SpaceX could have misplaced a bunch of its Starlink web satellites final week, however it appears to be like to have discovered 150,000 new Starlink prospects in latest months.
A tweet posted by SpaceX boss Elon Musk on Monday, February 14, stated merely: “Over 250k Starlink person terminals” — that’s 100,000 greater than it reported final August.
Over 250k Starlink person terminals
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 14, 2022
Whether or not Musk’s revelation refers to paying prospects or the variety of terminals constructed thus far isn’t clear, however the former appears extra like one thing to tweet about.
Starlink makes use of a constellation of low-Earth orbit satellites to beam broadband to prospects on the bottom. Whereas its major purpose is to serve places with out web connectivity or with poor service, anybody in a rising variety of international locations — 25 thus far — can join the service.
The usual Starlink web service launched in October 2020, with prospects required to pay a $99 deposit, $499 for {hardware} that features a receiving dish, and a month-to-month service price of $99 for obtain speeds of as much as 200 mbps.
Earlier this month SpaceX added a pricier premium Starlink service to its sign-up web page. Set to launch within the first half of this yr, Starlink Premium presents quicker speeds of as much as 500 mbps, with prospects having at hand over a $500 refundable deposit, together with $2,500 for the {hardware}, and a month-to-month price of $500.
Starlink’s rising buyer base suggests SpaceX may already be raking in round $25 million a month, a good sum however nowhere close to the $50 billion in annual income Musk predicted Starlink may generate if it’s capable of safe even just some p.c of the worldwide telecommunications market. Nonetheless, there’s loads of time for that to occur.
The Starlink service might need grown at a quicker fee if it wasn’t for the chip scarcity at the moment impacting the tech trade. In November SpaceX apologized to some prospects ready longer than anticipated for his or her Starlink equipment, citing provide chain points. It added that it was getting ready the launch of a brand new Starlink equipment designed for high-volume manufacturing that may begin transport this yr.
Musk’s tweet comes just some days after a geomagnetic storm knocked out most of SpaceX’s newest deployment of Starlink satellites. The corporate often launches round 60 Starlink satellites at a time and at the moment has round 2,000 of them in orbit.
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