The still fresh mind game in EU circles of operating your own satellite Internet and focusing on a particularly high degree of availability, security and resilience should quickly take shape. “My goal is to move forward quickly,” emphasized EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton on Tuesday at the 13 . European space conference. He therefore considers it appropriate for the Brussels government institution to submit a corresponding proposal to the EU Parliament and the Council of Ministers this year “so that we can act concretely”.

An end to the white spots According to Breton, the goal of the infrastructure should be the “dead zones” in the form of white spots on the Card to end Internet coverage and “give everyone access to high-speed broadband”. An ambitious target for an estimated five million EU households without a network. Elon Musk’s space company SpaceX wants to use the public tests for a comparable major project to customers in the USA and Northern Europe with around 900 satellite speeds of 50 to 150 offer Mbit / s. During test runs in summer, the download was between 29 and 61 Mbit / s and when uploading at 4.5 to 17 MBit / s end.

Digital sovereignty is also a reason for Breton to push ahead with the initiative as quickly as possible. According to him, Europe should become “autonomous” when it comes to satellite Internet and avoid dependence on Starlink or the British-Indian alternative OneWeb. It is important to “keep the continent connected, whatever happens”, including in the event of “massive attacks” on the network. In addition, the project should catapult Europe “into the quantum age” by ensuring communication via quantum encryption.

The Commission gave the end 2020 A feasibility study was commissioned by an industrial consortium for 7.1 million euros. This should sound out the expectations of potential users and the requirements of the mission within a year. Breton now made it clear that he expected the first results in April.

Thinking outside the box This is not a “business as usual” space project, emphasized the French. “It is broader. It will have to rely on industry from different sectors. We have to think outside the box, including in terms of funding.” “All possible sources” should be mobilized, such as the EU budget, the Member States, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the private sector.

Technically, Breton envisions that the project would involve a Altitude up to 2000 kilometers combined with others up to satellites in geostationary orbit (35. 786 kilometers altitude). It should complement existing infrastructures, e.g. improve the signal of the GPS alternative Galileo or provide data relay capacities for real-time missions in the Copernicus network. Additional sensors in space are also in demand to improve space surveillance.

No later than 2030 ready At Galileo it took 17 years from conception to about the first operational service, pointed out Jean-Marc Nasr from Airbus Space Systems. It shouldn’t take that long this time. The network must be usable at the latest at the beginning 2030 in order to still be able to play an international role. Riadh Cammoun from the Franco-Italian satellite manufacturer Thales Alenia Space recalled that in addition to money and a strategy, frequencies are also necessary for the planned constellation. According to the commission, negotiations are already underway with the responsible International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

Andreas Scheuer, Federal Minister for Transport and Digital Infrastructure, has meanwhile announced that he wants to launch a voucher program so that around 200. 000 Households in this country without fast internet could use satellite capacities at short notice during the Corona crisis. The CSU politician described this to the Funke media group as bridging aid for peripheral locations until fixed network projects funded there were also implemented. Each 500 Euro would cover the costs for installing a satellite connection. The green media politician Margit Stumpp criticized this as a populist crazy idea and an admission of government failure.

(mho)