China Prepares to Challenge Starlink's Dominance in Satellite Internet

China continues to strengthen its position in the global satellite internet competition. On 11 April, the Smart Dragon-3 (SD-3) rocket was successfully launched from the sea to carry a test satellite to its designated orbit. The rocket took off at 19:32 Beijing time from the offshore waters of Yangjiang, Guangdong Province. This mission was operated by the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center and reported by the Xinhua news agency. The satellite carried is claimed to support testing of satellite-based communication technology, as part of China’s efforts to build an alternative to services like SpaceX’s Starlink. Tests were conducted at the Lijiang Observatory in southwest China in March. Signals were sent using a low-power laser of only 2 watts, but the system is claimed to achieve download speeds of up to 1 Gbps, or about five times faster than Starlink in the comparison used in the study. The key to this success lies in the technical approach on the receiver side. The system combines adaptive optics and multi-channel processing to overcome atmospheric distortion, which has long been the main challenge in optical communication from high orbits. Instead of relying on a single signal path, this technology breaks down the distorted signal into multiple channels and then selects the strongest one. As a result, signal quality and reliability improve significantly. Although the test results sound promising, the technology being developed currently focuses on large-scale receiver systems, not devices for ordinary users. This means the initial development is likely aimed at backbone network needs or high-capacity data transmission, rather than consumer internet services like Starlink. There is no certainty yet on when China’s satellite service will be widely available. However, this series of steps demonstrates China’s seriousness in building its own satellite internet ecosystem, which has the potential to rival established players.