By Valentina Za and Elvira Pollina
MILAN (Reuters) -Elon Musk said on Monday he was ready to provide Italy with secure communication services after Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni denied that the issue had come up during a weekend visit to the United States.Meloni has developed a strong relationship with Musk, a close ally of incoming U.S. President Donald Trump, and Rome is evaluating potential supply accords with the tech billionaire's Starlink business, part of his SpaceX company.
However, Meloni's office denied any agreement had been reached on the supply of new services and dismissed attempts to link the issue to her surprise visit to meet Trump at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida on Saturday night.
"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.
"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 added.
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.
Musk was happy to promote his services. He said in a post on X that he was "ready to provide Italy the most secure and advanced connectivity!".
ITALIAN EXPANSION?
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.
Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini urged the government to accelerate efforts to do a deal with Musk "to guarantee connectivity and modernise all of Italy."
"A potential accord would not be a danger but an opportunity," the League party leader said, adding the government had a duty to improve services for its people.
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.
Representatives of Italy's main opposition party called on the government on Monday to provide more details in parliament over any potential Starlink defence contract, maintaining that saying none had yet been signed was not enough.
In November Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto had defended the potential contract, whose cost has been reported at 1.5 billion euros ($1.6 billion) spread over five years, saying Musk had a de facto monopoly on low-orbit satellites.
"You can like him (Musk) or not, but if you need low-orbit connectivity, you need to talk to him. You can think about an alternative system, and Europe is doing that, but it'll take 10-15 years," he told a parliamentary hearing.
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