Europe is rushing to provide Ukraine with an alternative to billionaire Elon Musk's Starlink satellite network after the United States suspended military aid and intelligence sharing with Kyiv.
Financial Times reports this.
Four major satellite operators - Luxembourg's SES, Spain's Hisdesat, Viasat (owner of Britain's Inmarsat) and France's Eutelsat/OneWeb - confirmed to the FT that they are in talks with EU governments and institutions on how to provide a backup connection for Ukraine.
At the same time, the material states that replacing Starlink devices remains a difficult task. According to Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine Mykhailo Fedorov, more than 40,000 terminals are operating in the army, hospitals, enterprises and humanitarian organizations.
Hisdesat CEO Miguel Angel Garcia Primo said his company had been contacted by several European officials.
“We are part of this initiative,” he said, adding that Oval Office talks between the presidents of the United States and Ukraine last week had sparked “immediate discussions about whether the EU could offer alternatives” to Starlink.
At the same time, Garcia Primo noted that “it is very difficult, if not impossible, to deploy the same number of terminals that Starlink already has, because they have been accumulating for years.”
SES CEO Adel al-Saleh said the Luxembourg-based operator was already providing services to Ukraine. He also confirmed that the company was involved in talks to increase capacity in Ukraine. Al-Saleh said that while discussions about an alternative had been ongoing for several months, recent events had “intensified” those talks.
It is noted that in the short term, a network of European services operating in different orbits could be used as a backup option, including for secure government communications and internet connectivity in hospitals, cities or power plants.
The signal speed in Starlink devices is higher than in competing services that rely on fewer satellites moving in higher orbits. However, the difference can only be fractions of a second, so the delay could only be a problem in certain cases.
The FT notes that lawmakers in the European Parliament have increased pressure on the European Commission to speed up coordination of efforts on existing technologies and have put forward the "Govsatcom" initiative, which would combine existing government satellite capabilities. However, the initiative is not expected to become operational until 2026.
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