The Italian government’s plan to buy satellite internet service from SpaceX-owned Starlink has sparked both political and economic controversy. Italy is in “advanced talks” with the space company to prepare a $1.6 billion deal to provide secure telecommunications services, insiders have revealed. Bloomberg wrote that the negotiations had already begun in mid-2023, but were temporarily suspended until Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni recently visited Prime Minister Donald Trump in Florida.
After the news broke, the Italian government issued a statement denying it had signed a contract for Starlink’s satellite services, which offer broadband internet and satellite communications using low-Earth orbit satellites. The Italian government also denies that SpaceX was mentioned in the meeting between Meloni and Trump, but they admitted that negotiations with the company are indeed underway.
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Starlink is already actively offering a commercial service in Italy, but the use for government purposes does not fit the concept that Europe is striving for. Less than a month has passed since the European Commission, after a long delay, signed the concession contract with the SpaceRISE consortium, as a result of which Europe will have its own satellite network operating in low-Earth and medium-altitude Earth orbits.
The multi-orbital constellation of 280 satellites, IRIS2, will be organized and function similarly to SpaceX’s Starlink network, but at the same time it will not primarily be used for commercial services, but can be used by the governments and government institutions of the European Union for partially closed-chain encrypted communication. In the 12-year concession contract, SpaceRise has agreed that the first launches will begin in 2029, and that the entire IRIS2 fleet will be operational by 2030.
That is why some Italian and European officials have strongly criticized the news of the upcoming agreement between Italy and SpaceX. Antonio Misiani, a former Italian deputy finance minister, said such a partnership would represent an “unacceptable sell-out of national sovereignty”. According to political analysts, such a step towards the EU can also be a signal, since Iris2 is a symbol of Europe’s autonomy, and if an EU member state moves towards a different solution, it can be interpreted as a sign of secession.
In addition to the European secure satellite network, political tension is also an important aspect of the case. With the election of Trump, Elon Musk turned his attention to the promotion of far-right political causes in Europe, and the European Commission also carefully targeted the social platform X, which was already steered by Musk.
Source: www.hwsw.hu
