SpaceX’s Starlink to Amazon’s Project Kuiper: The Future of Satellite Internet

Space Internet has a reputation for slow service. With questionable signal strength and little bandwidth suitable for Netflix, internet transmitted from low earth orbit is something that’s only available as a last resort or if you’re stuck on a long-haul flight. In 2018, the satellite-based Internet will undergo a major overhaul.

Private companies and governments are serious about space internet projects. This year, SpaceX plans multiple launches, including one with 51 satellites scheduled to take off later tonight from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, which will send satellites into orbit to support the Starlink network. doing.. Each new batch joins the thousands of satellites SpaceX has already sent into orbit, including satellites from Starlink competitor OneWeb. Amazon, meanwhile, plans to incorporate more than 3,000 of his satellites into its Project Kuiper satellite internet constellation, and plans to launch a prototype satellite earlier this year. The European Union says the proposed satellite network Iriss could include up to 170 satellites scheduled to enter low earth orbit between 2025 and 2027. We are looking for investors to fund our own domestic satellite network.

With the rise of the commercial space industry, the cost of launching into space has dropped significantly over the past few years. Satellites themselves are getting cheaper. As a result, it has become much more feasible to hire rocket companies to put commercial satellites into orbit, providing much faster internet service than older satellite-based internet technologies that typically rely on one or two satellites. It paved the way for a satellite constellation that could be delivered. A satellite orbiting a planet. Satellite-based Internet isn’t necessarily set to replace the services provided by cell towers and fiber optic cables, but it’s a much more widespread network that many people use every day. It adds a lot of capacity and may play a role in expanding coverage.

With a proliferation of new satellites expected, space internet will become a bigger presence in our daily lives this year. T-Mobile plans to use Starlink’s network to expand coverage in dead zones, and SpaceX is encouraging other mobile his providers to connect their networks to heaven. Amazon’s Project Kuiper is designed to power Verizon’s 4G, LTE, and 5G networks after launch, a spokesperson told Recode. Even planes and boats are embarking on this idea. Starlink has already made internet available on its private jets and on select cruise ships, and Delta earlier this month announced that it would be making in-flight Wi-Fi free for all his SkyMiles members. Partnership with T-Mobile and geostationary satellite provider Viasat.

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According to Sylwia Kechiche, the company’s chief industry analyst, satellite internet could be a real upgrade for people living or traveling in remote areas. At Ookla, a network intelligence company. “Think of the suburbs of a city, where we don’t have infrastructure as good as this anymore, where there’s no fiber or cable, so you can’t get enough speed,” she said.

However, the new era also brings new hurdles. Next-generation satellite-enabled equipment is still expensive, which may prevent us from using this technology to bridge the digital divide (the gap between those who have access to high-quality internet and those who don’t). and around the world. Low Earth orbit, or the part of space within 1,200 miles of Earth, is already overcrowded, and there are concerns that the proliferation of commercial satellites will exacerbate the space junk problem and block astronomers because of its brightness. is rising. ‘A view of the night sky. As multiple networks gear up to launch more and more satellites into space, regulators are clamoring over the physical space in orbit and the spectrum bands wireless satellite internet providers need to operate their services. Ready for battle. Even if prices have dropped across the board, there still remains the problem of understanding when and where it actually makes economic sense to use satellites.

“Most city dwellers take broadband connectivity over terrestrial networks for granted. explains Scott Pace of “Space systems will not replace existing ground systems, but will enhance and enhance the scale and resilience of Internet services in new ways.”

satellite renaissance

For the last few decades, satellite Internet has relied primarily on geostationary satellites. These satellites orbit at an altitude of about 22,000 miles. That is, they always appear to be in the same position when viewed from Earth. Hence the name geostationary satellite. These internet beam satellites are so far away that they can cover large areas of the earth’s surface. However, for the same reason, as anyone who has used satellite internet on an airplane will tell you, the connections these satellites offer can also be very slow.

The new Starlink satellites orbiting Earth will work differently. Because they operate at much lower altitudes, and because each satellite covers a smaller area, companies launch hundreds or thousands of satellites into space en masse, creating satellite constellations in orbit. So geostationary satellites may look like stars from the ground, but newer satellites look more like shooting stars, says Whitney Laumeyer, an engineering professor and satellite industry consultant. . If you are lucky, you may even see these satellites soaring into the night sky.

