Elon Musk’s satellite internet already has 10,000 users
Starlink. (Photo: rafapress / Shutterstock)
No time right now?
Starlink, the satellite Internet service from Elon Musk’s space company SpaceX, is still in test operation. Nevertheless, there are said to be more than 10,000 Starlink users worldwide.
Starlink arrived in Germany at the end of January, namely with the Twitter user Viv (@flcnhvy), who Elon Musk counts as one of her followers. The offer is therefore already stable in this country. Users in rural areas without a broadband connection can therefore hope. No wonder that the service is already in high demand around the world. Worldwide, the number of users of the offer, which is still in the test stage, should already amount to over 10,000.
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Download rates of 100 megabits per second are common
That shows a Writing from SpaceX to the US Telecommunications Administration FCC. In it Elon Musk’s space company also states that most Starlink users are currently receiving download rates of at least 100 megabits per second. This means that the Starlink offer is already above the value that Internet users in most US states can expect, such as Mashable writes. And Starlink is still under construction, the download rate should move in the future in the gigabit range. SpaceX currently states the latency to be less than 31 milliseconds.
In Germany, both Deutsche Telekom and the Federal Minister responsible for digital infrastructure, Andreas Scheuer, are showing an interest in the technology. According to its boss Timotheus Höttges, Telekom is in talks with the SpaceX subsidiary Starlink about a partnership. According to his own statements, Höttges is a “great admirer of Elon Musk and his ideas”. The background to this is that the expansion of broadband internet in rural areas is taking longer than planned – and causing enormous costs.
Starlink voucher for German households?
Starlink promises to be cheaper here. The equipment, user terminal, satellite dish plus tripod and WLAN router, costs a one-time fee of a few hundred euros. Around 100 euros are then due monthly for use. Federal Minister Scheuer is therefore considering issuing Starlink vouchers to those households that have a very poor internet connection and for which no expansion is planned for the time being. With the planned 500 euros, these households could then at least buy the necessary hardware. “In this way, we could supply around 200,000 households nationwide with high-speed internet overnight and enable them to participate digitally,” said Scheuer towards Focus Online.
Also interesting: Starlink starts soon – all information about Elon Musk’s satellite internet
