Ukrainian officials have for years pointed out that they are working on Starlink alternatives. But the truth is that there are not many options on the table.
The one most discussed is OneWeb, a satellite communications network owned by ewesat, a satellite operator in France. Like Starlink, this network relies on small, soil-based terminal, and its total constellation contains about 630 low-earth-orbit satellites, which provide a very high speed connectivity and lower latency than satellites orbiting higher heights.
Joanna Darlington, a spokeswoman for Eutelsat, says that inexpensive coverage provides in Europa-wide coverage and that the technology has already been deployed to a certain extent in Ukraine, although she refused to share details. There are still more than 40,000 Starlink terminals in Ukraine, according to reports, so that the replacement of the network with odd alternatives cannot be done overnight. “It’s possible, but it’s not instant coffee,” Darlington says. (The firm claims that EuteshoSat’s odd coverage in Europe is already opponents Starlink.)
While Starlink terminal is made by SpaceX, uniform terminals are provided by third-party businesses. “We have shares of terminal we can deploy,” Darlington emphasizes, although she added, “Someone has to pay for it.”
Among other things, Poland and USAid helped to finance the Ukraine’s use of the Starlink network to date. Eutsis is currently in discussion with the European Union about a possible scaling out of unifem in Ukraine.
While web has promise, it is difficult to see how Ukrainians, especially in the battlefield conditions, can rely on it in the same way as Starlink, says Barry Evans, professor of information system engineering at the University of Surrey.
“We have one [OneWeb terminal] at the university, and it is quite a complicated process to actually be connected and on board, ”he says. The terminal tends to be bigger than Starlink’s and potentially more difficult to move quickly into a conflict area, he adds, suggesting that uniform terminals, for example, can be better deployed in fixed places on buildings.
‘The other challenge is that the terminal for odds of dollars costs instead of hundreds of dollars [for Starlink]”Says Quilty. And yet, onesbb is currently the ‘only option’ that is readily available to Ukraine as an alternative, he adds.
It can eventually change. Amazon’s project Kuiper, a rival of Starlink, could launch his first satellites later this year. Eventually, Project Kuiper will have over 3000 satellites. But, says Evans, Amazon is also an American company. If the US government puts the domestic firms under pressure to run away from Ukraine, Project Kuiper may not be of use in the short term.
The European Union is working on its own constellation of communications satellites called Iris2. But they may only come into effect in 2030 and will contain only about 300 medium and low-earth-winning satellites. The size of a satellite constellation affects the connection rate and coverage it provides. For example, Starlink already has more than 7,000 satellites in orbit, although the network needs a total of about 10,000 before its coverage becomes worldwide. SpaceX has suggested that it could possibly introduce more than 40,000 satellites, if granted permission by the UN International Telecommunication Union.
Andrew Cavalier, spacecraft analyst at Abi Research, a technical intelligence firm, says he is skeptical that Spacex will prevent Ukrainians from gaining access to Starlink, but the current doubt about SpaceX’s reliability is a ‘wake-up’ for countries that use the service, which can now invest in the development of their own. Satellite communications networks. Evans agrees. “The Ukrainian situation has brought it up a bit,” he says. “People are very concerned about the dominance Starlink got.”
In Ukraine, Ada Wordsworth says she is unaware of any alternative that can easily take the place of Starlink.
Since Russia is apparently finished from late, she says a general sense of hopelessness is busy with the residents who have returned to towns near the front line. Many people have nowhere else to go.
When asked what she would say to Elon Musk, she replied: ‘It’s not a game. It is not a decision to take out of bitterness or not, or some distorted sense of power. These are real people’s lives. “