China’s milestone in polar region satellite broadband narrows gap with Elon Musk’s Starlink

China’s recent milestone in extending its home-grown satellite internet coverage to polar regions has given the country “fully self-controlled polar communications”, ending its long-time reliance on foreign technology to achieve the same capability, according to state media and industry experts.

The breakthrough came during trials conducted as part of China’s 16th Arctic expedition – launched in early July and expected to conclude this month – when scientists aboard vessels in the Arctic established video connections with the Qinling research station in Antarctica using domestic satellites, according to a Monday report by the state-backed People’s Daily.