Alternative to Starlink: Eutelsat Provides Ukraine With Access to Satellite Internet

Germany has financed Ukraine’s access to the Eutelsat satellite Internet network, which is an alternative to Starlink terminals.

This was reported to Reuters by Eutelsat CEO Eva Berneke.

According to Berneke, Eutelsat has been providing high-speed satellite Internet services in Ukraine through a German distributor for about a year.

She declined to comment on the amount of funding, but clarified that there were currently less than a thousand terminals in Ukraine that connected users to the Eutelsat network.

“Now we are striving to get 5,000 to 10,000 terminals relatively quickly,” the CEO said, adding that this could happen ”within a few weeks.”

Asked whether Germany would finance additional terminals, Eutelsat spokeswoman Joanna Darlington said that such a possibility was being discussed.

“We don’t know yet how the EU collectively or country by country will fund efforts going forward,” Darlington added.

The company owns geostationary satellites that can meet Ukraine’s various communications needs.

In addition to its own satellite fleet, Eutelsat is the owner of the OneWeb group, with a total of 35 geostationary and more than 600 low-Earth orbit satellites.

The company claims that its services provide coverage and data transfer speeds comparable to Starlink.

Back in March, it became known that the French-British-German satellite operator Eutelsat had been negotiating with the European Union to provide satellite communications services to Ukraine.

The Starlink alternative is being discussed against the backdrop of a cooler approach to Ukraine by US President Donald Trump and his ally Elon Musk.