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Eutelsat said it was in talks with European governments about providing additional satellite connectivity in Ukraine, as investors bet that the French satellite operator could replace Elon Musk’s Starlink in the country.

Eutelsat, the owner of OneWeb, a rival to Starlink, said on Tuesday that it was “actively collaborating with European institutions and business partners”, adding that it had equipment that could be “deployed swiftly in Ukraine to connect the most critical missions and infrastructures”.

Ukraine has relied heavily on Starlink for its military campaigns as it has played a critical role in improving its communications on the battlefield, but there are fears this could be under threat after the US suspended military aid to Kyiv on Monday.

[...]

Eutelsat said its talks with European governments were focused on using a combination of its satellite constellations — OneWeb at about 1,200km above the earth and the Geo satellites at 35,000km — to strengthen satellite connectivity in Ukraine and the Black Sea region.

Both are capable of providing connectivity for Ukrainian drones, which have inflicted serious damage on Russian forces. Some military experts believe any large concentration of Russian troops or tanks would be decimated by Ukrainian drone attacks.

[...] The EU on Tuesday proposed a package of €150bn in loans to capitals for defence procurement. Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said the move could facilitate “immediate military equipment for Ukraine”.

Eutelsat said that “the timing [of deploying additional user terminals for critical missions and infrastructure] depends on procurement decisions by European member states and the necessary infrastructure co-ordination”.

[...]

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Sadly Starlink benefit from Spacex, which is for now technologically ahead of other commercial launchers, and which is able to fill remaining space in rockets with Starlink spacecrafts, making launches cheap. Looks like nazis are still good in making rockets. The mf is able to put its constellation in orbit for free

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Still hoping ESA to gain bit more funding to also get into rocket business.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago

I would love to see European nations out-space the U.S.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 days ago (1 children)

holy crap there is a starlink alternative? Do they work in the US? I would love high speed internet at my house but Im in the sticks I get the most attenuated DSL signal allowed. Last I looked into starlink there was concerns about the long term viability of the technology. If I remember right, the network would get congested pretty easily. That plus Musk had me shying away, but if there is an alternative....

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 days ago

AFAIK it's still B2B / corporate customers only, hoping it'll come to the average customer as a starlink competitor in the consumer market at some point.

So sadly not an alternative to the consumer yet :(

There are many such smaller companies that do the same but they are not selling services to consumers :(

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Woohoo! Kessler Syndrome speedrun!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Very good point. We already have too much shit up there and I had hopes to have nations work together to come up with rules to clean it up/keep it cleaner (so many non-working objects up there).

Instead we are also getting weapons up there.

Internet and communication connectivity across the planet is also a good thing, though. Emergency service coordination, areas with poor infrastructure having connection to internet helps with education, no need to destroy environment to build all the infra to upkeep cable routes, etc.

Edit: removed accidental "Å".

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago

Now it’s getting interesting . And all the eu money. This is a good solution.