(Photo by Michael Gonzalez/Getty Images)
SpaceX might expand its cellular Starlink system from a few hundred satellites to several thousand, marking a major leap in its coverage ambitions.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk teased the ambitious plan in a Wednesday tweet: "This is just the beginning." The company is currently close to operating over 300 cellular Starlink satellites. Once those are up and running, SpaceX will have enough coverage to beam cellular connectivity to phones on the ground, starting with SMS text messages for T-Mobile customers.
The cellular Starlink constellation is significantly smaller than the broadband Starlink network, which spans over 6,000 active satellites and beams high-speed internet to dishes on the ground. But that could change in the coming years, Musk says.
“My guess is that there will be as many Starlink direct to cell phone satellites as there are for our high bandwidth terminals,” he added in his tweet.
This would lead to a staggering increase in satellites in Earth’s orbit. The company has been developing the cellular Starlink system to help mobile carriers serve users in cellular dead zones. Increasing the satellite count promises to help SpaceX improve the coverage, which is also intended to support real-time voice and video calls, in addition to internet browsing.
But first, SpaceX needs regulatory clearance from the FCC. The company recently renewed its push to launch close to 30,000 Starlink satellites; it currently only has the authority to operate close to 12,000.
Rivals, including mobile carriers such as AT&T and Verizon, might also protest the ambitious plan, citing concerns about the cellular Starlink network causing radio interference. Meanwhile, a growing number of astronomers have already called on the FCC to halt expansions to the Starlink network and other “mega constellations” until a study can examine the environmental effects on Earth’s atmosphere.
In the meantime, SpaceX is expected to reach the 300 satellite threshold for the cellular Starlink network in the coming weeks. “Only 5 more launches left for Starlink Direct to Cell in order to complete the first commercial constellation,” tweeted Ben Longmier, SpaceX’s senior director for satellite engineering, earlier this week.
Longmier also said the cellular Starlink network works outdoors and indoors if the device is close to a window. It can also beam data to a phone when it's in the user’s pocket. That said, the cellular Starlink satellites won’t deliver the same broadband speeds as the normal Starlink network, which can power download rates at around 100Mbps or higher in the US.
Musk noted: “As a rough rule of thumb, however, bandwidth will be ~1/10th as high for phones vs a dedicated Starlink antenna (physics is the law). Still a major gamechanger,” he tweeted. A company test in March showed the technology can beam a download rate of 17Mbps.