By Gianluca Lo Nostro and Leo Marchandon

(Reuters) - France's Orange is pushing for European sovereignty on satellites and wants that ecosystem to grow in strength, while also continuing to collaborate with Elon Musk's Starlink, the CEO of the telecoms group said on Thursday.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT

European companies are ramping up their efforts to compete with Starlink's network of over 7,000 low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites providing internet connection to more than 100 countries.

Last year, French satellite company Eutelsat chose Airbus to build 100 small satellites for its OneWeb constellation extension, as it seeks to challenge Starlink.

The French government deployed some 200 Starlink antennas in storm-ravaged Mayotte last year.

Orange also initially used Starlink to immediately restore internet connection while waiting for its network to be operational again. This option is especially used in emergencies.

KEY QUOTES

"(On satellites) we're more in line with the logic of a European sovereignty, but we also deal with Starlink in certain geographies, particularly in Africa," CEO Christel Heydemann said during a press conference in Paris, while presenting Orange's annual results.

She said Orange was working with OneWeb and Eutelsat on satellites, while also working on a "sovereign solution" with its satellite broadband unit Nordnet.

Heydemann added there were ongoing initiatives related to direct-to-cell technology, a service also offered by Starlink that beams phone signals from space to smartphones, but said Orange had not yet launched offers for it in France.

CONTEXT

Orange, France's largest telecoms provider by market share, already offers satellite broadband to customers in mainland France.

The service relies on Eutelsat's Konnect VHTS geostationary satellite, which is different from LEOs.

(Reporting by Gianluca Lo Nostro and Leo Marchandon in Gdansk; Editing by Milla Nissi)