Starlink Mask will have something to replace it. And not only in Ukraine
25 February 09:42
Elon Musk’s Starlink communications network is facing increasingly serious challenges to its dominance in the high-speed satellite Internet space, including from Chinese rival SpaceSail, which is backed by the state, and another service, Kuiper, which is funded by Jeff Bezos’ Amazon. This was reported by Reuters, according to "Komersant Ukrainian".
In November, Shanghai-based SpaceSail signed an agreement to enter the Brazilian market and announced that it was in talks with more than 30 countries. Musk’s primacy in space is seen as a threat to Beijing, which is simultaneously investing heavily in Musk’s competitors and funding military research into instruments that track constellations of satellites.
According to astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell’s data analyzed by the technical consulting company Analysys Mason, China launched a record 263 satellites last year.
Few of Musk’s international competitors have the same ambitions as SpaceSail, which is controlled by the Shanghai municipal government. The company has announced plans to deploy 648 satellites this year and another 15,000 by 2030. Starlink, on the other hand, currently has about 7,000 satellites, according to McDowell, and has set a goal of bringing the number of satellites to 42,000 by the end of the decade.
The rapid expansion of Starlink and its use in the war in Ukraine has attracted the attention of military researchers, such as those at China’s National University of Defense Technology, prompting significant government funding for competing satellite networks.
For example, Hongqing Technology, which was founded in 2017 and is building a group of 10,000 satellites, raised 340 million yuan this month from mostly state investors.
Last year, SpaceSail secured 6.7 billion yuan ($930 million) in a funding round led by a state investment fund focused on modernizing China’s manufacturing capacity. This underscores China’s desire to close the technology gap.
“The space world moves fast and is full of experimentation,” said Antoine Grenier, global head of space at consulting firm Analysys Mason. “The pioneers are enjoying this relative freedom and are shaping it to their advantage to claim key positions before the rules get stricter – like in the Wild West.”
Ukraine is also working on an alternative to Starlink on the battlefield
Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov at the forum “Ukraine. The Year 2025” forum, answering the question of what to do if the Starlink system is turned off for Ukraine, said that there is an alternative to Starlink, and the relevant departments will soon tell about it.
“As for Starlink… We are already working on it, there are alternatives. We do not disclose, soon together with the Ministry of Digital Transformation, the Ministry of Industry and Trade and our other colleagues from the Ministry of Defense and the Armed Forces we will announce how we will have these solutions. But there is already a solution, there is an alternative,” the minister assured.
Earlier, Reuters reported, citing its own sources, that American negotiators, who are pressuring Kyiv to gain access to Ukraine’s critical mineral resources, raised the possibility of cutting off Ukraine’s access to Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite Internet system. A little later, Musk himself denied such media statements about the possible disconnection of Starlink in Ukraine. Before that, Polish Minister of Digitalization Krzysztof Gawkowski reassured everyone, saying that it was difficult for him to imagine a situation where the satellite Internet service would be terminated. He explained that Starlink terminals for Ukraine were purchased by Poland, which regularly pays a subscription fee for them, so disconnecting them would be a violation of the business contract and is unlikely.
