Elon Musk has longed talked about providing fast-speed satellite internet to the world and the billionaire’s dream could soon become a reality.
SpaceX president Gwynn Shotwell revealed Tuesday that Starlink is expected to provide global coverage by September.
The Musk-owned company recently won permission from the Federal Communications Commission to reduce the altitude of its US-based satellites to 335 to 354 miles from between 683 to 807 miles above Earth, which may allow it to improve coverage.
However, Shotwell also noted that availability is subject to regulatory approval in countries
Starlink operates its beta in 11 countries, Shotwell said, including the US, the UK Australia, New Zealand and parts of Europe.
Starlink is SpaceX’s internet service that aims to provide connections to areas of the globe where this has typically been a challenge.
SpaceX explained: ‘Unbounded by traditional ground infrastructure, Starlink can deliver high-speed broadband internet to locations where access has been unreliable or completely unavailable.’
The first batch of 60 Starlink satellites launched on May 23, 2009 and the constellation has since grown to 1,500 – but SpaceX hopes to one day have 42,000 devices in orbit.
‘We’ve successfully deployed 1,800 or so satellites and once all those satellites reach their operational orbit, we will have continuous global coverage, so that should be like September timeframe,’ she told a Macquarie Group technology investment conference via webcast.
‘But then we have regulatory work to go into every country and get approved to provide telecoms services.’
Starlink has said it plans to deploy 12,000 satellites in total at a cost of roughly $10 billion, Shotwell said.
In May, Musk said the low-Earth orbiting satellite network had received more than 500,000 preorders for its internet service and anticipates no technical problems meeting demand.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission approved SpaceX’s plan to deploy some Starlink satellites at a lower earth orbit than planned to provide high-speed broadband internet services to people who currently lack access.
Starlink is one of a growing number of makers of small satellites that also includes Amazon.com’sper, Britain’s OneWeb, venture capital-backed Planet, and Raytheon Technologies Corp’s Blue Canyon Technologies.
In May, Musk announced on Twitter his new Starlink satellite internet service has already had half a million preorders.
He wrote: ‘Only limitation is high density of users in urban areas. Most likely, all of the initial 500k will receive service. More of a challenge when we get into the several million user range.’
On Starlink alone, estimates suggest that if SpaceX obtains 25 million subscribers, it would generate about $30 billion in revenue ever year – ten times its earnings as a launch provider, sending satellites into space for governments and other firms.
More than 10,000 users are connected to the Starlink satellite internet, according to a SpaceX filing with the FCC, with 500,000 waiting to sign up.
Customers will have to pay nearly $600 upfront to receive access, which includes the $99 monthly fee plus $499 to order the Starlink Kit that includes the ‘UFO on a stick’ terminal, mounting tripod and WiFi router.
