Elon Musk’s Starlink company plans to set up its first land station in Switzerland. To do this, the company plans to replace a huge parabolic antenna with 40 Starlink antennas. Construction should start in the fall of 2025. A group of inhabitants of Les Les-Bains filed an appeal against the installation.
Update of June 30, 2025: A group of inhabitants of Loèche-les-Bains challenges the project to set up 40 Starlink antennas in the Valais commune. An appeal was filed on Sunday, according to information relayed by RTS. At the origin of this action, doctor Hanna Schnyder-Etienne said that the planned facilities would generate “much more radiation” over the local population. It also expresses its concern about the presence of a company linked to Elon Musk on Swiss territory, evoking a potential risk for data sovereignty.
News of June 10, 2025: Starlink already has 150 land stations worldwide. Now, the Satellite Internet service provider plans to install a first station in Switzerland, according to the Valais newspaper Le Nouvelliste. The satellite operator, a subsidiary of SpaceX, plans to replace an existing parabolic antenna above Loèche, in the Valais mountains and to erect 40 Starlink antennas. The company filed its building permission request to the Confederation on May 28, 2025.
According to the Valais daily newspaper, the president of the town of Loèche, Alain Bregy, sees in the arrival of SpaceX an opportunity for the local economy. He believes that the municipality has few companies and that its tax revenues are modest.
However, the project is not unanimous. Opponents reacted on the Facebook page “5G in Switzerland, no thank you!”, Recalling that an appeal against the construction request can still be filed until June 28. According to Starlink, the work could start in the fall of 2025.
As a reminder, at the end of 2024, ofcom had already blocked a similar project. He had prevented the Swiss operator Salt from launching a satellite telephone service based on the Starlink network.
