Elon Musk points to telecommunications for the upcoming outage with Starlink Internet

Photographer: Paul Hennessy / NurPhoto / Getty Images

Elon Musk became the richest person in the world this month by boosting the global auto industry and altering aerospace heavyweights with reusable rockets. It is now looking at another business dominated by established headlines: telecommunications.

Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp. has launched more than 1,000 satellites for its Starlink Internet service and is registering the first customers in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. SpaceX has told investors that Starlink is looking for a $ 1 trillion market made up of in-flight Internet, maritime services, demand in China and India and rural customers like Brian Rendel.

Rendel became a Starlink tester in November after struggling for years with slow internet speeds on his 160-acre farm overlooking Lake Superior on the Upper Michigan Peninsula. After paying about $ 500 for the equipment, FedEx arrived with a plate and an antenna. For $ 99 a month, Rendel now achieves speeds of 100 megabytes per second for downloads and 15 to 20 for uploads, much faster, according to him, than its previous ISP.

“That changes the game,” said Rendel, a mental health counselor who can now easily watch movies and hold meetings with clients through Zoom. “It simply came to our notice then feel as if it were part of civilization again. “

For months, SpaceX has launched Starlink satellites on its Falcon 9 rockets in batches of 60 at a time, and the 17th Starlink launch took place on January 20th. There are now approximately 960 satellites in orbit announcing an era of mega-constellations. which have caused concerns about the visual pollution of astronomers.

But the low-orbiting Starlink matrix of Earth, closer to the planet than traditional satellites, is enough to allow SpaceX to deploy the service along a wide strip of North America and the United Kingdom. As SpaceX sends more satellites, the coverage area will grow, expanding the lead base and revenue stream beyond the current initial phases.

SpaceX did not respond to any comments.

“The big problem is that people are happy with Starlink’s service and economy over other alternatives,” said Luigi Peluso, CEO of Alvarez & Marsal, which tracks the aerospace and defense industries. “SpaceX has demonstrated the viability of its solution.”

Last year, SpaceX’s chief operating officer Gwynne Shotwell said Starlink is a business that SpaceX, one of the most valued companies in the United States with risk support it is likely to come out and be made public. This hangs on to the possibility that another Musk company will offer shares after the sensational earnings of the Tesla Inc. stock exchange.

Starlink will have a lot of competition. While fiber optic cable is considered too expensive to set up in remote regions and many rural locations, cellular connectivity is expected to make great strides with 5G and then 6G. Meanwhile, a number of innovative attempts are being made to extend the cellular network to areas not served by other heel companies, such as Facebook Inc.

“There will always be early Starlink adopters who think anything about Elon Musk is great,” said John Byrne, a telecommunications analyst at GlobalData. “But it’s hard to see the trajectory of the satellite keeping pace with the improvements that are being achieved with the mobile.”

Risk of congestion

SpaceX, based in Hawthorne, California, is best known for launching rockets for global satellite operators, the U.S. military and NASA. Last year, SpaceX made history by becoming the first private company to fly astronauts on the International Space Station.

Starlink marks SpaceX’s first foray into a truly consumer-oriented product. Maintaining strong service while growing the customer base is something SpaceX had never tried.

“Like any network, Starlink will enjoy good reviews while underused,” said Jim Patterson, an industry analyst. “However, he will be challenged with the same congestion problems as his teammates as his base grows.”

Again, SpaceX says the service will improve as it builds more infrastructure.

“As we launch more satellites, install more ground stations and improve our network software, data speed, latency and uptime will improve dramatically,” Kate Tice, a senior SpaceX engineer, said in a live broadcast of a Starlink mission in November.

Fan Fervor

Starlink is gearing up for a big 2021, hiring software engineers, customer service managers, a sales manager and a country launch manager.

The fervor of fans that made Tesla cars a hit among consumers and retail investors extends to Starlink. Facebook groups, Reddit threads, and Twitter are full of reports from first-time customers who share images of their download speeds. You Tube has videos of people “Unpack” the Starlink dish and go through the initial setup.

Ross Youngblood lives in Oregon and works remotely as an engineer for a San Jose technology company. It has a Tesla model X and follows All Things Musk very carefully. He got Starlink before Thanksgiving.

“I just plugged it all in and it started working,” Youngblood said. “It’s going to be very disturbing and I don’t think there’s enough attention to people.”

Many other customers are waiting on the wings. In December, the Federal Communications Commission awarded SpaceX $ 885.5 million in grants as part of a broader effort to bring broadband to more than 10 million Americans in rural areas. SpaceX will focus on 35 states, including Alabama, Idaho, Montana and Washington.

“Aged infrastructure”

“We can’t continue to throw money at aging infrastructure,” said Russ Elliot, director of the Washington State Broadband Office. “With Starlink, you can be anywhere. The cost of building in deep or expensive rural areas is now less of an issue with this technology as an option. “