For the average urban Internet user, the merger between Eutelsat and OneWeb is only an obscure stock market operation, not really concerning. However, the European giant thus created will be able to measure up to a major competitor: the American SpaceX and its Starlink project. The object of their struggle? The conquest of space, or at least that of low orbit for satellites, and with them the mastery of high-speed space Internet.
But beware of this misleading name. The antennas of the satellites will not be directed towards the ISS or a lunar station to allow Thomas Pesquet to read 20 minutes from his suit, but towards Earth. Towards the famous “white zones” to be precise. High seas, mountain tops or the heart of the desert, these are the targets of the space internet, which should make it possible to serve regions without fiber optics or terrestrial infrastructure to relay the signal.
Pushing the boundaries of network coverage
Today, less than 50 million people are connected by satellite. For others, ADSL, fiber optic and 4G/5G networks still go through a long network of more than a million kilometers of cables, buried underground or unrolled at the bottom of the oceans. “5G connectivity via satellites in low Earth orbit” must thus allow “coverage in extreme geographical areas or remote places”, for example underlined the groups Thales, Qualcomm and Ericsson in a joint press release in early July.
Located only a few hundred kilometers above sea level, Starlink’s satellites promise a speed equivalent to fiber and a much shorter request execution time than that offered by the traditional satellite Internet network, including geostationary vehicles. sail at an altitude of more than 35,000 km. More than 2,000 satellites have already been launched by SpaceX, out of the 4,400 that the Starlink “constellation” should have.
A flexible but polluting network
“The satellite network could also serve as a backup to terrestrial networks in the event of major outages or disasters,” they added. The most striking example: the request of the Ukrainian Minister of Digital to Elon Musk to bring an Internet connection to the areas hit by the assaults of the Russian army since the invasion launched at the end of February. SpaceX had also donated 50 Starlink satellite terminals to the Tonga Islands to help them reconnect to the world after a volcano erupted in mid-January.
More flexible, the network of these low-altitude satellites is on the other hand more sensitive to meteorological conditions. Snow or storms will thus have an impact on the flow, but it is above all solar flares that represent a risk. In February, about 40 Starlink satellites had been deactivated during a magnetic storm.
At a time of sobriety and scarcity of resources, the pollution potential represented by these satellites remains a big black spot. “They will have to be constantly replaced”, with the risk of also “multiplying” space debris in low orbit, underlines an expert in the sector, which could prove dangerous in the long term. Especially since being close to the Earth makes it necessary to send a large number of these satellites in a short time for the system to be operational. China alone plans to send 13,000 Guowang satellites, the EU 250 and Jeff Bezos 3,200 to form its Kuiper constellation.