A report from analysts at QuiltSpace says that Elon Musk’s Starlink broadband-by-satellite system is missing out business with airlines, themselves rapidly adopting satellite delivery for their in-flight communications and entertainment services. Quilty praises Starlink for hitting the maritime industry “like a tsunami” and swallowing up cruise lines, yachts, and merchant vessels at such high rates […]
John Deere is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of farm and agriculture products. It is already supplying farmers with automated solutions for some of their tractors and harvesters and using conventional terrestrial cellular connectivity. Back in January, John Deere announced an upgrade to its automation options and using Starlink as the key element in […]
Elon Musk, in a Tweet on X, says he will “blast away the dead [cellular] zones,” helped by a launch on August 31st which added 26 Starlink satellites suitable for handling calls direct–to–cellular (DTC). The latest batch takes the number of DTC satellites to 168, with another launch likely later this week. However, waiting in […]
Comments made by critics of Brazil’s government on X has resulted in Starlink being banned in the country. There are a reported 250,000 users of Starlink in Brazil, and Elon Musk says that SpaceX will continue to support them and not charge a monthly fee while the dispute continues. Musk said: “SpaceX and X are […]
SpaceX’s Starlink broadband by satellite system is offering free connections for emergency calls when smart–phone users are in rural or maritime regions anywhere in the world. Elon Musk, in a post on his X platform, said: “After thinking it through, SpaceX Starlink will provideemergency services access for mobile phones for people in distress for free. […]
Kenya’s largest telco Safaricom is urging the government to bar SpaceX’s Starlink from operating over the country, or at least to require the Elon Musk–owned business to take on a local partner. Safaricom’s letter to the Communications Authority of Kenya (CAK) said: “Satellite coverage inherently spans multiple territorial borders and in doing so has the […]
AST SpaceMobile has enjoyed a spectacular rise in its share price over the past few days as enthusiasm for its target satellite–to–cellular service despite only having one test satellite in orbit. However, and despite much criticism, SpaceX’s Starlink might well steal AST’s thunder with its own satellite–based connectivity for smartphones. Starlink is basing a portion […]
SpaceX has told the FCC that it now has “more than 1.4 million” Starlink customers in the US, its largest market. In December 2023 it had claimed 1.3 million customers in the US. “Clearly, growth has slowed in the US, even while accelerating in other countries,” commented specialist satellite consultant Tim Farrar of TMF Associates. […]
A Chinese state-owned enterprise has launched the first batch of satellites for a mega-constellation designed to rival US company Space X’s Starlink’s near-global internet network. The launch, led by Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology (SSST), took place at Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre, one of China’s main satellite and missile launch centres, located in the northern province […]
“Falcon is baaaaaaaack!!!!!!” was the post from SpaceX’s president and COO Gwynne Shotwell following the triple launch weekend of three Falcon 9 rockets, and achieved just two weeks after a partial failure of a Falcon’s upper stage on July 11th. The weekend (July 27th/28th) certainly saw SpaceX regain its stride, and started to make up […]