Starlink & Global Internet

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SpaceX Starlink Satellite Direct to Cellphone Gets Second Phone Company
April 5, 2023 by Brian Wang
https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2023/04/s ... mpany.html

SpaceX has found its second partner for their upcoming Starlink-enabled direct satellite-to-cellular service. New Zealand’s telecommunications company, One NZ (formerly known as Vodafone), has announced it has signed an agreement with SpaceX to offer mobile coverage across the country, eliminating cellular dead zones. SpaceX announced the direct satellite-to-cellular service with T-mobile. T-Mobile has more than 109 million subscribers, of which 88 million are postpaid customers.

One New Zealand Group Limited, also known as One NZ (formerly known as Vodafone New Zealand Limited), is a New Zealand telecommunications company. One NZ is the largest wireless carrier in New Zealand, accounting for 40% of the country’s mobile share market in 2020. One NZ has 2.4 million customers. According to the Commerce Commission’s Annual Telecommunications Monitoring Report from March 2022, Vodafone’s market share in the mobile market was 38%, Spark 41% and Two Degrees Mobile 19%. The remainder of 2% the market is made up of mobile virtual network operators.

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SpaceX launches world's 1st 5G satellite to bring global connectivity to Internet of Things
By Josh Dinner
published about 1 hour ago
https://www.space.com/spacex-launches-1 ... -of-things

The Sateliot "GroundBreaker" is the first of a constellation of over 250 spacecraft.

SpaceX has launched what is reportedly the first satellite in low Earth orbit (LEO) to operate on the 5G cellular standard.

Known as "The GroundBreaker," the relatively small, 22-pound (10-kilogram) orbital data relay, designated Sateliot_0, is the first of a constellation of over 250 spacecraft designed to communicate with terrestrial cell towers and fill gaps in data networks worldwide.

A Falcon 9 rocket launched the satellite on April 15 from SpaceX's launch facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Barcelona-based Sateliot, the company behind The GroundBreaker and the Sateliot_X constellation network operator, sees the technology as an opportunity for a global realization for access to the Internet of Things (IoT).

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Latest Starlink Launch Pushes SpaceX Past 4,000 Total Satellites
SpaceX's Starlink accounts for half of all the satellites in orbit.
By Ryan Whitwam May 5, 2023
https://www.extremetech.com/aerospace/l ... satellites

With Starship in the limelight following its first orbital launch test, it can be easy to forget that Falcon 9 launches are still the core of SpaceX's business. The company launched yet another Falcon 9 this week, carrying 56 shiny new Starlink internet satellites. These aren't the larger V2 designs that rely on Starship, but they still pushed Starlink over a notable milestone. SpaceX now has more than 4,000 satellites in orbit.

The speed with which SpaceX has deployed Starlink is genuinely staggering. It's the single largest satellite operator in the world, with 4,023 Starlink nodes, 3,988 of which are currently operational. Before SpaceX started launching satellites dozens at a time, there were a little more than 2,000 total satellites. Today, we're over 8,000, and half of them belong to SpaceX.

This rapid deployment was only possible thanks to the Falcon 9, which pioneered reusability in rockets. After the Thursday launch, the Falcon 9 booster descended and landed safely on the A Shortfall of Gravitas drone ship, ready to be refurbished and flown again. This has lowered launch costs considerably, helping SpaceX cover most of the globe with satellite connectivity.

As impressive as Starlink is from an aerospace perspective, things on the ground are more complicated. After debuting with 100Mbps speeds, Starlink has slowed considerably as more users have subscribed. To cope with congestion, SpaceX recently started charging higher prices in regions with more demand. It also flirted with capping monthly usage at 1TB for residential customers. Thankfully, the company backtracked on the plan this week.

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SpaceX Starlink Has Over 1.5 Million Customers
May 6, 2023 by Brian Wang

SpaceX was adding 150k Starlink users per month at the end of 2022. SpaceX has 1.5M subscribers now.

From Jan -Apr 2023, SpaceX had 30 launches. Although one of those was the Starship test.
Number of launches: 30 (Falcon 9: 27, Falcon Heavy: 2, Starship: 1T)
Launches success rate: 100%
Launch rate: 4.27 days (Needed for 100 launches: 3.65 or lower)
East Coast launches: 21 (LC-39A: 5, SLC-40: 16)
Gulf Coast launches: 1 (Starbase)
West Coast launches: 8 (SLC-4E)

Total payload mass: ~296,974 kg (Not including classified and rideshare missions)

Total crew: 4 (Government: 4, Commercial: 0)

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2023/05/s ... omers.html

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SpaceX Completing Starlink Dish Factory
May 16, 2023 by Brian Wang
https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2023/05/s ... ctory.html

SpaceX is completing a Texas Starlink factory that is 521,000 square feet and cost $43,000,000.

The SpaceX factory is designed for high volume manufacturing. It is to make millions of consumer facing devices. The Starlink Kit and include the antenna (or dish) that connects to the satellites, Wi-Fi routers and antenna mounting hardware.

SpaceX recently surpassed 1.5 million Starlink customers. Ramping dish production to 1-2 million per month to rapidly capture those customers is the only factor preventing SpaceX Starlink from getting to $30-60 billion per year in revenue early in 2024.

If SpaceX is able to increase Starlink satellite dish production to 500,000 dishes per month by September, 2023 then they could make 1 million in first half of 2023 and 2 million in the second half. This would nearly double the 2023 revenue projection for Starlink over Payload Space.

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SpaceX and Starlink Revenue is Growing Faster
May 24, 2023 by Brian Wang
https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2023/05/s ... aster.html

Starlink Mobility (RV and other users) has 300,000 customers who pay $2500 for installation and $250 per month. This is more than the $120 per month for regular residential. The higher charges for mobility/RV users and the higher estimate of Starlink mobility customers, the increase in residential charges of $10 per month, increases the conservative estimated Starlink 2023 revenue by about $1 billion to $17 billion.

If SpaceX is able to increase Starlink satellite dish production to 500,000 dishes per month by mid-2023 then they could make 1 million in first half of 2023 and 3 million in the second half. Every 2 million more residential Starlink customers adds $3 billion per year in runrate to revenue. 6 million more residential customers in 2024 would add $9 billion per year in revenue. SpaceX is finishing a Starlink dish factory in Texas which should massively increase Starlink dish production.

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SpaceX's Starlink Satellites Are Leaking Radiation that Could Impact Radio Astronomy
by Michele Starr
July 10, 2023

Introduction:

(Science Alert) Constellations of satellites swarming Earth's orbital skies are currently polluting wavelength bands that are supposed to be protected for radio astronomy.

According to new research, the electronics on board SpaceX's Starlink satellites are 'leaking' low-frequency radio waves, separate from their allocated downlink bands, in a way that could impact our ability to perform astronomy.

"This study represents the latest effort to better understand satellite constellations' impact on radio astronomy," says engineer Federico Di Vruno of the SKA Observatory and the International Astronomical Union.

Additional Extract:

There is, however, a solution already in the works. The researchers have contacted SpaceX, which is working on ways to reduce or remove this unintentional leakage. And although there are thousands of machines up there already, we're really only at the beginning of satellite constellation technology.

This makes satellite radio leakage a problem that has been caught relatively early. Future designs can be adjusted accordingly…

Read more here: https://www.sciencealert.com/spacexs-s ... s-confirm

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