China Kicks Off Starlink Competitor: Here's What We Know

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The United States has Starlink, the European continent has Eutelsat OneWeb, and soon China will also have its own satellite connection service, thanks to the future Qianfan constellation. According to an article in the South China Morning Post, this is a project of the Shanghai Yuanxin Satellite Technology Company, which is controlled by Beijing. And like Starlink, this project aims to deploy satellites in low Earth orbit, in order to provide a good internet connection anywhere.

This project is moving forward, as the Middle Kingdom recently launched the 18 satellites that will form this future constellation. After leaving the Taiyuan launch base in Shanxi province, these satellites were able to be put into orbit. And this is the start of a long series of launches. Indeed, China's goal is to put 648 satellites into orbit by the end of 2025 to obtain regional coverage, before obtaining global coverage by 2027. And by 2030, the constellation must be made up of 14,000 satellites. Currently, the company GeneSat, which produces the satellites, is already working on new configurations that allow launching more satellites per rocket, in order to accelerate deployment.

A direct competition for Starlink's Direct to cell

While Starlink has already been offering its satellite connection for years, Elon Musk's company is preparing a new service that will allow smartphone users to connect to dead zones, without special equipment. Indeed, SpaceX has developed a new generation of satellites that function as 4G infrastructures in space. And according to the South China Morning Post article, the new Chinese project already aims to offer a similar service by 2030.

It remains to be seen whether the connection offered by this Chinese constellation will be able to compete with the speed offered by Starlink.

• China is developing a Starlink competitor and has just launched the first 18 satellites in its constellation
• The Middle Kingdom’s goal is to have 648 satellites by the end of 2025 to provide regional coverage, then to achieve global coverage by 2027
• The project is also said to aim to compete with Starlink’s Direct to Cell offering, which allows you to connect via satellite directly to 4G smartphones

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