Sept 7 (Reuters) – Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Vodafone Group and Telefonica are in early talks to create a consortium to bid on European Union satellite spectrum and offer direct-to-mobile services, Bloomberg News reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The group would jointly bid for a share of 2 gigahertz airwaves that the EU has proposed reserving for a local operator, a plan aimed at increasing sovereign satellite capabilities, the report added.
No final decisions on the consortium or plans to bid have been made, Bloomberg said.
Vodafone, Orange, and Telefonica declined to comment, while Deutsche Telekom did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In May, the European Union announced plans to allocate the bulk of valuable satellite spectrum for mobile phone service to European companies while reducing the share that U.S. operators can acquire, in a push to promote domestic businesses and reduce reliance on Big Tech.
The European Commission designated two-thirds of the spectrum on the bloc’s IRIS² multi-orbit array of 290 satellites for commercial use, divided equally between EU and non-EU operators.
The consortium would bid on the EU operator portion.
IRIS² is Europe’s response to Starlink, and is led by the European Commission and a consortium made up of SES SA, Eutelsat and HispaSat.
(Reporting by Natalia Bueno Rebolledo in Mexico City; Editing by Jan Harvey and Cynthia Osterman)
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