French satellite network company Eutelsat has been providing Ukraine with much-needed internet access for almost a year with the help of the German government, Reuters reports. Eutelsat’s OneWeb division operates low-orbiting satellites that communicate with terrestrial terminals for internet connectivity — similarly to rival SpaceX’s Starlink network, which has been the primary supplier of satellite internet for Ukraine’s government.
At Eutelsat’s Paris headquarters on Thursday, CEO Eva Berneke revealed that Germany has been providing the funding (of an undisclosed amount) to run the company’s satellite internet access in Ukraine. Right now, Eutelsat has less than a thousand terminals there compared to Elon Musk-owned SpaceX, which has about 50,000 Starlink terminals working in the country, mostly funded by Poland and the US.
However, Berneke says Eutelsat could get 5,000 to 10,000 more into Ukraine “within weeks.” Eutelsat spokesperson Joanna Darlington tells Reuters that they are still under discussion on whether Germany or other financial sources will help with that expansion. Bernerke also said it is in talks with the EU under the EU-backed SpaceRISE consortium, where it and other members are working to build a secure satellite constellation known as IRIS².
A Eutelsat expansion couldn’t come at a more crucial time as the US-Ukraine relationship unravels under the Elon Musk-backed Trump Administration. The European Commission’s defence chief Andrius Kubilius told Reuters at a news conference on Wednesday that, in the event of “unexpected developments,” which Kubilius didn’t elaborate on, there are solutions in place in case they need alternatives to Starlink.
