APC – April 2020
English | 118 pages | pdf | 45.73 MB
As I write, SpaceX has just successfully launched its fourth Starlink mission, deploying another 60 global internet satellites for a total of 240 so far. This followed approval by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) at the beginning of the year for the company to operate specific frequencies in Australia, and is the first step for full entry into the Australian broad band market.
If all goes to plan, Starlink will be selling internet services to the US market later this year, and Australia (and the rest of the world) in 2021. Performance is claimed to be in the order of (up to) 1Gbps and 10-20ms latency. That is roughly 20x what a typical NBN user experiences, and quick enough for gamers to no longer care what country a server is in. And, for a total deployment cost of around $10 billion. To service the entire globe. A quarter of what the NBN cost…
We don’t know yet what model the selling part will take. Elon Musk has said it’s likely Starlink will be spun off as a separate business to SpaceX once things are operational. It’s likely you will buy your Starlink internet from a MVNO-type of reseller. It’s way to soon to speculate about pricing, though there will certainly be many tiers plus enterprise and consumer packages.
Inherently, Starlink works equally well – and should cost just as much – whether you’re in a city CBD or at the South Pole, or on a boat in the middle of the Pacific. Or an outback cattle station. So for Australian rural and remote areas this will be a game changer.
Foxtel is chucking a stink about it all, claiming possible signal interference with its own single satellite. But we all know Rupert is simply trying to deny Australians access to the service to protect what’s left of Foxtel, just like he (allegedly) did to cripple the NBN.
As with everything Elon Musk does, Starlink is astonishing in its audacious scope – and equally stunning in its pace of deployment. It’s frankly incredible to watch it all take place. SpaceX is not only able to launch a Starlink-carrying rocket every two weeks for at least the next two years – but it’s also building 60 satellites every fortnight, too. And that’s on top of customer launches, where it has taken almost all of the commercial launch market to itself.
Exciting times! Let’s just hope it’s not neutered too much by a protectionist government…
BEN MANSILL
EDITOR
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