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On January 9, 2025, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said her government was exploring secure-communications proposals from several private companies, including SpaceX, but had signed no contract. She denied discussing the proposal privately with Elon Musk. The possible services and a reported €1.5 billion, five-year project value were part of an emerging proposal—not a completed deal.

What Italy was considering

At a January 9, 2025 press conference, Meloni said Italy was in discussions with multiple private companies about secure communications. SpaceX, operator of the Starlink satellite network, was among them. The Associated Press reported that the potential scope included encryption services for the Italian government and communications infrastructure for military and emergency services. These were possible services under consideration, not a description of an operational Italian government deployment.

Meloni said potential contracts would be assessed on the basis of Italy’s national interest. She described the process as exploratory: no contract had been signed at the time of the press conference.

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Was there a deal, and what was it reportedly worth?

No signed agreement had been announced as of Meloni’s January 9, 2025 press conference. AP and Reuters reported a potential project value of €1.5 billion over five years, also reported as $1.6 billion. That figure was attributed to the possible arrangement; it was not the price of an executed contract.

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The available reporting establishes the position stated at that 2025 press conference. It does not establish the procurement’s eventual outcome or Italy’s status as of October 4, 2026.

What Meloni said about Musk and Trump

Meloni denied privately discussing the proposal with Musk, saying, “I never talked about this with Musk. It’s not my habit to use my public role to do favors to friends.”

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That denial is separate from the Italian prime minister’s office’s response concerning Meloni’s meeting with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago. Reuters reported that the office denied an agreement with SpaceX had been reached or discussed at that meeting. The two statements address different alleged conversations: Meloni’s own private discussions with Musk and whether the Trump meeting involved an agreement.

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Why the proposal became a security debate

The question was not simply whether satellite communications could provide a service. Critics raised concerns about entrusting communications handling to a company controlled by Musk. Meloni framed the decision as a trade-off between placing data protection in private hands and leaving sensitive communications without protection.

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She said, “The issue is that there are no public alternatives for these technologies, obviously it’s a question of placing data protection in the hands of a private entity. But the alternative is not having these data protected.” She also said, “Both scenarios are not ideal … If one day communications of sensitive data end up in the wrong hands, the government is responsible.” Those quotations capture Meloni’s stated rationale; the reporting does not independently establish that public alternatives were unavailable or determine which provider would offer the stronger protections.

For a government evaluating any such service, the practical questions include control and protection of sensitive data, resilience in emergencies, integration with government and military systems, procurement accountability, dependence on a private provider, and total cost over the contract term. The cited reports do not offer comparable technical performance or pricing figures for competing providers, so they do not support ranking providers.

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Where the EU’s IRIS² programme fits

The European Union’s IRIS² programme is relevant policy context: a European Parliament written answer describes its objectives as secure connectivity for the EU and its member states, alongside broadband connectivity for governmental authorities, private companies, and citizens. That description does not establish that IRIS² was immediately available for Italy’s contemplated services or that it was a direct substitute for the proposed arrangement.

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