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SpaceX Seeks Approval For Up To 1M Earth Stations for Its Satellite Service (geekwire.com)
SpaceX just filed a new earth-station license application with America's Federal Communications Commisions, seeking blanket approval "for up to a million earth stations" for customers of their Starlink satellite internet service, reports GeekWire:
Those satellites have already received clearance from the FCC, and SpaceX plans to launch the first elements of the initial 4,425-satellite constellation this year, using Falcon 9 rockets.... Eventually, SpaceX wants to build up the network to take in as many as 12,000 satellites in low Earth orbit...
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has said the Starlink project aims is to provide high-speed, reliable and affordable broadband data services to consumers in the U.S. and around the world, including an estimated 3.8 billion people who are underserved by existing networks. When he unveiled the project four years ago in Seattle, he said revenue from the internet service would pay for his vision of creating a city on Mars.
The application assures regulators that the earth stations will "incorporate advanced technologies to enable highly efficient use of the spectrum and enhance the customer's broadband experience."
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has said the Starlink project aims is to provide high-speed, reliable and affordable broadband data services to consumers in the U.S. and around the world, including an estimated 3.8 billion people who are underserved by existing networks. When he unveiled the project four years ago in Seattle, he said revenue from the internet service would pay for his vision of creating a city on Mars.
The application assures regulators that the earth stations will "incorporate advanced technologies to enable highly efficient use of the spectrum and enhance the customer's broadband experience."
If SpaceX pulls this off, it will revolutionize connectivity around the world. Many, many ISP monopolies (companies that have a stranglehold on small isolated populated areas due to buying up their telco or cable) will FINALLY have to compete. There are vast stretches of the United States with utter crap internet offerings. This is going to shake up everything from internet, to the cell phone carriers, to the "internet of things".
There are many multi-billion dollar companies that stand to lose tremendous amounts of money from this, while the general population of the world stands to gain a great deal of freedom and choice. Again, if SpaceX pulls this off, it will be one of the milestones in modern human history, and it will make SpaceX unbelievably wealthy.
Better known as 318230.
Eventually, SpaceX wants to build up the network to take in as many as 12,000 satellites in low Earth orbit...
That's fifteen times the number of satellites we currently have in low-Earth orbit. Is anyone else concerned that we may run out of satellite space? Or, alternatively, that every satellite we put up in the atmosphere has a greater likelihood of being struck by a meteor, adding to the minefield of space dust already in LEO?
Interestingly, I just watched Real Engineering's video of SpaceX's StarHopper construction just last night. And I didn't know how incredibly thin the walls of a rocket are, and that they are pressurized to retain rigidity. So, imagine the catastrophic destruction that would occur if one of our launches collided with a satellite, or a space dust minefield?
If only one company is asking for 12,000 low-Earth orbit satellites, what happens when one hundred more make the same request? What happens when Indian, Chinese, and Russian companies make the same request? While I don't know whether we'll ever see anything as bad as that one scene from Wall-E, but it feels like we're inching closer to that reality each day.
The first ISP I might actually trust not to be an oligopolist nightmare of a company.
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
I wonder if thousands of satellites will mess up astronomy. Right now, when I take a 30 minute exposure, it is very unusual for a satellite to pass through the frame destroying the image. (Maybe a few times per thousand hours of observing.) But with thousands of satellites or potentially one day millions of satellites...
My parents live in a rural area and had a satellite internet service through Dish Network called Wild Blue. There are a few problems with satellite internet that I feel one would need to solve before making a true replacement for wired or wireless internet.
1) Weather dependent - Our satellite internet could go out if it was too cloudy, raining, snowing, any kind of a storm, or sometimes on mostly sunny days when a group of clouds just happened to pass through. Very annoying, but not truly awful.
2) Latency issues - Satellite internet typically has a half second delay as the information is beamed up and down. This makes gaming on it difficult at best. Streaming wasn't a big thing for us, so I can't really comment on that. The delay was also very annoying for just browsing web pages though.
3) Cost and data cap - It was very expensive for us, along the lines of $80+ a month for what could be considered slightly above DSL speeds with a low rolling data cap. Which was enough to browse the web and do a few other things, but still horrible for downloading large files. Windows update used to cause headaches when they would release a patch that would take up 10%+ of our monthly data cap.
4) Finding a spot - One thing to note is that Wild Blue required a space about 3-4ft from the house with a clear view of the southern sky. Which we had, but I talked to the technician and he was telling me that places like New Hampshire were impossible to use satellite internet because of this restriction.
It is an option for people living in rural areas and it can be a good one when nothing else is available. My parents moved off of satellite when Verizon brought out their wireless internet for residential homes and were happier with the new service. If those issues outlined above can be solved then it might be a better option than some others, but I don't hold out the highest hope for some of them.
Just my experience and thoughts on the subject.
Who cares? There is money to be made.
It will cause the loss of stable terrestrial infrastructure, and put it up in space where China, Russia, or USA can destroy it for everybody.
Essential communication doesn't belong in space.
A) Your comment, maybe, global internet access, no. .... WHAT??
B) Millions of receivers will be tracking them. They kinda have to, if you want your internets.
C) What's a "sky mess", exactly, and what kind of dealing do you imagine is required?
D) It's not incorrect because most people don't believe it; it's incorrect because it's retarded, and that's why people don't believe it.
E) Someone has mentioned a lot of stupid shit.
F) No.
G) No.
H) If SpaceX goes out of business others will be quite happy to buy those satellites on the cheap. If by some miracle nobody is, then they go to waste. No big deal either way.
I) What? How is this even
J) They get replaced on a regular basis with new ones. Did you just arrive in the 21st century today? Go ask the local ISP what happens when their equient gets obsoleted.
K) No, you tell them go right ahead.
L) Yes, a ridiculously unlikely event will become slightly less ridiculously unlikely.
Not if SpaceX cuts a deal allowing the armed forces to have global internet access on the cheap, and word on the street is that the government is very interested in that.
You are in a twisty maze of processor lines, all alike.
There is a lot of hype here.
Earth stations in this context mean individual customers.
As someone who works on boats at sea, the prospect of having personal broadband at work is a dream come true. However, considering that they're steel boats (so the decks will reflect the signal), what is needed is a way to use a single antenna on the top of the vessel to connect with multiple customers inside the vessel. Employers aren't going to want to pay for very much data for employees, and as an employee, I'd rather pay for my own, so as not to be restricted by what my employer might allocate. I expect that the equivalent of a Wilson cellular booster wouldn't be ideal, as frequency used by the satellite wouldn't necessarily be ideal for use indoors. What would be ideal is something that translated the satellite signal to and from wifi and allowed customers to individually log on to their SpaceX reseller account via a smartphone app. In fact, it might be a good idea for any Starlink earth station to look like a hotspot from the consumer side.