ROME (Reuters) -Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni did not discuss the issue of Elon Musk’s SpaceX supplying Italy with its Starlink services during her weekend visit to the United States, her office said in a statement on Monday.
“The prime minister’s office categorically denies, considering it ridiculous, that SpaceX was a topic during the meeting with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump,” Meloni’s office said in a note.
Italy’s conservative prime minister made a surprise trip to Florida on Saturday to meet Trump at his Mar-a-Lago residence before his inauguration on Jan. 20.
Bloomberg News reported on Sunday that Italy’s discussions with SpaceX, “which had stalled until recently, appeared to move forward” after Meloni’s meeting with Trump.
The PM’s office denied any agreement had been reached on the supply of new services.
“Contacts with SpaceX are part of regular discussions that state departments have with companies, in this instance those that provide protected connections such as data encryption,” it said.
Meloni has developed a strong relationship with tech billionaire Musk, a close ally of Trump.
Musk’s aerospace business SpaceX owns Starlink, a telecommunications provider that relies on a network of low Earth orbit satellites.
Starlink has been offering its services in Italy since 2021, but its business in the euro zone’s third-largest economy is modest, with a customer base of around 50,000.
Italy is considering using Starlink services to boost Internet penetration in remote areas in response to slow progress in public-funded fibre rollout programmes.
In October, the foreign ministry said Italy was also evaluating using Starlink systems to enhance communications for Italian diplomats and defence officials operating in risky areas across the Mediterranean.
Starlink owns around 60% of the roughly 7,500 satellites orbiting earth and is a dominant player, particularly for low-orbit satellites.
Sources told Reuters in December, Italy plans to begin tests as early as this month to see if Starlink is a viable solution to speed up the rollout of high-speed internet.
