China’s answer to Elon Musk’s Starlink has a lot of catching up to do
In late April, a day before Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched its 10th batch of satellites this year, VicePremier Han Zheng attended a ceremony in Xiongan, a megacity about a two hours’ drive south of Beijing, to mark the creation of a new state-owned enterprise.
China Satellite Network Group was set up to operate China’s answer to Starlink, run by the US firm SpaceX.
The young firm tasked with launching low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites, beaming internet services to anywhere on the planet. It reports to the Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, which controls the government’s stakes in state-owned companies.
Other details about the firm remain shrouded in mystery. It has no official website at the moment, and the government has yet to release any information on its organisational structure, except that Zhang Dongchen, former general manager at state-owned China Electronics Corporation, was appointed to oversee its establishment.
But the firm’s strategic importance to Beijing has not gone unnoticed by industry insiders.
Despite its youth, China Satellite Network Group ranks 26th on Beijing’s official list of 98 stateowned firms – right behind the country’s “big three” telecoms operators: China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom.
The company is also China’s first state-owned enterprise at the state level to set up its head office in Xiongan, a former sleepy rural region hand-picked by President Xi Jinping four years ago to be rebuilt into a futuristic smart city.
“It shows that the state has officially joined the competition,” said Lan Tianyi, chief executive of Beijing-based space consulting firm Ultimate Blue Nebula. “State-owned enterprises have done some work in this area in the past … but now the country is considering the plan as a whole.”
China Satellite Network Group represents Beijing’s latest push in its bid to provide worldwide internet connection with satellites circling the globe – a technology currently dominated by US players such as SpaceX.
Before the birth of China Satellite Network Group, the country’s two major state-run aerospace companies – China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) and China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC) – already had their own satellite internet programmes.
CASIC, under its Hongyun and Xingyun programmes, is planning to launch 156 and 80 satellites, respectively, to achieve global coverage, while CASC announced plans in 2016 to set up more than 300 satellites under its Hongyan project.
In April 2020, China added satellite internet, along with 5G and artificial intelligence, to a list of “new infrastructure development” that it aims to accelerate with government support.
Earlier this year, Beijing rolled out a series of policy measures, including financing, to further the cause.
While China Satellite Network Group has yet to launch a single satellite, China submitted fillings to the UN’s International Telecommunication Union (ITU) last September, signalling the country’s intention to construct two LEO constellations totalling 12,992 satellites.
That number is still a fraction of the 42,000 planned satellites that Starlink registered with the ITU. The filings are a preliminary requirement and do not always translate to actual launches, analysts say.
“It’s kind of like when you grab a number ticket at a restaurant,” said Lan. “You have to have a number to get a seat. If you don’t have it, it’s impossible for you to get in.”
In a venture as resource-intensive as building a global satellite internet network, ambition does not always guarantee success.
London-based OneWeb filed for bankruptcy in March last year having launched only 74 LEO satellites. It has since received a second chance after getting a US$1 billion investment from a consortium led by the British government and India’s Bharti Enterprises.
Meanwhile Starlink, which rolled out its early access programme to consumers last year, is continuing to bulk up its constellation. It delivered its latest batch of 60 satellites into orbit on Tuesday, and has more launches scheduled for this month.
Experts say China has a lot of catching up to do.
China was five to 10 years behind in most technologies in this field, said Blaine Curcio, founder of Hong Kong-based Orbital Gateway Consulting.