EU Wants LEO Internet Constellation
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
Thread Starter
EU Wants LEO Internet Constellation
Not sure the nations will put up the tens of billions it would cost - and doubtless it would be tied into throwing more money at ESA plans for a new launcher to try and compete against SpaceX….
https://www.politico.eu/article/bret...fi-dead-zones/
EU aims to end Africa’s Wi-Fi dead zones with satellite scheme
A new multibillion-euro EU communication satellite network can cut out internet blackspots across Europe and also in Africa, Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton said Tuesday.
Speaking at an event to launch the EU's space program running to 2027, Breton said a third major EU satellite constellation was needed to follow up on the Galileo geo-location network and the Copernicus earth observation program.
"[The new satellites will] put an end to dead zones, giving access to high speed broadband to everyone in Europe, but also potentially in Africa," he said of the initiative. "We will move fast on this project."
EU countries have not yet agreed to finance such a plan so Breton is lobbying capitals to stump up funding. The Paris-based European Space Agency could also help cover the cost, he has previously said.
Breton commissioned a feasibility study to assess options for a satellite project to rival SpaceX's Starlink, the U.K.'s OneWeb and other similar initiatives that will provide space-based commercial internet service.
But the French commissioner recently told POLITICO he wanted a second study this summer to flesh out how such a network would include cutting-edge security features and quantum computing systems to put it a step ahead of the competition.
"The power to connect is and will remain essential," Breton told EU space policymakers Tuesday. "This is why Europe must position itself and build a European state-of-the-art, autonomous and secured space-based connectivity system."
https://www.politico.eu/article/bret...fi-dead-zones/
EU aims to end Africa’s Wi-Fi dead zones with satellite scheme
A new multibillion-euro EU communication satellite network can cut out internet blackspots across Europe and also in Africa, Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton said Tuesday.
Speaking at an event to launch the EU's space program running to 2027, Breton said a third major EU satellite constellation was needed to follow up on the Galileo geo-location network and the Copernicus earth observation program.
"[The new satellites will] put an end to dead zones, giving access to high speed broadband to everyone in Europe, but also potentially in Africa," he said of the initiative. "We will move fast on this project."
EU countries have not yet agreed to finance such a plan so Breton is lobbying capitals to stump up funding. The Paris-based European Space Agency could also help cover the cost, he has previously said.
Breton commissioned a feasibility study to assess options for a satellite project to rival SpaceX's Starlink, the U.K.'s OneWeb and other similar initiatives that will provide space-based commercial internet service.
But the French commissioner recently told POLITICO he wanted a second study this summer to flesh out how such a network would include cutting-edge security features and quantum computing systems to put it a step ahead of the competition.
"The power to connect is and will remain essential," Breton told EU space policymakers Tuesday. "This is why Europe must position itself and build a European state-of-the-art, autonomous and secured space-based connectivity system."
Why on earth are we building a duplicate system to the Eu which will only be useful in UK and thus be completely uncompetitive cost-wise with a larger system which is certain to be able to 'see' almost all of the UK as we are sandwiched between EU countries . So the question is not why do they ask Uk but why didnt we take the cost effective approach and stay with that project
Do we have launch capabilities, can we afford it bearing in mind most of Uk is densely populated and therefore One web is uneconomic and performance limited compared with fibre. Might be useful in the Scottish Islands but the way things are going they ll be in the Eu before the projects finished ( tongue in cheek)
Sad
Do we have launch capabilities, can we afford it bearing in mind most of Uk is densely populated and therefore One web is uneconomic and performance limited compared with fibre. Might be useful in the Scottish Islands but the way things are going they ll be in the Eu before the projects finished ( tongue in cheek)
Sad
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
Thread Starter
Good grief - so much ignorance crammed into one post….
The EU hasn’t got a programme - the Commission is pushing for one. If it can get interest in, which I doubt, it is many years from being agreed, let alone built.
Since the UK isn’t in the EU it wouldn’t be invited to participate in the design, construction or operation of any such system, so why would it consider joining over already existing systems.
OneWeb is an existing company with a constellation going active this year. The UK is only one investor alongside several major international telecoms providers, including Eutelsat*. The constellation coverage is global.
The system is of interest because it can provide coverage in rural and other areas where fibre isn’t cost effective or viable.
The advantage of OneWeb over SpaceX, the only other current completion, is their business model. SpaceX sells its terminals directly to the public, OneWeb provides bandwidth to telecom providers - such as BT, Virgin, Vodaphone etc who can then produce their own terminals and do their own marketing, sales and pricing - several of whom are reported involved in talks.**
* https://spacenews.com/eu-sees-confli...ent-in-oneweb/
https://insidegnss.com/uk-sees-a-way...-the-leo-door/
** https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.ph...dband-fix.html
The EU hasn’t got a programme - the Commission is pushing for one. If it can get interest in, which I doubt, it is many years from being agreed, let alone built.
Since the UK isn’t in the EU it wouldn’t be invited to participate in the design, construction or operation of any such system, so why would it consider joining over already existing systems.
OneWeb is an existing company with a constellation going active this year. The UK is only one investor alongside several major international telecoms providers, including Eutelsat*. The constellation coverage is global.
The system is of interest because it can provide coverage in rural and other areas where fibre isn’t cost effective or viable.
The advantage of OneWeb over SpaceX, the only other current completion, is their business model. SpaceX sells its terminals directly to the public, OneWeb provides bandwidth to telecom providers - such as BT, Virgin, Vodaphone etc who can then produce their own terminals and do their own marketing, sales and pricing - several of whom are reported involved in talks.**
* https://spacenews.com/eu-sees-confli...ent-in-oneweb/
https://insidegnss.com/uk-sees-a-way...-the-leo-door/
** https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.ph...dband-fix.html
Last edited by ORAC; 25th Jun 2021 at 10:12.
Also, there are several UK based launch systems that will be on line soon. Nothing to compete with the likes of SpaceX or ULA but certainly significant.
