SpaceX Pitches Starlink to Wary Telecom Firms in Barcelona

SpaceX staffers have been out in force this week at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona to pitch its Starlink satellite internet and cell services to the thousands of telecom executives and regulators assembled here. But in my conversations at an event overshadowed by a new war in the Middle East, many attendees expressed concerns about tying their companies too closely to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, even though Starlink’s technology impressed them.

While few people were willing to talk about Musk by name onstage, many European telecom executives spoke euphemistically about the urgent need for “tech sovereignty”—aka ditching risky U.S. technology because of increasingly bitter relations between the U.S. and Europe. Musk, regarded as having close ties with President Donald Trump, is a particular concern. Underlining those worries, Trump threatened to cut off all trade with Spain on the second day of the conference.