The game of risk has begun low-orbit satellite internet connection. And it couldn't be otherwise, given that none other than Elon Musk with her Starlink and that there are countries, like Italy, with huge gaps in the broadband network. Not to mention that there are areas of the world, like for example theAmazon, where the network does not even reach, but which could be covered by bringing the Internet from Space. This is why Elon Musk, who is preparing to have a significant role in the next US government, had closed an agreement in 2022 with the then Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro to bring satellite connection to the new Military Command of the State of Amazonas, where Starlink would have to install 104 antennas, 64 for fixed connection and 40 for itinerant use. With all that this entails not so much in terms of business, but of cybersecurity and intelligence.
Starlink, the case of Brazil
The case of Brazil is interesting because with the return of Lula to government a tug of war began on several fronts between the South American country and Elon Musk: first with the X block decided by the Supreme Court for the dissemination of fake news on social media, with consequent attacks on magistrates by the tycoon as recently happened against the Italian ones, then with the frictions that emerged during the last G20 hosted in Rio de Janeiro, where the Brazilian first lady Janja publicly insulted Musk. And it didn't end there, since on the sidelines of the summit Lula met with Chinese President Xi Jinping, coincidentally closing a satellite Internet deal with the Chinese company SpaceSail, a major competitor of Starlink and which in Brazil is now conquering a market of over 200 million users. Starlink currently boasts over 5.000 satellites that orbit the Earth at a very low altitude, just 550 kilometers, and for this reason it has a technological advantage over the other players.
The SpaceSail However, it has a LEO (i.e. low orbit) satellite system and is already a partner with Brazil for space defense, demonstrating an increasingly solid common thread represented above all by the trade of agri-food raw materials but not only that, so much so that in the post-G20 bilateral meeting in Brasilia the two countries signed dozens of strategic agreements in various fields. Squid the operation is an opportunity to reduce the digital divide, reaching even the most remote areas of the country with the connection, but above all to push back the cumbersome presence of Elon Musk, increasingly linked to the Bolsonarist right. And to the Italian one of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, so much so that after the setback in Brazil, Starlink is ever closer to making our country its laboratory at an international level. After the controversy of last spring, when the American company had accused Telecom to hinder access to the network and data sharing, today Palazzo Chigi - also to fit into the PNRR timeframes that provide for the 1 Giga connection of 7 million house numbers in areas that are difficult to reach and with few inhabitants by 2026 - is increasingly toying with the idea of relying on satellite.
Starlink, the speed issue and the comparison with the EU Commission
However, Starlink's offer does not reach the speed of 1 Giga, which would put the government at fault with the European Commission with respect to the use of funds from the Pnrr, so much so that the solution imagined in Rome is to frame this service as "temporary". The satellite telecommunications company of the next minister of Donald Trump is the most quoted name to win the pilot project in Lombardy in particular: the road seems to be downhill not only because of the personal relationship between Musk and Meloni, but also because Lombardy is the land of another great fan of the magnate, the leader of the League and Minister of Transport Matteo Salvini, which is pushing hard. Also because the works for the 1 Giga Italy Plan are stuck at 32%, less than two years from the deadline for delivery.
