Brazil began looking for a replacement for Starlink after the conflict with Elon Musk

According to the agency, the Brazilian government proposed the Chinese satellite operator SpaceSail to use a military space base in the northeast of the country. Brazil’s Communications Ministry said it wants to stimulate competition in the industry to connect more families, schools and businesses in remote areas of the country to the Internet.

SpaceSail has not yet received approval from Beijing to use the Alcantara spaceport in Maranhão state. Brazilian authorities hope to discuss this issue with Chinese President Xi Jinping after the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, Communications Minister Germano Tercius said.

According to the ministry, as of September 2024, Starlink had around 265 thousand customers in Brazil, representing 0.5% of the total number of users. At the same time, the company is the leading satellite Internet provider with a 46% market share, Bloomberg said.

The Brazilian authorities’ relationship with Musk, owner of Starlink, soured in August when Brazil’s Supreme Court decided to block X for failing to appoint a legal representative for the social network in the country and for failing to comply with court orders on moderation. of content.

The Brazilian court also ordered Starlink to comply with the requirement to restrict access to X in the country and ordered the blocking of the company’s accounts.

Musk called the court’s decision an attack on freedom of expression. In October, the Supreme Court ordered the platform to be unblocked because it had met all the conditions to resume operations in the country. In particular, X paid a fine of more than $5 million and began blocking accounts at the request of the local government.