An Orange lobbyist criticized Starlink’s post-disaster deployment to Mayotte — despite his company having used the satellites.
PARIS — French telecommunications giant Orange used satellites belonging to Elon Musk’s Starlink to get online after devastating cyclone tore through the French overseas territory of Mayotte last month, a person in the French telecommunications industry with knowledge of Orange’s operations told POLITICO.
The revelation could prove embarrassing for Orange, given that one of its top lobbyists reacted with outrage to Prime Minister François Bayrou’s Monday announcement that Paris would be sending 200 Starlink terminals to Mayotte to help the island recover from Cyclone Chido. It made landfall on Dec. 9 as the most-powerful storm to hit the island in 90 years.
Orange director of public affairs Laurentino Lavezzi took to X to complain that Starlink offers less coverage and poorer performance than his company, which is one of the main internet providers on the Indian Ocean island. He boasted that since Chido ravaged Mayotte, it took Orange employees just 10 days to bring coverage there from 25 percent back up to 75 percent.
“We’re not asking for a medal (although the merits of our on-site staff would be worthy of official recognition by the nation [of France]). But we are all offended by the government’s communication policy,” he said.
However, Orange itself used Musk’s satellites in the initial aftermath of Chido in Mayotte to get its own emergency satellite-connected routers online, the person with knowledge of Orange’s operations said. The individual, who was granted anonymity as they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, said Orange’s main satellite provider covers only Europe, therefore Musk’s satellites were needed in Mayotte.
When asked about the revelation, a spokesperson for Orange replied that all of its emergency routers, dubbed “SafteyCases,” work with Starlink.
“It’s a feature meant to be used during crises,” the spokesman said.
While Orange is prioritizing the refurbishment of its mobile network antennae, the revelation has still put the telecommunications provider in an awkward spot as authorities work to rebuild island infrastructure.
The official death toll stands at 35, although authorities believe hundreds may have died during the storm. Mayotte is France’s poorest region and home to a large population of undocumented migrants, many of whom live in slums that the storm decimated.
Mayotte’s residents have long accused authorities in mainland France of treating them as second-class citizens and ignoring their plight. The lasting damage of Chido has exacerbated their anger.
With internet unavailable in large swathes of Mayotte after the storm passed, local officials quickly turned to the same type of Starlink terminals deployed in war zones like Ukraine and Gaza.
The highest-ranking representative of France’s central government inMayotte, François-Xavier Bieuville, said Starlink terminals provided the best option to quickly get the island back online before French authorities can follow through on their promises to build fiber-optic and 5G networks.
“The cyclone devastated 90 percent of the public and private infrastructure … for at least a week, we were totally blocked,” Bieuville said. “I’ve tested Starlink in several communes, and it’s quite extraordinary.”
The first 100 Starlink terminals, which are set to arrive on Monday, will be supplied free of charge for three months, the Mayotte regional government and the relevant French ministries responding to the crisis confirmed to POLITICO. Twenty-five have already been deployed to the island.
“The idea is to provide an emergency response to the lack of communication on part of the island,” the regional government in Mayotte said. “It’s a way of dealing with the crisis immediately — by enabling government services to communicate directly with the mayors of the scattered communes.”
This reporting was first published by POLITICO in French and was edited in English by Joshua Berlinger.
