Image credit: SpaceX
Italy is in advanced negotiations with SpaceX for a deal to provide secure telecommunications for the government via the company’s Starlink subsidiary, the largest such project in Europe, Bloomberg reported.
An agreement on the five-year contract has not yet been reached, but the project has been approved by Italy’s intelligence services and defence ministry, the report said, citing unnamed sources.
The 1.5 billion euro deal would reportedly provide a full range of top-level encryption for government telephone and internet services.
The plan would also include communications for the Italian military in the Mediterranean area and the roll-out of “direct-to-cell” satellite services for emergencies such as militant attacks or natural disasters.
Such services allow calls to be routed through ordinary mobile phones that are outside the range of a cell tower, without any specialised equipment such as a satellite phone.
Ukraine’s largest mobile operator, Kyivstar, reached an agreement with Starlink last week to roll out such services in Ukraine.
The Italian deal has been under review since 2023 and has been opposed by some Italian officials concerned with how reliance on SpaceX could detract from local carriers.
Italy was reviewing alternatives to Starlink, including the EU’s planned IRIS² satellite communications network or building its own satellite constellation, but the costs would have been far higher, the report said.
IRIS² aims to build a satellite constellation by 2027 for secure government communications, a project intended to be the EU’s answer to Starlink’s Starshield network for defence and other sensitive communications.
The negotiations had stalled but appeared to move forward after prime minister Giorgia Meloni visited US president-elect Donald Trump in Florida over the weekend, the report said.
SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk is a close ally of Trump and heavily funded his 2024 election campaign.
Mark Zuckerberg continues to 'adjust' to the new political reality in US – announces axing…
US Defense Department says EV battery maker CATL, tech giant Tencent are suppliers to China's…
Meta Platforms appoints UFC chief Dana White, close friend of Donald Trump, to board as…
Man who drove pickup truck into New Orleans crowd on New Year's Day used Meta…
Learn how businesses can balance AI with human judgment, address bias, empower employees through training,…
Apple update to clarify when notification summaries are AI-generated after false headlines reported from BBC,…