler of the French Telekom giant in May Orange.
Apple and orange
In the meantime, although the Eutelsat Oneweb unit increases the investments in Leo Satellite, experts say that technical architecture and orbit designs are ultimately different from Starlink.
“Oneweb constellation is currently using a twisted pipe architecture that is not as talented as Starlink satellites, so oneweb will have to invest in the second generation of satellites.”
The use of the French company also varies for Starlink’s. Eutelsat operates a constellation of Geostationary orbit (Geo) and Leo satellites. Geo satellites leave the world in a much higher altitude than Leo equivalent and can typically cover more land with less satellite.
“Eutelsat’s higher altitude satellites are used for specific use situations such as polar coverage for companies such as Greenland and Alaska, and research facilities.” He said. Cisco’s Bineyes Network Intelligence Unit.
When we look forward, Eutelsat said he plans to develop operation improvements ile with “Differentiated Sunday Model” and “Strong European Ironing”. In addition, the British government’s investments in Eutelsat “timely” can increase, he said.
