SpaxeX, which provides the Starlink service that allows an Internet connection via satellite, announces that they have 1 million customers worldwide today. Musk’s escapades don’t seem to be affecting his other companies too much, luckily for him, despite his Twitter backlash.
“Starlink now has over 1,000,000 active subscribers – thank you to all Starlink customers and team members who have contributed to this important milestone”wrote the official SpaceX Twitter account on Monday.
But is this really good news? According to benchmarks conducted by Ookla, a world-renowned speed test application, the speed drops more the more customers there are…
The service actually shows a drop in speeds of 9 to 54% and clearly indicates that Starlink is indeed suffering from an excess of customers. With so many connected, the satellite service may not keep up in terms of performance. if Starlink had 400,000 customers in May, we could notice significant price drops in August.
These price cuts have surely enticed even more people to sign up and more than double the number of customers in a matter of months. But more customers for so much bandwidth to share, of course, the speeds could only decrease.
SpeceX is partnering with T-Mobile in the US to enable the carrier’s customer smartphones to connect to Starlink satellites. The first tests are planned for the end of 2023. But in the meantime, Elon Musk will have to send some more satellites to give us a quality network.
Now, however, customers who exceed the monthly data limits will see their throughput reduced. You then have to pay extra to regain your starting speed, a bit like on a 4G or 5G package with us, but here it is on a homebox package, which is not really practical. ‘admit.$
But SpaceX plans to launch new satellites before the end of the year. If 3,000 satellites are in orbit, Musk wants to send another 39,000, of which 12,000 have already been validated. There will therefore be many launches in 2023!