Elon Musk's SpaceX is making a big commitment to the internet. Not in the form of another one of his "whoop whoop yeah!" style webcasts (although he does that too), but regularly launching up to 12,000 of SpaceX's own satellites that could eventually bring fast internet access to all humans, regardless of their location on the planet. It's Starlink and it's happening. At the time of writing, Starlink accounts for a quarter of all active satellites, and that share is only increasing every month. The service has deployed more than 1.000 satellites to provide Internet access to its current subscribers and continues to grow so it can improve both coverage and performance.
What is Starlink?
Starlink is a plan by SpaceX to place 12,000 satellites in low-Earth orbit (LEO) that provide high-speed, low-latency, low-cost Internet access to anyone, anywhere on the planet. It's the end of the game. All you need to use Starlink is a $200 pizza box-sized receiver. Each satellite will talk to four others using lasers as they constantly revolve around Earth, together creating a network of Ku-band broadband connectivity and Ka band as fast as the speed of light that surrounds the planet at all times and for all places. To transmit connectivity to the surface, an extensive network of ground stations will also be required. So while 12,000 satellites sounds like a lot, it's only a fraction of the infrastructure SpaceX will need to build. Starlink will happen in phases, but the ultimate goal is to have around 8.000 satellites in orbit just 500km above the planet, and the remaining 4.000 in much higher orbit, around 1.200km.
How many people currently use Starlink?
According to a recent FCC filing, more than 10,000 people have signed up for the public beta test launched last year. This number is for users in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The purpose of the filing is for Starlink to be designated as an eligible telecommunications provider. This would allow SpaceX to access millions of rural digital opportunity funds and increase the reach of its coverage.
How good is the Starlink Internet?
In the same FCC file where we are informed about the number of users, we also learned some statistics about the service. For a service that is still in beta, they are not bad at all.- Users are achieving decent internet speeds, with download speeds of 100 Mbps (megabits per second) and upload speeds of 20 Mbps.
- Latency is 31 milliseconds or less, based on 95% of measurements.
What is the "space internet"?
Space Internet is simply satellite-powered Internet access. This is nothing new. Telecommunications satellites are mainly in a geostationary orbit thousands of kilometers above the Earth's equator and follow the direction of the Earth's rotation, appearing to stay in one place to serve a region. Its distance from Earth means a displacement of about a second or more. However, actual Internet access via existing satellites is very limited; Iridium's LEO network offers data rates of 2.4kbps, and while that will soon increase to 512kbps (thanks to several dedicated rocket launches by SpaceX, ironically), it's expensive and designed to serve businesses and governments in need of critical links. in remote areas of the world (think container ships and scientists in Antarctica), not the mass market. Starlink satellites will be 65 times closer to Earth than geostationary satellites and could also offer speeds of 10 Gbps, which is faster than fiber optic internet.
Why is SpaceX going to "internet space"?
If SpaceX can deliver 10Gbps speeds to every human on the planet and shrink terrestrial networks, it could become a great Internet service provider. Add to that the fact that 50% of humans still don't have internet access and you begin to understand why SpaceX is so interested in making the most of its own rocket launch capabilities. Although Starlink may cost more than $10 billion to build, there is evidence that SpaceX expects Starlink to earn $30 billion each year by 2025. So Starlink's success could be essential to Elon Musk's plans. to go to Mars.