SpaceX granted approval to launch 15,000 LEO satellites for Starlink Mobile
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has granted SpaceX permission to put a further 15,000 next generation satellites into Low Earth Orbit (LEO) in order to help feed Starlink’s Mobile service, which will harness radio spectrum recently acquired from T-Mobile and EchoStar.
At present Starlink has an overall total of c.11,160 satellites in orbit for both broadband and mobile services – mostly at altitudes of between c.340-550km. Residential users in the UK pay from £40 a month for the 100Mbps unlimited data plan, which also promises uploads of c.15-35Mbps and low latency connectivity (c.20ms). But at present you can only buy their Direct to Cell (DtC) mobile service in the UK via O2 Satellite for £3 extra per month.
However, only around 650 of the aforementioned satellites currently supply their DtC mobile platform, which offers a fairly basic (c.5Mbps) and app-specific 4G remote roaming style service. But Starlink has long planned a V2 Mobile service (second generation), which is not be confused with their V2 broadband satellites that are already starting to be replaced by significantly larger V3 satellites.
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The new V2 Mobile satellites (pictured) are expected to deliver a 5G service and offer mobile broadband speeds of around 150Mbps per user. The current mobile system uses about 5MHz of bandwidth (hence why V1 is only good for basic comms tasks and apps), but V2 will have at least 65MHz of bandwidth available via the EchoStar spectrum, hence the speed boost. The first of these are due to be lofted in 2027.
As part of that SpaceX had been busy seeking permission to launch a further 15,000 satellites for Starlink Mobile since last year. Yesterday the FCC finally granted their application, which is despite rising concerns over the wider impact of satellites on the future of ground-based telescopes (Astronomy). The new satellites are expected to orbit at just 326km to 335km above the Earth.
Starlink Mobile aims to harness the 1695-1710MHz, 1910-1915MHz, 1990-1995MHz, 2000-2020MHz, 2180-2200MHz, 1915-1920 and 1995-2000MHz bands for the new service (a decision on some other bands has been deferred for now due to ongoing discussions). But this may yet differ slightly for the UK, due to differences in Ofcom’s regulatory approach and existing users on some of the relevant bands.
One catch, as spotted by PC Mag, is that the service will only be allowed to “test” using the EchoStar radio frequencies “until Step Two of the SpaceX-EchoStar transaction is consummated,” or when the deal is finally closed, which is scheduled for 30th November 2027.
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Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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