Starlink’s LEO Satellite Broadband Network Hits 1 Million Subscribers

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has announced that Starlink’s global mega constellation of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) based ultrafast broadband ISP satellites has managed to grow its customer base to over 1 million, which is double the 500,000 they reported just six months ago in June 2022.

At present Starlink currently has around 3,320 LEO satellites in orbit around the Earth (altitude of around 550 kilometres) and their initial plan is to deploy a total of 4,425 by 2024. Customers in the UK pay from £75 per month, £460 for the regular home kit (standard dish, router etc.) and £40 for shipping on the ‘Standard‘ package, which gets you unlimited usage, fast latency times of 25-50ms, advertised downloads of c. 50-200Mbps and uploads of c.5-15Mbps (speeds may change as the network grows).

The global network has continued to grow during 2022 and customers have also seen more than a few changes, such as via the addition of new packages for businesses, aviation, maritime and motor homes (RVs) etc. Not to mention the various changes to prices and usage allowances / traffic management, which vary quite a lot depending upon your country of origin (reflecting differences in coverage, ground stations and spectrum access).

Admittedly it’s still not the most affordable solution out there, but for many of those in remote rural areas (the target audience) that is often considered as secondary to the benefits it can bring. Going forward, Starlink will continue to grow its network and boost capacity, but it will remain difficult to balance the availability of capacity against the rapid increase in customer count.

One way or another, SpaceX needs to turn a profit from this venture, which is still a tricky thing to deliver without further sacrificing performance or raising prices. The future GEN2 satellites will help (the first of those is already due for an imminent launch), but performance is just as much a function of ground stations and spectrum access as it is the number of LEOs a company can loft.

Lest we forget that the coming year will also see Starlink helping to power a 4G / 5G mobile network for global roaming.