Italy doesn’t have the best internet connection. Here we are in 2024 and the country still does not boast of adequate network stability in all its regions. Just think how important broadband data is to small municipalities that want to repopulate themselves thanks to the advertising provided by digital nomads.
A stable and fast connection is not the norm in Italy, even in some areas of our big cities. While The government winks at Elon Musk. And for its Starlink, however, the EU is taking steps in a parallel direction. Iris2. That’s what this new “constellation” is all about.
What is Iris2?
The award of the concession contract for the development of the new satellite system by the European Commission was announced on October 31. An agreement was reached with Spacerise Consortiumwhich will obviously also have to deal with the management of the network, which is able to ensure secure communication with the various member states.
The documents show the full name, namely Infrastructure for Flexible Interconnectivity and Security via Satellite, but for everyone it will be Iris2. We are in the direction of arrival regarding the contract and agreement. business It shouldn’t take long. She is waiting. At the end of 2024.
Three European satellite operators are participating in the project, namely Ses Sa, Eutelsat Sa and Hispasat Sa. The consortium, however, is based entirely on one. The group of sub-contractors Europeans. Let’s talk about it:
- Thallus alenia sp.;
- Oops
- Airbus Defense and Space;
- Telescopic;
- Deutsche Telekom;
- orange,
- Hisdesat;
- Thales Six.
When will Iris2 come?
If Starlink is already active and present throughout Italy, which is not cheap for the moment but has excellent reliability, how long do we have to wait for the competition? In fact, it is expected Delivery of services by 2030.
Herein lies the real hurdle, because by this time Italy, and not only Italy, had long-term contracts with Musk. The latter, according to Case’s rumours, also assumed a net reduction in expenditure, given the political and commercial agreement with a government friendly to Georgia Maloney.
Meanwhile, the EU has a plan. 12 year concession agreementin public private partnership. This is a complicated system to proceed with the purchase More than 290 satellites at different orbits (with corresponding Earth fractions).
We know what the private component will be, but what about the public one? In particular, they will be the European Union and the European Space Agency. By now the project should have reached official form. This is after a recent change. In fact, another consortium proposal consisting of Airbus and Thales Elenia Space was previously evaluated. Faced with a request for 6 billion euros, which could have reached 10 billion, according to various sources, the EU decided to take a step back. However, to date, SpaceRise’s approved offer has not yet been made public. What we do know is that the program was originally expected to be completed in 2030.
