SpaceX said its Starlink satellite broadband internet service now has more than 10,000 select beta users in the northern United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.
This number, however, represents only 1.4% of the 700,000 people that signed-up for the beta service since October 2020 but is still being seen as a major success by SpaceX, which owns the service.
SpaceX made the disclosure Thursday along with a petition to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) it be designated in an "Eligible Telecommunications Carrier" or ETC.
An ETC designation is necessary for Starlink to provide broadband internet to regions in Alabama, Connecticut, New Hampshire, New York, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.
SpaceX was awarded access to these areas under the FCC's Rural Digital Opportunities Fund, which is an auction to bring broadband services to U.S. rural areas. It was awarded some $900 million in federal subsidies by the FCC in the first phase of the auction.
"Designating Starlink Services as an ETC is in the public interest because it will enable the company to receive support that will facilitate rapid deployment of broadband and voice service to the Service Areas at speeds and latency comparable to terrestrial systems in urban locations," said SpaceX in its filing.
SpaceX will use the Starlink mega-constellation of satellites to provide broadband satellite internet connectivity to underserved areas and rural areas worldwide. Starlink will also provide competitively priced internet services to urban areas.
In its filing, SpaceX said it charges a $499 up front cost for the Starlink Kit that includes a user terminal and Wi-Fi router to connect to one of the more than 1,000 operational Starlink small satellites currently in low Earth orbit. Users pay a monthly fee of $99.
The first Starlink deployment mission blasted-off on May 2019 with the latest taking place only this Thursday (February 4). Sixty satellites were deployed into LEO Thursday to bring to 1,022 the number of operational birds.
A further 60 satellites will be launched into LEO on Friday. SpaceX is now launching up to 60 satellites on each mission from Florida. Some 60 satellites have been deorbited since 2019, however.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk estimates Starlink might generate revenues of $30 billion a year, which is 10 times the highest annual revenue SpaceX expects from its launch business. Musk needs the money from Starlink to fund his ambitious plan to send the first humans to Mars within this decade.
