Posted on 09/28/2024 9:19:46 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Starlink, the satellite internet service owned by Elon Musk's aerospace company SpaceX, has gained over 4 million subscribers, according to a recent post by the company on X (formerly, Twitter).
In the post on X, Starlink thanked its customers and said, "Starlink is connecting more than 4M people with high-speed internet across 100+ countries, territories and many other markets."
On September 24, Gwynne Shotwell, President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Starlink anticipated that the company will pass 4 million customers by this week while testifying before the Texas House Appropriations Committee meeting.
Starlink's growth has been accelerating at a rapid pace, having reached 1 million subscribers in December 2022, 2 million by September 2023, and 3 million by May of this year. Starlink's global network now comprises nearly 6,000 satellites, offering internet access in close to 100 countries to both individual users and large enterprises, including major airlines and cruise lines.
Starlink is projected to generate $6.6 billion in revenue this year, a substantial increase from the approximately $1.4 billion it made just two years ago, according to Quilty Space, an industry research and consulting firm. Elon Musk, CEO at SpaceX, has previously said that Starlink's revenue would help fund the development of the company's Starship rocket, a reusable spacecraft.
Bookmarking
Is that all?
A $120 a month. sounds about right.
Not many users out of a population of 8.3 b.
Give him a chance. He started with 0 users a few years ago. I’d say 4 million today is a pretty impressive achievement.
4 million users.
That works out to more than $1,000 per customer.
I wonder if individual merchants and corporations have to pay Starlink for access to customers?
It’s only $120 a month in the USA , each market has their own price point it’s much cheaper in Mexico and in Kenya its $10 a month for mini and 50Gb of data. Each additional Gb is 20 US cents. The USA and first world plus ships ,aircraft and oil rigs all pay full price the disadvantaged get it at what they can afford. The birds are up so its sunk cost except for the gateways and with laser links those can be anywhere alone an orbital plane since they link fore and aft you can see the two laser terminals on two sides of the new v1.5 birds. Looks like they could spin one 90 degrees to cross link to another plane but that would cut the chain along plane so probably only used in the polar regions to mesh network.
It’s $1000 for 1TB and $5000 a month for 5 terabyte commercial mobile access. Think private jets, airlines, cruise ships have multiple terminals, oil rigs, the yachtee class too. Then think American Airlines just signed up every jet they have. Elon is making bank off the biz users. Alaska Air and there new Hawaiian Airlines also. Air France too. It’s a no brainer $5000 a month per jet and you can charge ten bucks a seat per flight. I think American is giving it away for now as a promo.
https://www.starlink.com/service-plans/all
The DOD also is using commercial terminals for God knows how much tax $$$$ each. Starlink is world changing technology.
Right now people in NC are completely cut off by road only aircraft can reach Asheville they have no power, no cellphone service either. There are two Starlink minis set up at the PD and fire so not only can those first responders reach the outside world they opened them up to the public so they could call and text loved ones. The AT&T,Verizon ,T-Mobile completely down and will be down for weeks probably. Only sat phones work or Starlink, soon Starlink direct to cell will also allows regular phones to work when towers are down. They should set up a priority access protocol like FirstNet where that direct to cell access is prioritized for first responders and LEO in a disaster area where you can kick off user’s who don’t have the priority access codes.
The DOD is also having Elon launch Starshield their own dedicated network complete with intel,and imaging payloads too. Real time imagery from thousands of birds world wide and also ELINT data too. Nothing short of a paradigm shift.
Motorola created Iridium satellite phone like 30 years ago, and it bankrupted the whole company.
Musk is taking big risk.
“ Motorola created Iridium satellite phone like 30 years ago, and it bankrupted the whole company.
Musk is taking big risk.”
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True… but it’s a calculated risk. Risk is an integral component of capitalism and private enterprise.
And at times it slows down to almost dial up speed because of too masy users on the bird’s bandwidth.
Shocking news about the flooding in Asheville.
Politically, Asheville has become a One Party Hard Left community.
This weather catastrophe will make voter fraud much easier.
Starlink could be signing up significantly more customers if the manufacturing of the terminals could keep up with demand, sure they could sign up people but if it took 1 year to get the equipment the way people perceive Starlink would drop.
Certain countries and areas around even the USA are not being marketed to simply to keep the demand down so the manufacturing can keep up.
Even so, Starlink passed 3 million users in May, so in June, July, and August they signed up approximately 1 million users, or over 300,000 a month or 10,000 per day, to me that seems really impressive.
It’s possible they could be at 10 million users by the end of 2025.
At that point you are talking about a potential 1 billion a month in revenue or 12 billion per year and growing rapidly.
I think the growth will ramp up to a whole new level once the direct to Cell phone capability becomes more available.
The IPO numbers are going to be astronomical, just on stock value the company will be valued at hundreds of billion from the beginning.
Good report. I have learned not to underestimate Elon Musk. He is the entrepreneurial genius of our age.
We have Starlink. I absolutely think it’s worth the $120 a month. We had Consolidated Communications for 15 years and week after week, after week, I’d call and complain. We’d have to shut our phones down and a computer to watch tv at night. The day I had had enough, is when I couldn’t do payroll because the internet was down and they couldn’t get to it for 3 days. I ended up going to the library.
Starlink has never let me down. We can stream whatever we want, there’s 9 devices on it most days and it hasn’t snowed yet, but so far, so good.
Motorola should not have gone analog......
Nick Sortor
@nicksortor
🚨 ALERT: Asheville, NC is a TOTAL blackout zone, so we’ve set up TWO Starlink Stations for Public Use
Even NC State Police aren’t able to connect to cellular networks, so they’re using our Starlinks now.
SPOT 1:
DoubleTree Hilton Downtown
199 Haywood
SSID: SORTOR STARLINK
Pass: ncstrong
SPOT 2:
Asheville Shelter
Ferguson Building
340 Victoria Rd
SSID: HALL STARLINK
Pass: ncstrong
Spread this for ANYONE in the affected area. It’s been days since anyone’s been able to connect to cellular out here.
@ChrisHallWx
and I have had these up and running for an hour, and I lost count of the amount of people that’ve told us they’ve FINALLY been able to connect with friends and family and let them know they’re okay 🙂
I’m sure this post will have someone run up my data bill just to troll me, but so be it.
We’ve connected Asheville back to the world! 🙌🏻
https://x.com/nicksortor/status/1840238148443332861
“Motorola created Iridium satellite phone like 30 years ago, and it bankrupted the whole company.”
Too bad Motorola wasn’t able to stick with the satellite phone idea, but back 30 years ago secure communications was not the issue it is now. (Although I’m sure no form of communication is truly secure.) Now, if we could ditch our cellular for satellite at a reasonable cost, many of us would.
I recall that our friend from church would hike alone in Yosemite in the late ‘90s, and he’d take a satellite phone with him in case of emergency.
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