Starlink Satellite Constellation
Starlink is a satellite internet constellation operated by American aerospace company SpaceX, providing satellite Internet access coverage to over 60 countries.
It also aims for global mobile phone service after 2023.
SpaceX started launching Starlink satellites in 2019.
As of May 2023, Starlink consists of over 4,000 mass-produced small satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO), which communicate with designated ground transceivers.
The importance of Starlink
For most of the last three decades, satellite internet ranked pretty high on the list of possible, but largely impractical, technology – somewhere between jetpacks and hover cars.
The governments or companies would send up small satellites into space that would beam high-speed Internet to users with the help of ground stations or terminals back on earth.
In the 1990s and 2000s, most of the companies that sent up such satellites ended up failing, either due to high costs or technical difficulties.
It didn’t help that the actual product at the time was bad and that the business opportunity was limited.
A lot of this changed fArom 2019, in large part due to Elon Musk.
Better satellites, placed closer to earth, and in a connected constellation could bring satellite internet access on par with the average broadband experience.
Today, Musk’s Starlink service is the undisputed king of the section of space called low-earth orbit (LEO).
Of the roughly 7,500 active satellites that orbit Earth today, more than half are Starlink satellites.
There are a handful of competitors, some backed by governments: Viasat, OneWeb, Avanti, SES, Immarsat, and Iridium.
But none of them come close to offering the convenience, speed or affordability of Starlink.
Importance of Starlink in conflict-stricken regions
For most of the world, Starlink’s importance in Ukraine has hammered in how high-speed satellite Internet access is quickly becoming the most valuable strategic resource in a conflict or war-stricken region.
After the Russia-Ukraine war broke out in 2022, fibre network lines and cell towers were the first pieces of infrastructure to be destroyed, rendering Starlink as the lifeblood of Ukraine’s communication network.
It also made them beholden to Musk’s mercurial personality.
When Internet connectivity is deployed in a region, the nature of the technology is such that its operations aren’t controlled by the user, but by the company.
So when the Ukrainian government wanted to switch on/off access in a particular area – for example, if a piece of territory had fallen into Russian hands and a few Starlink dishes or terminals had been lost – it had to call up Starlink each and every time.
Imagine an Ukrainian army officer needing connectivity, only to find out that it’s 4 am in California and his contact at SpaceX won’t wake up for another three hours.
Musk could argue that he doesn’t want to give up control but the flipside is that he can also choose to turn the service off whenever he wishes.
This is why Taiwan, in desperate need of a back-up in the event China snaps its undersea cables, suggested Starlink operate in its country through a joint venture that would have a local company own 51% of the entity. Musk refused, and talks petered out.
Concerns about the concentration of power and control in the hands of one tech CEO
Traditional infrastructure works on a public-utility principle.
Telecom companies don’t get to decide whether a particular region deserves no internet access because its inhabitants might use it for unsavoury purposes.
Yet satellite internet companies get to insert themselves in key debates because of how the technology works and the lack of regulation.
After the September 2022 protests in Iran, the government shut off internet access in large parts of the country.
Musk quickly stepped in to turn on Starlink connectivity.
Activists and protestors smuggled in satellite dishes, and to date over 100 Starlink terminals are active in Iran, although the government there has declared it illegal.
Short of shooting down Starlink’s satellites, Iran’s government can’t do anything.
There aren’t many that would oppose giving non-violent and democratic protestors the right to safely communicate.
But it’s when the other side of the penny drops that the problem of Starlink’s monopoly becomes clear.
The New York Times reports that Musk refused Ukraine’s request in 2022 to provide Starlink connectivity near Crimea.
The Ukrainian army wanted to send an explosive-filled maritime drone into Russian ships.
It was only months later that Musk said that he wouldn’t allow Starlink to be used for long-range drone strikes.
Starlink sits outside the realm of a typical government-to-government defence deal, yet these decisions get to be taken not by a government but a handful of tech company employees.
Reasons for Starlink’s monopoly
Starlink’s monopoly was the result of many factors. Admittedly, Musk’s foresight is one; extremely light regulation from the Federal Communications Commission is another.
SpaceX’s partly reusable rockets give Starlink a non-stop elevator to get satellites into LEO in a relatively inexpensive manner. This is where its serious competitors trip up.
Way forward
The obvious solution is that we need more LEO satellite constellations – government, private or some combination of the two – that provide Internet access.
Rival firm OneWeb, whose biggest shareholders are Bharti Airtel’s holding company and the U.K. government, were forced to abort a launch in Russia after Putin demanded the satellites not be used against Moscow.
OneWeb took a $230 million hit after Russia refused to return its satellites too.
This is why more government-specific projects are needed.
In 2022, the European Union earmarked EUR 2.4 billion to set up a “sovereign” satellite constellation to be rolled out by 2027.
China has its own plans to deploy a 13,000-satellite LEO mega constellation to rival Starlink.
Starlink’s disputes with Ukraine and other countries should serve as a wake-up call of how the power of the stars is quickly being concentrated in the hands of just one man, and a worrying lesson for any country or government looking to depend on Musk for connectivity.
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