Italy Discussing $1.5 Billion Deal with SpaceX for Security Services

January 5—According to a story from Bloomberg News on Sunday, Italy is close to making a deal with Elon Musk’s SpaceX worth 1.5 billion euros ($1.55 billion) for the company to provide secure communications to the government. Unnamed sources cited in the story indicated ongoing talks and the lack of a final agreement on the five-year contract. However, Italy’s intelligence services and defense ministry have already approved the project.

The story said that as part of the deal, SpaceX will give Italy all the encryption tools it needs for government-used phone and Internet services.It also said that it would provide communications services for Italy’s troops in the Mediterranean and set up satellite services in Italy for use in case of emergencies like terrorist attacks or natural disasters.It comes after Giorgia Meloni, the prime minister of Italy, said on Sunday that she was ready to work with Donald Trump after a surprise trip to his Florida home to meet the president-elect before his inauguration on January 20.Meloni is also very close with Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of SpaceX and a close Trump supporter. Italy hopes to start testing as soon as January to see if Musk’s Starlink, which uses satellites to connect, is a viable way to speed up the rollout of high-speed internet in the country.

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