France saw YouTels as a strategic property in the European Union push for technical sovereignty.
Benoite Tesier | AFP through Getty Image
For years, from France Utalsat Trying to make a European option for Alone muscus Starlink Satellite Broadband Service.
The company merged with the British satellite venture OneWeb in 2023, which consolidated the satellite communication industry of the region in an attempt to capture the Starlink, owned by SpaceX.
Last week, the French state led the 1.35 billion-euro ($ 1.58 billion) investment in YouTelst, making it the company’s largest shareholder with about 30% stake.
Europe is largely behind America in the global space race. Starlink has a constellation of over 7,000 satellites. Meanwhile, Europe’s launch capabilities are more limited than in the US, the region still depends a lot on the US for some launch services, which is a market dominated by SpaceX.
The Eultsat currently has a market capitalization of 1.6 billion euros, which was much less than estimates for the price of Starlink owner SpaceX, which was Conducted at $ 350 billion Last year in a secondary share sales. In 2020, Morgan Stanley analysts said They see that the Starlink firm is growing up to $ 80.9 billion in its “base case valuation”.
Luke Keho, industry analyst at network monitoring firm Ocla, said France’s investment in YouTelsat shows that the country is “now less like a commercial telco and behaving less like a double-use important-infrastructure provider” and a “strategic property” in the European Union push Technical sovereignty,
However, the creation of a European contestant for Starlink would not mean any meaning.
Scale case
Experts at the communication industry tell CNBC that, while Eultsat can promote Europe’s efforts to create a sovereign satellite internet provider, to challenge its American rival star clinks, there will be a need for a significant increase in investment in low Earth’s class (Leo) satellites.
The Onewab Arm of YouTelst operates a total of 650 Leo satellites, lower than the tenth of Starlink’s 7,600-firm-fabric global satellite constellation.
“To offer more capacity and coverage, [Eutelsat] There is a need to increase the number of satellites in the space, a task made more difficult due to the fact that many satellites of the onewab are near the end of their lifetime and the research firm CCS Insight’s research analyst who told the CNBC via email, “which gardener,” who gardener, who spoke through the email.
Keho of Okla resonated this scene. He said, “The possibilities of euttlelst to achieve equality with starlinks in mass-market satellite broadband segment within the next five years are limited, looking at SpaceX’s unmatched global level in Leo infrastructure,” he said.
“Even with the latest injection of capital from the French state, utalsat lags behind Starlink in many major areas, with capital, manufacturing throwput, launch access, spectrum and user terminals in many major areas including terminals.”
Nevertheless, they feel that the company is well deployed well to be successful in European-Service, Security-sensitive and enterprise segments that prefer judicial control and sovereignty on raw constellation capacity. ” The enterprise segment refers to the market for corporate space clients.
Can Eutetersat replace Starlink in Europe?
This is definitely hope. Emmanuel Macron of France urged Europe to increase its investment in space last week, stating that “space has become a gauge of international power in some way.”
When YouTelsat announced its investment from France last week, the firm emphasized its role as the “strategic role of Leo Nakshatra for sovereign defense and space communication in the model of France” with “the only European operator with a completely operating” with Leo Network “with the” fully operating Leo Network “.
Earlier this year, YouTelstut was rumored to be running in Ukraine to replace Starlinks. Over the years, Starlink has offered its satellite internet services to Ukraine’s army to assist in an attempt to an attempt in the attempt of war amidst Russia’s ongoing invasion.
The relationship between America and Ukraine became sour after the President’s election Donald Trump And reports came out that American negotiators had increased the possibility of cutting access to Ukraine’s starlink.
Germany established 1,000 YouTelst Terminals in Ukraine in April, with the aim of providing an option-instead of a replacement for 50,000 terminals of Starlinks in a war-torn country.
Since then, the US-Ukraine stress has become somewhat cooled, and the Starlink has remained the primary satellite broadband provider for the Ukrainian army.
Eva Burneke, a former CEO of YouTelsat, himself has admitted that the company may not yet match the scale of the Starlink.
“If we handle the entire connectivity capacity for Ukraine and all citizens – we will not be able to do this. Let’s just be very honest,” Said in April 1 interview with Politico,
Burnke was converted into a CEO in May by Jean-Francois-Falakar in May, who was a former Executive Officer of French telecommunications orange,
Apples and oranges
Meanwhile, even though YouTelsat is increasing investment in Leo Satellite with its OneWeb unit, experts say its technical architecture and orbital design are eventually different from Starlink.
He said, “OneWeb Nakshatra currently uses a bent-pipe architecture, which is not as capable of starlink satellites; therefore, OneWeb will also need to invest in another generation satellites,” he said.
Cases of use of French firm are also different for starlinks. Eutetersat operates a planetarium of leo satellites along with Eutetersat Geostationary Orbit (Geo). Jio satellites orbit Earth at a much higher height than their Leo counterparts and usually can cover more land with less satellites.
High altitude satellites of utalyst are taken advantage of for cases of special use such as polar coverage and research features for companies in remote areas such as Greenland and Alaska, “said Vacairo, Vice President and General Manager. Cisco Thousands of Network Intelligence Unit.
Further, YouTelus stated that it is a plan to “manufacture its operation reforms”, with “differentiated Go-to-Market Models” and “strong European anchoring”. It was also noted that the UK government can also increase its investment in YouTelus “in the appointed time.”
