The sky is falling on Starlink, Elon Musk’s satellite internet service. The latter has just been deprived of its hertzian frequencies in France, after a winning appeal by environmental associations before the Council of State. Following a decision published on Tuesday by the highest administrative court, the decision taken by Arcep on February 9, 2021 to grant two frequency bands to Starlink to connect its satellites and its French end users has been quashed.
In question: the absence of “public consultation” in the decision of the telecoms policeman to open the way for spectrum frequencies to the American service, even though it was “likely to have a significant impact on the market the provision of high-speed Internet access, and to affect users”. However, the Council of State’s decision does not mean the end of the adventure in France for Starlink. Elon Musk’s satellite internet service could theoretically always renew a procedure with Arcep to be granted frequencies again in France, given that only Arcep’s decision was overturned by the judges of the Royal Palace.
The Council of State had been seized by the environmental associations Priartem and Agir pour l’environnement, at the origin of numerous appeals against the deployment of 5G, in particular. According to Stephen Kerckhove, general delegate of Agir pour l’environnement, this decision “puts things back in place”, the latter having already spoken out against the visual pollution generated by the putting into orbit of the Starlink constellations, which should eventually have 12,000 satellites. For the lawyer of the two associations, Me François Lafforgue, it is very simple: the decision of the Council of State now prohibits Starlink from using these frequencies, and therefore from offering its service in France.
French destiny upset for Starlink
This is not the first time that Starlink has encountered mishaps in France. While Arcep had authorized Elon Musk’s company in October 2020 to install, via its French subsidiary Tibro, three base stations on the territory, two of these authorizations were finally withdrawn at the end of January, at the request of the American operator, by the French telecoms policeman, after the mobilization of the inhabitants of the territories concerned.
In Graveline (North) as in Saint-Senier-de-Beuvron (Manche), the giant planned to install land bases equipped with several reception antennas. It was a waste of time for the new satellite internet giant, which quickly came up against opposition from part of the population. All that remained until now for Starlink was its only base station in Villenave-d’Ornon (Gironde), which was to be integrated into the international network of base stations deployed by the company across the globe.
As a reminder, Starlink is a satellite internet service, which uses a constellation of satellites placed in low orbit to transmit a signal to your home. To do this, the company uses ground stations connected to fiber (such as that of Villenave-d’Ornon) to receive the internet signal via fiber and send it into space, where its satellites are responsible for distributing it to users, themselves equipped with a dedicated reception terminal. These stations operate frequencies in the 10.95-12.70 GHz bands (in the Space-to-Earth direction) and the 14-14.5 GHz band (in the opposite direction) “in order to provide access services broadband internet in the territory, without guarantee of non-interference and with an obligation of non-interference vis-à-vis other systems and services using these frequency bands”, Arcep reported in February 2021. .. everything now has to be redone for Starlink.