While SpaceX is certain riding high following the successful launch of it’s Dragon 2 craft to the International Space Station, one of their most curious projects is their plan to introduce a worldwide internet service.
If you were not aware of this, the proposal is quite simple. What SpaceX wants to do is to launch thousands of low-level satellites meaning that users can gain access to the internet, anywhere, at any time, and, in theory, with no disruption. In a report via Engadget, however, with the FCC currently accepting bids on a colossally huge pot of cash, they’ve told Starlink that they only have a month to prove that low-latency connections are possible otherwise they may miss out on a huge chunk of funding!
Starlink Under Pressure to Prove Low-Latency Internet
With the FCC having around $16 billion in federal funds to distribute to various companies who believe they can improve internet service, Starlink is clearly quite keen to get some of this money to help fund their project. The main crux of the matter, however, is current concerns that while the satellites will work, they may not be (currently or in the short to medium-term future) be able to provide low-latency connections.
As such, the FCC has told SpaceX that, if they want their ‘hat in the ring’ for a huge payout, they’ve only got a month to prove it’s possible!
What Do We Think?
The bottom line is that if Starlink doesn’t prove this within the 30-day period, they will still be able to apply for money off the FCC. The key factor, however, is that to access the ‘higher-tier’ of funding, they must show that their internet is capable of achieving less than 100-millisecond latency within this time frame. If they don’t, they’ve missed out and their best-case scenario is that they’ll still receive funding but on a massively lower scale.
Will they do it though? Well, the short answer is nobody really knows. While SpaceX’s satellite service is certainly more than capable of achieving this, the main crux is whether they can have it operational (at the required speeds) in time.
For us humble consumers, however, this could be amazing news. This could completely break our reliance on standard phoneline based ISP’s and, in theory, take connection speeds to a ridiculously high-level for an amazingly low price point! Who knows, maybe in 5 years time we’ll all be on ‘Starlink’ internet!
What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!
We can’t all be on it and expect huge bandwidth, this service is really for rural communities who up until now have had disappointing or no access at all, a city full of people all wanting starlink will up with 1990’s dial-up speeds!