“The closer you get to the surface…the smaller the footprint,” Lohmeyer told Recode. “Therefore, more satellites are needed in the LEO constellation to provide global coverage.”

For the time being, SpaceX is the leader in this new internet age. The company is responsible for nearly half of the active satellites orbiting the Earth, and his Starlink Internet service, which is now available in dozens of countries, hit one million users in December. Still, Amazon hasn’t launched a satellite of its own yet, but some think it might ultimately have an advantage because it can connect the space internet to its already giant cloud business, Amazon Web Services.

Companies you don’t usually hear about are participating in the Satellite Gold Rush. Apple has teamed up with Globalstar, a low-earth satellite network founded in 1991, to launch a new satellite service that provides emergency service when no other cellular network is available on iPhone 14 models (Apple launched 11 invested $450 million in the company in a month). Qualcomm is working with another satellite company called Iridium to launch a similar feature on certain of his Android smartphones. But while our devices are constantly connecting to satellites for services like GPS, these more advanced features require new hardware that most cell phones don’t have today.

Changes have also been made to older satellite-based internet providers. ViaSat executive Dan Buchman, an executive at ViaSat, a nearly 40-year-old geostationary satellite network, told Recode the company plans to launch a new next-generation satellite in the first quarter of this year. said it will be launched in the next quarter. 12 months. The expansion will increase the company’s capacity by 600%, with each new satellite capable of carrying at least a terabit of data per second. ViaSat already provides satellite internet for several major airlines.

Future tasks

Today, companies are laying the foundation for the future of the space internet industry. Sometimes it literally takes the form of new ground stations to support new satellites. It also creates all sorts of unexpected opportunities, such as satellite-focused jobs. Amazon, for example, is opening facilities primarily focused on manufacturing new satellites. The division says the company is still pursuing even amid company-wide job cuts.

But the arrival of these new satellites created real problems. One space researcher suggested in 2021 that Starlink satellites with autonomous collision avoidance systems account for the majority of close encounters between objects in low-Earth orbit. Space junk in this crowded space is becoming an increasing problem, and there are concerns that installing more satellites will only make the problem worse. These satellites are in danger of colliding with each other or with any of the tens of thousands of orbiting debris that orbit the Earth. This creates even more space debris.

“There is a finite number of orbital highways, and all orbital highway carrying capacities that we have yet to measure,” Moriba Jar, principal scientist and co-founder of Privateer Space, told Recode. . “This carrying capacity is like highways and limited land on Earth.”

Andrii Dubchak/Donbas Frontliner via Zaborona/Global Images Ukraine, via Getty Images

The challenge of regulating these services is so great that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently announced a proposal to create a specially focused space agency. Agencies are now in charge of regulating the spectrum, which is already creating tension between providers like OneWeb and SpaceX and companies like Dish. The FCC recently withdrew his SpaceX subsidy of nearly $1 billion aimed at addressing the digital divide.

Meanwhile, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) oversees the launch of the many rockets required to send these satellites into space. Government agencies must also approve satellite-based Internet services for aircraft. For commercial airliners, airlines installing these systems must demonstrate to government agencies that the new technology will not interfere with the aircraft’s communications and safety systems.

As with in-flight Wi-Fi, satellite-based internet can be very beneficial for certain use cases. And it’s expensive. For example, to set up Starlink, customers would have to pay $599 for the device and then $110 per month, which is higher than many broadband services. Besides the high cost of equipment and services, satellite internet is not always the most reliable and has limited capacity.

Harold Feld, senior vice president of Public Knowledge, a nonprofit dedicated to fostering digital competition, said: “As we start to roll out and get into the details, we also start to discover some real limitations.” The company says it may implement high-speed data caps in the US in the future.

However, satellite-based internet doesn’t have to be everything to have a real impact on everyone. These services could significantly expand the wired and wireless Internet services in use today. This is a welcome advancement for many people around the world without high-speed internet, or for everyone else venturing into less-connected areas.

If all goes as planned by companies such as SpaceX and Amazon, their satellites will become the actual infrastructure, regularly connecting devices from space to the ambient. This new generation of internet connectivity isn’t online yet, but the satellites that make it possible are now being launched.

“We’re still in the early days, so we’re waiting for the iPhone to take effect,” Ookla’s Kechiche told Recode. “We’re still waiting for the ‘wow’ factor and something that pushes it far. ”