Europe’s Starlink competitor is go

[bnew]

Europe’s Starlink competitor is go

“Strategic autonomy”

www.theverge.com

Europe’s Starlink competitor is go​

290 IRIS² satellites by 2030 to provide secure connectivity to governmental users as well as private companies and European citizens.​

By Thomas Ricker, a deputy editor and Verge co-founder with a passion for human-centric cities, e-bikes, and life as a digital nomad. He’s been a tech journalist for almost 20 years.

Updated Dec 17, 2024, 4:20 AM EST

A Starlink terminal in the wild. Photo by Thomas Ricker / The Verge

The EU has signed a deal for its IRIS² constellation of 290 communication satellites that will operate in both medium and low Earth orbit. The Starlink rival will provide secure connectivity to governmental users as well as private companies and European citizens, and bring high-speed internet to dead-zones. The public-private deal valued at €10.6 billion (about $11 billion), according to The Financial Times, is expected to come online by 2030.

According to the European Space Agency (ESA), the interlinked satellites placed into different orbits will “enable the constellation to communicate securely and quickly and remain constantly connected without needing thousands of satellites.” SpaceX, by comparison, has already launched some 7,000 low Earth satellites since 2018 to ensure Starlink’s global coverage and low latencies. The IRIS² constellation will consist of 264 spacecraft in low Earth orbit and 18 in medium Earth orbit.

SpaceRISE — a consortium led by European satellite network operators SES, Eutelsat, and Hispasat, and supported by European satcom subcontractors like Airbus and Deutsche Telekom — has been given a 12-year concession contract to develop, deploy, and operate the IRIS² constellation. IRIS² is an acronym for Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite.
“This cutting-edge constellation will protect our critical infrastructures, connect our most remote areas and increase Europe’s strategic autonomy. By partnering with the SpaceRISE consortium, we are demonstrating the power of public-private collaboration to drive innovation and deliver tangible benefits to all Europeans,” said Henna Virkkunen, Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy.

In September, FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel said she wanted to see more competition to Elon Musk’s Starlink. “Our economy doesn’t benefit from monopolies... every communications market that has competition is strong, we see lower prices and more innovation, and honestly, space should be no exception.”

Update, December 17th: Added details on the numbers of satellites in the constellation.

 

[88m3]

stop polluting space

 

[PoorAndDangerous]

stop polluting space

fukk it. I want GPS redundancy / backup and internet access everywhere. Not like space provides life in the way the earth does.

 

[hashmander]

exactly, fukk space. i hope this will be available to caribbean residents like starlink is. elon alternatives are vital.

 

[Loose]

Need united states alternatives too

 

[BigMoneyGrip]

Good get Elon bytch ass the fukk up out of here

 

[Secure Da Bag]

exactly, fukk space. i hope this will be available to caribbean residents like starlink is. elon alternatives are vital.

Any black country excited for satellite internet (excluding islands) are dumb as rocks.

 

[Geek Nasty]

Things are getting cluttered up there. There's a theory that we can have so much crap in space that we end up having a self-sustaining chain of collisions that makes it impossible to put space ships safely in orbit

 

[Anerdyblackguy]

Don’t blame them. Getting away from Elon shadow is a must.

 

[Taharqa]

stop polluting space

Soon enough it wont be just calculating rotation to get to a moon/planet, it'll be having to wait for all the space junk to clear.

Would be fukked if they had to add something in front of the rocket to essentially "ram" the junk out the way