China has a tall order in its efforts to catch up with Elon Musk's SpaceX satellite service.
SpaceX already has nearly 7,000 operational Starlink satellites in orbit and serves about 5 million customers in more than 100 countries, according to SpaceX. The service is expected to offer high speed internet to customers in remote and underserved areas.
SpaceX hopes to expand its megaconstellation to up to 42,000 satellites. China is aiming for a similar scale and hopes to have around 38,000 satellites across three of its low earth orbit internet projects, called Qianfan, Guo Wang and Honghu-3.
Apart from Starlink, based in Europe Eutelsat OneWeb has also launched more than 630 low earth orbit, or LEO, Internet satellites. Amazon it also has plans for a large LEO constellation, currently known as Project Kuiper, consisting of over 3,000 satellites, although the company has only launched two. prototype satellites So far.
With so much competition, why would China even bother pouring money and effort into such megaconstellations?
“Starlink has really proven its ability to provide internet access to individuals and citizens in remote corners and enable citizens to access the internet and whatever websites , whatever applications they would like,” said Steve Feldstein, a senior fellow at the Center. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
“For China, there's been a huge effort to censor what citizens get,” Feldstein said. “And so for them, they're saying, 'Well, this is a real threat. If Starlink can to give an envelope to our citizens or to individuals in countries that are associated with us, that is something that could go through our censorship system. So we have to find an alternative.'
Blaine Curcio, founder of Orbital Gateway Consulting, agrees. “In some countries, China could see this as almost a difference. It's like: 'Well, maybe we're not that quick to market, but hey, we'll censor your internet if you want us to. , and we'll do it with a smile on our faces.”
Experts say that although Chinese constellations will not be the choice of Internet provider for places such as the US, Western Europe, Canada and other US allies, plenty of other regions could be open to Chinese service.
“There are a couple of areas in particular that could be attractive to a competitor like Starlink, especially one made by China, including China itself,” said Juliana Suess, a fellow at the Institute of International Affairs and Germany's 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 still not covered.”
“We've seen that 70% of the 4G infrastructure on the African continent is already built by Huawei,” Suess said. there.”
In addition to being a tool for geopolitical influence, the satellite internet constellation is increasingly essential for national security, especially when the internet infrastructure is down during war.
“When it comes to the difference Starlink technology has made in the Ukrainian battlefield, one of the big leaps we've seen is drone warfare and the connected battlefield,” Feldstein said. Satellite based weapons are something that is seen as a vital military advantage. And so I think China sees that and says investing in this is absolutely necessary for our national security goals.”
Look at the video to find out more why China is building these megaconstellations and the challenges they will face.
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