Global Courant 2023-05-30 03:53:00
To get there, the government opened bids for research institutions to participate in a proof-of-concept round of testing and verification. At least three have applied so far, Ms. Tang said. The winner will work with satellite providers.
Among the providers, the French-Luxembourg company SES Global now has two receivers in Taiwan.
Ms Tang said OneWeb, a satellite provider with investors including the UK government, Indian conglomerate Bharti Global and Softbank Group, has expressed interest, as has Project Kuiper, an Amazon.com initiative to build a constellation of more than 3,000 LEO satellites. to create. But neither is currently available.
Only Starlink’s SpaceX satellite constellation has the ability to provide live coverage at this time.
Ms. Tang described Starlink as a potential provider, but added that she is after more than one participant to “ensure that when there is adversity, multiple constellations must be destroyed or disrupted to deny us communication with the outside world” .
Vulnerable cables
Dr. Kenny Huang, chairman and general manager of the Taiwan Network Information Center, a non-profit organization part-owned by the Taiwanese government, said for now this means Taiwan’s satellite capacity pales in comparison to the coverage it currently gets from its 14 submarine cables.
Current satellite capacity is only “about 0.01 percent of submarine cable transmission capacity,” he said. “It’s almost impossible to use those satellites as backup or to improve communications resiliency.”
However, the submarine cables are very vulnerable. Huang added that the plan to have 700 receivers will not be big enough to cover the communication needs of the island’s 23 million residents.
Ms. Tang called the 700 recipients, she initially strives for a minimum to maintain essential communication. The government has earmarked NT$550 million (S$24.3 million) in 2023-2024 to subsidize the testing and verification of the disaster relief program.
She added that Taiwan has learned lessons from the conflict in Ukraine, which has faced repeated cyber-attacks by Russia against its infrastructure and population. But Ukraine has access to the Starlink system, which has helped keep communications flowing since the war began.
It is not clear whether that is a realistic option for Taiwan.
There are questions about whether SpaceX owner Elon Musk, whose Tesla has significant investments in China, would want the geopolitical headache to help Taiwan. He suggested in comments to the Financial Times newspaper in 2022 that Taiwan should agree to become a special administrative zone of China, angering Taiwanese officials and earning praise from Beijing.
Referring to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s daily video briefings during the war, Ms. Tang said it is critical for the government to be able to communicate with its people and with the outside world.
