These requirements may soon become a sedate problem for both Guwang and Qianfan. Since they began to introduce their non -experimental satellites last year, the clock is now ticking, and it rules that they will have to send 10 percent of the spacecraft to the sky until 2026.
Compared to Starlink, both constellations appear slowly in progress. McDowell says that Starlink started the first batch of satellites in May 2019, and the company got a constant rhythm, reaching almost 2,000 satellites in about two years.
In particular, Guyang moves slower than many expected observers since he first registered in iTU in 2020. “Everyone, including, expected it to be quite fast bands, because they had a lot of money, they had great support, and they had this government mandate” Chinese place for Chinese space. industry.
Guyang, or Satnet, as some called it, was one of the first satellite companies that made a noisy movement to Xiong, development near Beijing, which the Chinese government promotes as a technologically advanced city of the future. But his connections with the government could also lead to bureaucratic obstacles, says Curcio. The company is run by the management of gigantic state -owned enterprises, who probably bring with them a more time-honored, top -down management style. “They just don’t intend to move and break things,” he explains.
Although Qianfan also has state support from the Shanghai city government, experts say that it works more like current business and hired experienced management staff in finance and business sectors, which may consist of moving faster than Guyang.
But there is one sedate bottleneck that both designs are now harassing: availability of rocket. While China launches many rockets a year, they must be divided between various projects, including navigation satellites and music videos. More importantly, China still does not have any reusable rockets that were necessary for Starlink to maintain a quick and economic start -up term.
This year, Qianfan issued two public procurement applications for rocket suppliers, but announced both failures because they did not receive enough bidders. While several Chinese commercial companies are working on developing reusable rockets, none of them are ready for the best time. “It is possible that in the next few years we will start to see that this bottleneck will be solved, but it is also possible that it remains quite a significant bottleneck,” says Curcios.
Alternative Starlink
It seems that Guwang and Qianfan avoided directly competing with each other, attacking various markets. Guyang, which has greater support of the central government, may have the task of using national security. Taiwan reportedly received intelligence that Chinese military exercises on the island are trying to confirm whether Guwiang is working in the area and can direct Chinese bullets to potential strikes in the Western Pacific, according to A report Published by the Atlantic Council last month.
On the other hand, Qianfan is positioned as a competitor who has an oldline on the international market. Map representatives of Qianfan presented at a space industry conference In China last year he showed that he is already working in six markets: Brazil, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Oman, Pakistan and Uzbekistan. The map also says that it plans to go to two dozen subsequent ones in 2025, including countries such as India, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Argentina and many throughout Africa.