Eutelsat admits it cannot yet replace Starlink for Ukraine

Starlink's key competitor, Eutelsat, has acknowledged that it is currently unable to challenge Starlink's dominance in wartime communication support for Ukraine. Source: Politico, as reported by European Pravda Details: Ukraine must continue to live with the risk that Elon Musk could disable the satellite connection used to support hospitals, military bases and troops, as there are no short-term alternatives that match Starlink's capabilities.

The European Union is now looking for backup solutions, including through the Franco-British operator Eutelsat.

Working with Starlink "is a dependence that can be decided in the White House or [Trump's private residence] Mar-a-Lago," said Eutelsat CEO Eva Berneke. "It's good to have multiple options," she added. However, Berneke admitted that current alternatives to Starlink, including Eutelsat, are not yet ready to fully replace it.

"If we were to take over the entire connectivity capacity for Ukraine and all the citizens, we wouldn't be able to do that. Let's just be very honest," Berneke said, adding that "we can provide capacity for some of the critical use cases of government".

Few companies have invested in low-orbit satellites, which are vital for real-time operations like drone warfare due to their lower latency and faster connections. Yet these systems remain costly and difficult to scale. Starlink, owned by Elon Musk's SpaceX, dominates the market, with Eutelsat being the strongest competitor, while Amazon's Project Kuiper still lags behind.

With over 7,000 satellites and compact, high-performance user kits, Starlink's network dwarfs Eutelsat's 600 satellites and bulkier terminals. Depending on use-case scenarios, Starlink offers between 23 to 490 times more bandwidth over Ukraine than Eutelsat. Over 42,000 Starlink kits were reportedly sold in Ukraine last year.

Berneke suggested that it was not necessary to reach that number but added that it would be reasonable to have at least a couple of thousand as backup in critical locations. Eutelsat is currently in talks with the EU to secure funding for shipping more kits to local users and possibly for launching new satellites to expand its bandwidth capacity in the coming years. "Discussions are indeed ongoing at [the] EU level, with our member states and with the industry," said European Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier.

Background:

• Earlier reports stated that Germany has been funding Ukraine's access to Eutelsat's satellite internet network.
• In March, the Polish government said it had spent nearly US£83 million on Starlink for Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.
• Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski previously warned Elon Musk against using access to Starlink as leverage over Ukraine, reminding him that Poland is paying for the service.
• Musk later stated that he would never disconnect Starlink from the Ukrainian military, even if he does not agree with the country's policies.

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