Internet by satellite with Starlink: Arcep relaunches its authorization procedure

Arcep, the French telecoms regulator, announcement the opening of a public consultation on the use of hertzian frequencies by Starlink, the service launched by Elon Musk which makes it possible to have Internet by satellite. This follows a recent decision by the Council of State to withdraw existing authorisations.

Will Arcep save Starlink in France?

At the end of a 30-day period, Arcep will publish the contributions it has received from the players concerned as soon as possible, and will take a new decision, it said in a press release.

Seized by the environmental associations Priartem and Agir pour l’environnement, the Council of State on Tuesday canceled Arcep’s decision, taken on February 9, 2021, to grant two frequency bands to Starlink to connect its satellites to its users. French finals. The administrative court criticized Arcep for not consulting the public before granting this green light, even though this decision was “likely to have a significant impact on the market for the provision of high-speed Internet access, and to affect users”.

Arcep had a contrary analysis, considering that “the frequency band considered allowed the cohabitation of multiple satellite players, thus not leading to a phenomenon of scarcity of frequencies”, according to his press release. “Furthermore, there already existed, on the day of the authorisation, other very high-speed Internet access offers via satellite, whose users represent a few tens of thousands out of the more than 17 million subscribers to very high speed in France”, added the regulator.

For now, the Starlink service still works in France. Officially opened in May 2021, it is operated by SpaceX, the space company of Tesla boss Elon Musk. The service allows people in areas poorly served by operators’ fixed and mobile networks to have access to high-speed Internet via thousands of small satellites circulating in low orbit (mainly 550 kilometers) around the Earth. It requires specific equipment sold around 600 euros and a subscription of nearly 100 euros per month.

The Starlink service currently has more than 100,000 subscribers worldwide. It is not specified the number of subscribers only in France.