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China is making a big order in its efforts to take over Elon Musk’s SpaceX satellite service.
SpaceX’s Starlink already has nearly 7,000 operational satellites in orbit and serves about 5 million customers in more than 100 countries, according to SpaceX. The service is intended to offer high-speed internet to customers in remote and underserved areas.
SpaceX hopes to expand its megaconstellation to 42,000 satellites. China is aiming for a similar scale and hopes to have about 38,000 satellites in three of its low-orbit Internet projects, known as Qianfan, Guo Wang and Honghu-3.
Apart from Starlink, based in Europe Eutelsat OneWeb it has also launched more than 630 Internet satellites in low orbit, or LEO. Amazon also has plans for a large LEO constellation, currently called Project Kuiper, consisting of more than 3,000 satellites, although the company has launched only two prototype satellites so far.
With so much competition, why does China even bother pouring money and effort into such megaconstellations?
“Starlink has really demonstrated that it is capable of bringing Internet access to individuals and citizens in remote corners and providing an ability for citizens to access the Internet and any websites, any apps they want,” he said. said Steve Feldstein, a senior doctor. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
“For China, a big push has been to censor what citizens can access,” Feldstein said. “And so for them, they say, ‘Well, this presents a real threat.’ If Starlink can provide uncensored content to both our citizens and individuals from countries that are allied with us, that’s something that could really get past our censorship regime. And so we need to come up with an alternative.
Blaine Curcio, founder of Orbital Gateway Consulting, agrees. “In some countries, China might see this almost as a differentiator. It’s like, ‘Well, maybe we’re not that quick to market, but hey, we’ll censor the hell out of your Internet if you want us to.’ , and we will do it with a smile on our face.
Experts say that while Chinese constellations will not be the Internet provider of choice for places like the United States, Western Europe, Canada and other US allies, many other regions could be open to a Chinese service.
“There are a couple of geographic areas in particular that could be attractive to a competitor like Starlink, especially one made by China, including China itself,” said Juliana Suess, associate at the German Business Institute. International and Security. “Russia, for example, but also Afghanistan and Syria are not yet covered by Starlink. And there are also large parts of Africa that are not covered.”
“We have seen that 70% of the 4G infrastructures on the African continent are already built by Huawei,” added Suess. “And so having a spatial perspective to it could be sort of building more inroads there.”
In addition to being a tool for geopolitical influence, having a proprietary satellite Internet constellation is increasingly becoming a national security necessity, especially when ground-based Internet infrastructure is crippled during war.
“When it comes to the difference Starlink technology has made on the battlefield in Ukraine, one of the big leaps we’ve seen has been the emergence of drone warfare and the connected battlefield,” Feldstein said. “Having satellite-based weaponry is something that is seen as a crucial military advantage. And so I think China sees all of that and says that investing in it is absolutely critical to our national security goals.”
Look at the video to learn more about why China is building these megaconstellations and the challenges the country will face.
