Starlink’s Chinese Rival Enters Global Market via Brazil

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying 22 Starlink satellites is viewed from Palm Springs, Calif., on March 18, 2024. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

SpaceSail, one of the Chinese satellite companies poised to compete with Elon Musk’s Starlink, has signed its first overseas agreement with Brazil, the company said on Nov. 20 during Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s state visit to the South American country.

According to a statement published by state-controlled SpaceSail, also known as Shanghai Yuanxin Satellite Technology Ltd., the low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellite company signed a memorandum with Brazil’s state-owned telecommunications company Telebras on Wednesday to provide satellite communications 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 on Wednesday is one of many during Xi’s meetings with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva at the presidential residence, following a summit of the Group of 20 major economies in Rio de Janeiro this week.

LEO satellites operate at altitudes of up to 1,200 miles and orbit the Earth around 16 times a day.

Their lower altitudes mean signals to and from Earth can transmit much faster than those of other satellites, making them capable of providing high-speed internet in remote areas, at sea, and during war or natural disasters.

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

The company now boasts more than 4 million users across over 100 countries. It plans to launch as many as 42,000 satellites, according to a 2019 report by trade magazine Space News based on the company’s applications.

SpaceSail’s agreement follows Brazil’s Supreme Court’s temporary suspension of Starlink’s bank accounts in the country to force Musk to pay fines in a dispute between the court and social media platform X, which the billionaire also owns.

Brazil’s Communications Minister Juscelino Filho told CNN Brazil the agreement was part of an effort to ensure “Brazilian society can have options of more than one company offering the service that is essential and fundamental for the population today, especially in remote areas.”

The SpaceSail Constellation, or “Qianfan” Constellation in Chinese, now consists of 36 satellites, launched on Aug. 6 and Oct. 15.

SpaceSail has said it will start providing global internet services in 2025 and has begun 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.

‘10,000 Satellite Plans’

In April 2020, Beijing accelerated support for China’s satellite internet industry, elevating it to the status of national development infrastructure.

SpaceSail is one of China’s three major companies aiming to challenge Starlink. The Chinese company is vying for limited space and radio frequency—managed by the United Nations agency International Telecommunications Union (ITU) on a “first come, first served” basis—and the global market.

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

The Epoch Times could not independently verify those numbers.

According to Chinese state media Xinhua, by September, the Chinese regime had submitted applications to the ITU for some 51,300 satellites, including three “10,000 Satellite Plans.”

Besides SpaceSail, the regime filed two applications in 2020 on behalf of China Satellite Network Group, a state-owned corporation set up in 2021, which plans to launch 12,992 satellites as part of its GW Constellation. Another application was submitted in May this year on behalf of LandSpace for its 10,000-satellite Honghu Constellation.

Separately, as of Sept. 7, Zhejiang Time and Space Daoyu Technology Co., Ltd., successfully launched 20 LEO satellites in its Geesatcom Constellation, which the Chinese company hopes will grow to 5,676 satellites.

Reuters contributed to this report.