Eutelsat CEO: “Nobody wants a Musk monopoly”
November 17, 2023
By Chris Forrester
Eutelsat CEO Eva Berneke, in an interview with Agence France-Presse (AFP), has said that Eutelsat OneWeb intends to form a viable competitor to Elon Musk’s Starlink and provide superfast internet and broadband from space.
She told AFP: “We have a lot of customers who want us to get there quickly. They tell us they took Starlink because there wasn’t anyone else. But they want competition, too. Nobody wants a monopoly.”
“There’s room for four or five operators,” Berneke added and comparing satellite-delivered broadband to mobile phone networks.
Eutelsat OneWeb, however, is a very different offering to that of Musk’s Starlink. Starlink delivers its broadband service direct to consumers. Starlink also has commercial customers including cruise ships and airlines. But OneWeb will only deliver its broadband to commercial clients and telcos such as Bharti Airtel in India..
Additional to Starlink will be Project Kuiper from Amazon, and there are other regional satellite operators chasing broadband clients.