Starlink & OneWeb: Two Different Concepts

Ukraine relies heavily on SpaceX’s Starlink for its military communications and operations in its defense against the Russian invasion. According to media reports, the network would be difficult, or perhaps even impossible, to replace with another provider.

There is only one other comparable low Earth orbit satellite constellation providing internet globally at the moment, even though more are being set up. Low orbit enables better communications and operations due to its higher speed and lower latency. OneWeb, a French-owned company, currently has 648 satellites in low Earth orbit, according to the website N2yo.com. By comparison, Starlink has almost 7,000. OneWeb's satellites, however, circle Earth in a somewhat higher orbit but could probably also integrate geostationary satellites from its parent company Eutelsat. This allows them to cover a larger area per satellite than their U.S. competitors, but also causes a small loss in latency, which is the speed at with data travels between the satellite and the receiver. Both providers therefore rely on different concepts. But are they equivalent?

Andreas Knopp, professor of information processing at the Bundeswehr University Munich, pointed out to German newspaper Handelsblatt that OneWeb not only has significantly fewer and higher satellites in Earth's orbit, but these were also outdated. "Therefore, Eutelsat can only provide limited assistance with time-critical satellite connections, which are urgently needed directly on the front lines," Knopp said.