By Foo Yun Chee
BRUSSELS, May 27 (Reuters) – Non-European satellite operators such as Elon Musk’s Starlink and Amazon’s low-earth-orbit satellite business can bid for European mobile satellite spectrum next year but the bulk of the frequencies will be reserved for European businesses, the European Commission said on Wednesday.
The move by the EU executive aims to allow new operators into the market following next year’s expiry of licenses currently held by U.S. companies Viasat and EchoStar.
The new allocation system comes amid a push by EU to boost the bloc’s tech sovereignty by promoting European tech players, driven by concerns over China’s technological rise and the dominance of U.S. tech giants at a time of transatlantic tensions.
The 2 GHz frequency band is ideal for direct-to-direct services allowing users to bypass telecoms providers and for providing critical communication capabilities and also ensure access to high-speed internet in remote areas.
“More than ever, high-capacity widely available satellite connectivity is essential to strengthen the resilience of the EU’s communication networks,” EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen said in a statement.
“Satellite connectivity is also crucial for our governmental services and Europe’s critical communications,” she said.
The new allocation system will reserve one third of the mobile satellite spectrum for governmental use such as security and military, which will be provided by an EU operator that will integrate the capability with the EU’s IRIS2 multi-orbit array of 290 satellites, the Commission said.
IRIS2 is Europe’s response to Starlink.
Two thirds of the spectrum will be divided equally between EU and non-EU operators for commercial use, the EU executive said, confirming a Reuters report.
(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee, editing by Inti Landauro)
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