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France views Eutelsat as a strategic asset in the EU’s pursuit of technological sovereignty.
Benoit Tessier | AFP via Getty Images
For years, France Eutelsat trying to build a European alternative to Elon Musk Satellink Satellite Satellite Broadband Service.
The company agreed with the British satellite venture of the OneWeb in 2023, consolidating the satellite communication industry in the region in an attempt to catch up with Starlink, which is owned by SpaceX.
Last week, the French staff led an investment of 1.35 billion euros ($ 1.58 billion) in Eutelsat, making it the company’s largest shareholder with approximately 30% share.
Europe is largely behind the United States in the global space race. Starlink’s constellation of over 7,000 dwarf Eutelsat’s satellite. Meanwhile, the launch of Europe is more restricted by the United States that the region still relies largely on America for certain startup services, which is a market dominated by SpaceX.
Eutelsat currently has a market capitalization of 1.6 billion euros, much smaller than the estimates of the value of the Starlink SpaceX owner, which was attached to $ 350 billion In the secondary sale of shares last year. In 2020, Said analysts at Morgan Stanley that they see that Starlink is growing to $ 80.9 billion in its “basic rating of the case” for the company.
Luke Kehoe, Industry Analyst at Network Monitoring Firm Oookla, Said France’s Investment in Eutelsat Shows the Country “Is Now Treating Eutelsat Like A Commercial Telco and Critical-Infrastructure Provider “and a” Strategic asset “in the European Union’s Push for SovereigntyS
However, the construction of a European Starlink competitor will not be a feat.
Scale
Communication industry experts tell CNBC that while Eutelsat can strengthen Europe’s efforts to create sovereign satellite internet provider, the challenge of a US Starlink rival will require a significant increase in investment in low -earth satellites (LEO).
Eutelsat OneWeb’s ARM operates a total of 650 LEO satellites, which is less than a tenth of the Starlink 7 600 global satellite constellation.
“In order to offer more capacity and coverage, (eutelsat) has to increase the number of satellites in space, a task that is difficult due to the fact that many of the OneWeb satellites are approaching the end of their lives and will first be replaced before growing the size of Constellation,” says J. Gardener, Insight, in front of CNBC.
Kehoe on Oookla echoed this opinion. “Eutelsat’s chances of stealink parity in the broadband segment of the mass market within the next five years remain limited, given the unparalleled global scale of SPACEX in the LEO infrastructure,” he said.
“Even with the most native capital injection of the French state, Eutelsat continues to lag behind Starlink in several key areas, including capital, bandwidth, access to shot, spectrum and consumer terminals.”
Nevertheless, he believes that the company is “well -positioned to succeed in European sovereign, security -sensitive and corporate segments that give priority to the control of jurisdiction and sovereignty on the raw capacity of the constellation.” The segment company refers to the client market of the corporate space.
Can Eutelsat replace Starlink in Europe?
This is certainly hope. France Emmanuel Macron called on Europe to increase its investment in space, saying that last week, “space became some way to be a gauge of international power.”
When Eutelsat announced its investment from France last week, the company emphasized its role as “the only European operator with a fully operating network Leo”, as well as the “strategic role of the constellation Leo in the France model for sovereign defense and space communication”.
Earlier this year, Eutelsat was on the move to replace Starlink in Ukraine. For years, Starlink has been offering the military of Ukraine its satellite internet services to support military efforts against the background of Russia’s continued invasion.
Relations between the US and Ukraine have been destroyed after the president’s election Donald Trump And there were reports that US negotiators had raised the opportunity to reduce Ukraine’s access to Starlink.
Germany created the 1000 Eutelsat terminal in Ukraine in April to provide an alternative-and-not replacement-for 50,000 Starlink terminals in the country of the war torn.
Since then, tensions in the United States-Ukraine have been cooling somewhat, and Starlink remains the main satellite supplier of broadband access to Ukrainian military.
Former Eutelsat CEO Eva Berneke has admitted that the company cannot yet coincide with Starlink’s scale.
“If we had to absorb all Ukraine’s connectivity capacity and all citizens – we wouldn’t be able to do it. Let’s be very honest,” she said in an April interview with PoliticoS
Bernek was replaced as CEO in May by Jean-Franco-Falaher, former CEO of the French Telecommunication Giant OrangeS
Apples and oranges
Meanwhile, although Eutelsat is increasing investment in Leo Satellite with its Oneweb unit, experts say its technical architectures and orbital designs are ultimately different from those of Starlink.
“Currently, the constellation OneWeb is using an architecture of a bent pipe that is not as capable as Starlink satellites; therefore OneWeb will also have to invest in second -generation satellites,” he added.
The cases of using the French company also differ in those of Starlink. Eutelsat manages a constellation of geostationary orbit (GEO) as well as Leo satellites. Geo satellites tour the orbit of Earth at a much larger altitude than their Leo equivalents and can usually cover more land with less satellites.
“The satellites at a larger altitude of Eutelsat are used for cases of specialized uses, such as polar coverage for companies and research facilities in remote regions such as Greenland and Alaska,” said Joe Vakaro, Vice President and General Manager at Cisco’s A thousand of network intelligence.
Looking forward, Eutelsat said it plans to “upgrade its work improvements” with a “differentiated market model” and “highly European fastening”. He also noted that the United Kingdom government could also increase its investments in Eutelsat “on time.”
