A small French village facing an ambitious project by Elon Musk

Residents of a small village in the French region of Normandy have launched a campaign to resist US billionaire Elon Musk’s plans to make their village part of his new broadband project.

The “Starlink” project, launched by the Musk company “SpaceX”, provides for the possibility of installing one of the antennas that will receive signals from thousands of its satellites around the Earth, in the village of Saint-Siney-de-Bouvron, which has a population of only 350 people. It is located 20 km from the island of Mount Saint Michel, which is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

While Musk has pledged that his new project will guarantee access to high speed Internet throughout the world until the end of next year, some residents of the French village insist that this project is not required at all.

The former farmer, Francois Dufour, warned in an interview with the French press agency “AFP” that the electromagnetic waves emanating from the supposed antenna may disturb local farmers, as happened previously with regard to high-voltage power lines.

He continued, asking: “Social networking sites and the Internet exist. Why do we need the Internet on the moon?”

For her part, citizen Anne-Marie Varghier explained that the local population is not afraid of new technologies, but these antennas represent something completely new in France, and people want to make sure of their safety first.

Last December, the village issued a decree banning the construction of the “Starlink” antenna, which was previously approved by the French National Regulatory Authority for Radio ANFR.

Sipartech, a company contracted with SpaceX, indicated that this refusal is based on evidence related to technology and can be easily canceled.

Source: “The Independent”