Ukraine is stuck with Musk’s Starlink for the moment – Politico

Working with Starlink “is an addiction that can be decided at the White House or (Trump Private Residence) Mar-A-Lago,” Director General of Eutelsat, Evelsat, Eva Berneke told Politico. “It’s good to have several options.”

But today’s Starlink alternatives are not ready to face Musk – including Eutelsat, by Berneke’s own admission.

“If we had to resume all the connectivity capacity of Ukraine and all citizens, we would not be able to do so. Let’s be very honest,” said Berneke. “But I think we can offer a capacity to some of the government’s critical use cases.”

Few companies have invested in satellites in low orbit. These systems offer faster connections and lower – crucial latency for real -time operations such as drone war – but they remain expensive and heavy to operate. Starlink, which belongs to Musk’s SpaceX, leads the market, with Eutelsat as a strong challenger and others, like the Amazon Kuiper project, still late.

“This type of solution that Starlink offers is unique,” said Christopher Baugh, an expert in the Space Industry of the Consulting Society Mason. Starlink has “technically broken barriers” and “filled the void, because nothing else was available,” he said.

With advanced and compact kits and a vast network of flexible beams, the 7,000 Starlink satellites swim the fleet of 600 people from Eutelsat and relatively more clumsy terminals. The Musk network can offer Eutelsat’s capacity between Ukraine between 23 and 490 times, depending on the scenarios of use.