The French satellite company Eutelsat is taking on Elon Musk’s Starlink, Wired reports.
Eutelsat’s main focus was satellite television but the industry was slowly dwindling in the face of internet-based entertainment. Under a new CEO, the company has been acquiring the flailing British company OneWeb and its fleet of internet satellites.
Faced with Elon Musk’s Space X and Starlink, Eutelsat has been forced to innovate. The growing demands for internet connectivity has opened up a new industry capable of revolutionizing space satellites. The war in Ukraine has shown the importance of networking all the while earth-based infrastructure has suffered destruction.
Eutelsat has been forced to deal with Ukraine accusing it of hosting Russian propaganda, while Iran has been attacking it for broadcasting outside news threatening its grip on power. Despite the rapid expansion of wireless 5G and underground fiber-optic, many parts of the world do not have any or decent network connections which makes satellite internet viable.
France and Britain remain the two dominant space powers in Europe. France’s launch site in Guiana is critical to the European Space Program but the end of the Ariane 5 program is putting the continent in jeopardy.
