Elon Musk’s planetary reach

Many politicians have been dazzled by the figure of Elon Musk. In a very short time he became the richest person in the world, with a wealth of more than 219 billion dollars, surpassing Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Frenchman Bernard Arnault (LVMH) and Microsoft’s Bill Gates.

Musk has drawn attention for Tesla’s innovation, electric vehicles whose batteries use lithium; by SpaceX, which designs, manufactures and launches reusable rockets capable of returning to Earth; and recently for the purchase of Twitter for the stratospheric figure of 44 thousand million dollars.

Another company of the American businessman is Starlink, a global satellite Internet service with a presence in Latin America in Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Mexico and the Dominican Republic. It has an initial constellation of 3,000 low Earth orbit satellites developed by SpaceX. The service will also reach Argentina, Panama, Ecuador and other countries in the region.

The satellite is a complementary technology to fixed and mobile networks that do not reach remote areas. It reaches remote places and rural areas to bridge the digital divide and connect industries that otherwise would not have Internet: cruise ships, airplanes or offshore oil facilities.

Starlink is offered in Mexico for 1,100 pesos per month (initially the price was 2,299) and a single initial payment of 6,300 pesos (before it was 14,300) for the antenna, the WiFi router and other accessories.

The Ookla company, through the Speedtest application, carried out a speed test and Starlink obtained an average download speed of 141.94 Mbps, much higher than that of its satellite competitors, which did not exceed 20 Mbps, and even higher than Fixed internet.

Starlink’s faster internet speeds are achieved by the light, low-orbit satellites being closer to Earth, 550 kilometers, compared to 36,000 kilometers for other companies’ geostationary satellites.

In June 2021, Starlink obtained a 10-year concession from the Federal Telecommunications Institute for the transmission and reception of satellite Internet. The International Telecommunication Union has established that satellite companies must obtain local authorizations to operate. According to IFT data as of June 2021, satellite connections in the country represented 0.09% of the total. Other service providers are Viasiat, Hughes Net, Dish and Globalsat.

In November 2018, SpaceX received approval from the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to deploy 7,518 broadband satellites, operable in a radio spectrum that had not previously been used for commercial communications: the V-band in Earth orbit. low (VLEO). Previous attempts to deploy constellations of low-orbit satellites for low-cost Internet have failed. The most notorious case was that of One Web.

Although the technology allows it due to the scope of its footprint, the expansion and launch of satellite Internet in other countries is not easy because the return on investment is not guaranteed. SpaceX expected to earn revenue from Starlink of more than $30 billion in 2025, while launch revenue will reach $5 billion the same year.

SpaceX’s request to the FCC in 2017 was accompanied by documents to clarify its space debris mitigation plan. The company committed to “an operations plan for the orderly departure from orbit of satellites that are approaching the end of their useful life (5 to 7 years), a speed much faster than international standards. The satellites will be propelled out of orbit into an orbit from which they will re-enter Earth’s atmosphere approximately one year after completing their mission.”

Starlink has been criticized for light pollution from its satellites. Since the launch of the first batches in May 2019, the company has received questions from astronomers because the large number of satellites has affected the quality of its observations. On December 6, 2019, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell stated that she “wants people to admire the Starlink satellites, without missing the Moon or the other planets in the solar system.”

The company began testing in January 2020 a special coating on the underside of a satellite from the third batch called DarkSat, to make it less reflective and mitigate light pollution not anticipated in the design phase. The problem is that by reducing its reflectivity up to 50%, the satellite’s heat dissipation characteristics are affected, as well as its useful life.

Within the framework of the Summit of the Americas, Dominican President Luis Abinader visited the SpaceX facilities in Los Angeles, because Starlink had requested regulatory approvals to operate in the Caribbean country.

When Starlink filed an application to operate in Colombia, the government reported that it was possible to “strengthen the country’s market thanks to the new satellite regime.” In January 2022, the Brazilian National Telecommunications Agency approved Starlink operations for non-geostationary satellites until 2027.

The Brazilian Minister of Communications, Fábio Faria, said that the connectivity provided by Starlink satellites is faster than that of other companies. The minister addressed the matter at a hearing in the Chamber of Deputies on June 14, 2022. He was called by four commissions to clarify the agreement to connect 19 thousand schools in rural areas and monitor the Amazon.

Minister Faria explained that “the only company that has a laser and detects the noise of the chainsaw [que deforesta la selva] it Starlink”.

In April 2022, SpaceX donated 3,667 of the 5,000 Starlink antennas the United States delivered to Ukraine. Musk donated the Internet service fees that Ukraine was required to pay. As of October, his company had donated $80 million to Ukraine. The country at war has 22,000 Starlink antennas and another 10,000 financed by European countries will be added.

Musk owns the most influential social network, capable of moderating world conversation, and has the constellation of satellites with the fastest Internet, capable of connecting, communicating and observing everything that happens on the planet and beyond, including places most remote areas and territories at war.

Twitter: @beltmondi