China’s Effort to Build a Competitor to Elon Musk's Starlink Is Off to a Bumpy Start

Chinese companies are building their own Starlink-like low Earth orbit satellite internet networks.

More than 100 satellites have been launched from China since August .

Guowang and Qianfan are joining a group of Starlink competitors around the world accelerating their operations.

The newcomers stand to benefit as SpaceX CEO Elon Musk ’s deepening entanglements in US politics raises reputational and security risks for SpaceX.

Starlink launched its first batch of satellites in May 2019 .

Guowang wants to have nearly 13,000 satellites in total, while Qianfan plans to have more than 15,000 .

The clock is now ticking, and the ITU rules state they will need to have sent 10 percent of their spacecraft into the sky by 2026 .

China still doesn’t have any operable reusable rockets yet.

Qianfan has not announced direct-to-customer services and is instead providing only local telecom companies with satellite internet capabilities.

Qianfan representatives presented at a space industry conference in China last year showed it’s already working in six markets: Brazil , Kazakhstan , Malaysia , Oman , Pakistan , and Uzbekistan .