Starlink Doubled Its Subscriber Base Last Year. But Can It Keep Up With Users’ Needs?
SpaceX’s Starlink Satellite Internet Service Now has more than 4.6 million users The company wrote in a post on X on the last day of 2024 worldwide.
Starlink said in a report to the Federal Communications Commission in August 2024 that it has grown to be nearby 1.4 million subscribers in the United States Since its debut in 2021. 1% of all internet connections In the country, but it is a godsend to the people in rural areas.
“People buy a house here and they think there is internet, and then they find out there is no internet,” Edwin Walker, a retired electrical engineer in Chattaroy, Washington, told CNET. “Literally, there are hundreds of people with interstellar links.”
2024 is a year of rapid growth of satellite Internet companies. This year begins 2.3 million customers Globally, with 4.6 million.
In November, Starlink begins Put customers on waitlist In American cities such as Seattle, Portland, Sacramento, San Diego and Austin. It also adds a “traffic congestion fee” to customers in high-usage areas.
There are concerns about whether Starlink can keep up with the growing demand for services. FCC Define broadband Download 100 megabits per second and upload 20Mbps. This is a bar star link that the United States has never reached.
this Latest data from Ookla In 2023, Starlink users in the United States received an average of 65/10Mbps, with a 58 millisecond delay. (Disclosure: Ookla is owned by the same parent company as CNET.)
In the three years it has collected speed test data on Starlink, the company has never met the benchmark set by the FCC. The closest thing is the last quarter of 2021 to reach 105/12Mbps.
Read more: Inside the rise of 7,000 star-striped satellites – their inevitable collapse
In 2022, the Stars and Stripes link is Nearly $900 million rejected The Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) grant is granted in broadband because it cannot meet the FCC’s speed requirements. Elon Musk Written on X In January 2024, the idea that Starlink failed to achieve these speeds was “completely wrong”, and “Starlink is now surpassing this speed”.
Brendan Carr, current FCC chairman, said the committee could not revisit Starlink’s RDOF subsidy, but Tell Politico in October He believes that “returning to the FCC’s broadband plan” is “just to regain Starlink.”
Watch the following: Starlink satellites bring the internet to millions. We’ll explain the pros and cons
