Taiwan’s Ministry of Digital Affairs has adopted a two-year plan to improve the resilience of government communications by constructing over 700 satellite receiver stations at a cost of USD18mn. The adoption of the plan follows concerns that the repeated cutting of submarine internet cables by ships from mainland China is a trial of methods that China’s military could use during an invasion.
One objective of the new communications grid is to ensure that senior officials at the national, county and city level will always be able to speak to each other and to foreign leaders. The system will also be able to feed into Taiwan’s live broadcast system.
The locations for the planned receiver stations are secret. However, they will likely be sited at publicly-owned facilities around Taiwan including schools, hospitals, fire stations and police stations. Liberty Times reports there are an estimated 6,882 sites in Taiwan that could potentially be used for receiver stations. If the project is successful then the Ministry may later extend the program to cover over 300 more locations around Taiwan.
The importance of satellite communications as a fallback was demonstrated in the early stages of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, when over 5,000 terminals for Elon Musk’s Starlink network were rushed to the country. A significant portion of Starlink’s global operation is now apparently dedicated to servicing Ukraine, with Musk saying in October 2022 that it costs his business USD20mn a month to keep Ukraine connected. Last week Bloomberg reported that the US Department of Defense has agreed to pay for Starlink services on behalf of Ukraine’s military, though the cost has not been disclosed. However much is spent, satellite communications are a sensible investment for any nation that fears it may come under attack.
