SpaceX Internet Service Provider “Starlink” reaches One Million User Milestone

A tweet from SpaceX earlier this week reports that their “Starlink” service has amassed over a million subscriptions.

SpaceX satellite network “Starlink” was developed in hopes of providing low-cost internet globally, especially to remote locations that lack reliable internet connectivity.

How does it work?

Starlink satellites function through identical means to those of other satellite internet service technologies, an internet service provider will transmit an internet signal to a satellite in space, which then comes back to the users and is captured by their satellite dish. These dishes are connected to a modem which connects their computer with the captured internet signal. The issue with this, is that your data must travel all the way to a satellite in space and back to you on Earth. These long trips take a considerable amount of time, and in turn this leads to a higher latency (response time) and a worse connection.

This, is where we face an issue. Ideally, we want an internet connection to have a lower latency, which is where SpaceX’s Starlink comes in. SpaceX’s proposal was to make Starlink “a constellation of thousands of satellites that orbit the planet much closer to Earth, at about 550km, and cover the entire globe”. This shortened geostationary orbit proves much more effective as it increases internet speeds and reduces latency levels.

How fast is Starlink?

It’s fast, but how fast, really? Starlink offers two plans for subscribers, the basic plan, and the premium plan. The basic plan advertises download speeds from 50 to 250 megabytes per second, whilst the premium plan’s download speeds range from 150 to 500 Mbps; is this really the case?

Source: Official Ookla Website

Ookla’s recent report shows that in the US the median download speed was 164 Mbps, which does follow the advertised range provided for both plans. The median latency was about 27 ms in the US which is actually considered within the optimal range of 20-40ms. A huge improvement compared to previous testing.

The future of Starlink

As of writing, the Starlink constellation consists 3300 small satellites, with the latest additions on 17 December 2022. 54 Starlink satellites were launched by the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket when it had lifted off for its 15th time. Overall, about 12,000 satellites are planned to be deployed on this mission, with a possible extension to 42,000 afterwards. This should ultimately fulfill SpaceX’s proposal and achieve global internet availability, and the million subscription milestone is a step in that direction.