European Union regulators will decide by June 10 whether to give the green light to European satellite company SES’s $3.5 billion acquisition of Intelsat, the largest provider of satellite capacity to the U.S. government.
EU antitrust regulators, according to a filing on the European Commission website, said a decision will be made by June 10.
Starlink Alternative
Luxembourg-based SES operates a multi-orbit fleet of around 70 satellites providing services such as video broadcasting, government communications and broadband internet and is seen as an alternative to SpaceX’s Starlink run by colorful entrepreneur Elon Musk.
Intelsat provides inflight internet to 25 commercial airlines and nearly 3,000 aircraft. It also helps deliver TV and radio content to more than 500 million households around the globe.
SES sought EU approval for the deal back on April 29. The EU competition regulator has the power to clear the deal with or without remedies after the end of its preliminary review or it can open a full-scale four-month long investigation if it has serious concerns.
If it does go ahead it will create a major European satellite player to compete with Musk and Amazon’s (AMZN) Project Kuiper.
Trusted Provider
Indeed, just this week Amazon successfully launched its first batch of 27 operational Kuiper satellites. Project Kuiper will offer broadband internet services through a constellation of low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites. The company seeks to deliver fast and reliable internet connectivity worldwide, particularly to the unserved and underserved regions.
Starlink has already deployed over 8,000 satellites since its first successful launch in 2019. Moreover, Starlink now serves over 5 million users across 125 countries.
But an SES-Intelsat tie-up won’t just add another player to this increasingly competitive field. Europe was left shocked by suggestions from the U.S. earlier this year that it could shut off Starlink services to Ukraine if the country did not agree to a minerals deal. This would have severely hampered its efforts to continue its attempts to defend itself from Russian forces.
As such finding a reliable and trusted European satellite provider is now high, not just literally, on the continent’s agenda.
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