How Elon Musk dominates Internet satellites

In six months, Musk's company SpaceX has put more than 1,000 satellites into Earth's orbit, while Japan only launches 10-20 satellites a year.

According to Nikkei Asia , Elon Musk is increasingly expanding his presence in the field of satellite Internet. The company SpaceX he founded is accounting for more than 60% of the world's satellite launches this year.

With just one rocket, SpaceX can carry 60 satellites at once. As of the end of June, the company had put more than 1,000 satellites into orbit, according to data from researcher Jonathan McDowell at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Since 2019, SpaceX has sent nearly 5,000 satellites into space. This is just a small number of Musk's ambitions. According to Space News, SpaceX has applied for permission to launch a total of 42,000 satellites by 2027, about 20 times the number of satellites in operation today.

With the above numbers, Musk is considered the dominator of this market. Competitor is Amazon, which plans to launch a prototype satellite later this year. Meanwhile, Japan only launches 10-20 satellites each year.

Elon Musk's satellite Internet network surrounds the Earth. Photo: Business Insider

After meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 20, Elon Musk expressed his desire to provide satellite Internet services in the market with the second largest population in the world. The SpaceX founder thinks that satellite Internet will be "extremely useful" for people in remote villages, with little opportunity to connect to broadband Internet. India has only 2% of households with high-speed Internet access out of a population of 1.4 billion.

SpaceX's Starlink satellites can help users connect to high-speed Internet as they orbit 300-600 km above the Earth's surface. This distance is significantly lower than that of meteorological satellites, which usually operate in orbits of about 36,000 km.

To access satellite Internet, Starlink customers only need to install a transceiver, size 50 x 30 cm. In an email to customers, SpaceX said the satellite Internet can reach speeds of 50-150 Mbps. In some places, Starlink even hit 175 Mbps. Meanwhile, according to Speedtest, mobile Internet speed in Vietnam is 46 Mbps and fixed broadband is 84 Mbps.

In 2021, Starlink once caused a stir among Vietnamese users when it allowed them to sign up for the service for $99 per month. The above information has been removed. In some other markets in Southeast Asia such as the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei, the rollout is expected to begin this year.

According to experts, if they want coverage in Vietnam, satellite Internet projects like Elon Musk's must have commercial agreements with Vietnamese enterprises that have been licensed to provide telecommunications services via satellite transmission. In addition, the revised draft law also adds regulations on setting up satellite gateway stations in Vietnam.

The number of global broadband satellite Internet users is expected to double from 71 million in 2022 to 153 million in 2031, according to aerospace consulting firm Euroconsult. Meanwhile, JP Morgan bank forecasts that the market for satellite communication services will reach $ 95 billion by 2040. Self-driving vehicles will lead the demand for using satellite Internet. According to Adam Jonas, analyst at JP Morgan, satellite links are powerful tools for self-driving cars because they can be constantly updated anywhere.

However, satellite communications are relatively new and still inherently risky. OneWeb, a British satellite operator, collapsed in 2020 after running into financial difficulties and being bailed out by the government. Even SpaceX is not fully stable. The company is growing the market thanks to large subsidies from the US government and orders from NASA. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said Starlink "will make money" this year.

Khuong Nha (according to Nikkei Asia )

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