A Chinese rival to Starlink enters the global market via Brazil

SpaceSail, one of the Chinese satellite companies poised to compete with Elon Musk's Starlink, has signed its first deal with Brazil, the company announced Nov. 20 during Chinese leader Xi's state visit Jinping in this South American country.

According to a statement released by SpaceSail, also called state-controlled Shanghai Yuanxin Satellite Technology Ltd., the low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite company signed a memorandum with Brazilian state-owned telecommunications company Telebras on Wednesday to provide satellite communication services in the country.

SpaceSail's major shareholders include a number of state-owned companies or investment funds, such as Shanghai Alliance Investment Ltd, China Telecommunications Corporation and a subsidiary of Shanghai Media Group.

The agreement signed Wednesday is one of several that were signed during Xi's meetings with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva at the presidential residence, following the summit of the Group of 20 major economies, held this week in Rio de Janeiro.

LEO satellites operate at altitudes of up to 1,200 miles (1,931 km) and orbit the Earth about 16 times per day.

Their lower altitude means that signals to and from Earth can be transmitted much faster than those from other satellites, allowing them to provide high-speed internet access to remote areas, at sea, during times of war or in the event of a natural disaster.

Starlink, operated by SpaceX and owner of the world's largest LEO satellite constellation, began launching operational satellites in 2019. As of November 21, it had launched 7,344 satellites, of which 6,676 remain in orbit and 6,634 are operating, according to the count by astronomer Jonathan McDowell, who tracks the constellation.

The company now has more than 4 million users in more than 100 countries. It plans to launch up to 42,000 satellites, according to a report published in 2019 by the specialist magazine Space News based on the company's review of current applications.

SpaceSail's deal follows Brazil's Supreme Court temporarily suspending Starlink's bank accounts in the country to force Musk to pay fines in a dispute between the court and social media platform billionaire is also an owner.

Brazilian Communications Minister Juscelino Filho told CNN Brazil that the deal was part of an effort to ensure that “Brazilian society can have the choice between several companies offering the service that is essential and fundamental for today’s population, particularly in remote areas.”

The SpaceSail Constellation, or “Qianfan” Constellation in Chinese, now has 36 satellites, launched on August 6 and October 15.

SpaceSail has said it will begin providing global internet services in 2025 and has started talks with more than 30 countries.

The company plans to launch 648 satellites by the end of 2025 and more than 150,000 satellites by 2030.

Plans of 10,000 satellites

In April 2020, Beijing accelerated its support for China's satellite internet network industry, elevating it to national development infrastructure.

SpaceSail is one of three major Chinese companies aiming to compete with Starlink. The Chinese company is competing for limited space and radio frequencies – managed by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), a United Nations agency, on a “first come, first served” basis – and the global market.

In a speech earlier this month at the 2024 Global 6G Development Conference, Lu Ben, senior vice president of SpaceSail, said there was theoretically room to place 60,000 LEO satellites in orbit, while countries have submitted requests to launch more than 100,000.

Epoch Times could not independently verify these figures.

According to Chinese state media Xinhua, as of September, the Chinese regime had submitted requests to the ITU for some 51,300 satellites, including three “10,000 satellite plans.”

In addition to SpaceSail, the Chinese regime filed two applications in 2020 on behalf of China Satellite Network Group, a state-owned company established in 2021, which plans to launch 12,992 satellites for its Constellation GW. Another application was filed in May this year for LandSpace, which plans to orbit 10,000 satellites forming the Honghu Constellation.

Furthermore, on September 7, Zhejiang Time and Space Daoyu Technology Co. Ltd. has successfully launched 20 LEO satellites for its Geesatcom constellation, which the Chinese company hopes to increase to 5,676 satellites.

With Reuters