Input 2021.02.12 06:00
Beta service already started in North America
Business license in Europe… Countdown to India
According to foreign media such as CNBC on the 12th, SpaceX is preparing to enter the Indian telecom market. To this end, we are negotiating satellite-based broadband Internet services with the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRAI), an agency under the Indian government. Patricia Cooper, vice president of SpaceX, told local media, “We will provide benefits in the near future to citizens who have difficulty accessing broadband Internet services in cities and suburbs in India.”
Starlink is a project to build a high-speed Internet service that can be used across the globe at a speed of 1Gbps (GagaBPS) by launching 12,000 small orbit satellites by the mid-2020s and 40,000 in the long term.
According to the North American service guide, the fee for using the StarLink beta service is $99 per month (approximately 110,000 won). In order to use the service, you have to pay $499 (about 560,000 won) in advance to purchase a dish and a Wi-Fi router to connect to the satellite.
Although the price is somewhat higher than that of Korea, it is evaluated that it is competitive when considering the Internet price in the United States. The average monthly Internet price in the US is $65, which is about 20% expensive for Starlink. However, when calculated at Mbps, Starlink is $0.96 per Mbps, which is cheaper than the existing Internet average of $1.13. In addition, the current average speed of Starlink’s beta service is 103.1Mbps, and the average Internet download speed across the United States is nearly twice as fast as 57.2Mbps. Last month, a poll conducted by’Review’, a specialized media related to connected homes, surveyed 500 Americans over the age of 18, said 51% of them are willing to subscribe to Starlink service.
In addition, 55% of non-satellite Internet users said that if Starlink’s Internet speed increases, they will replace it at a high cost. The reason for wanting the fast internet speed of Starlink ▲ high-quality video streaming services such as Netflix (74%) ▲ video calls such as zoom (72%) ▲ use of online video games (56%) were cited.
Starlink is currently approved for business in the UK, Greece, Germany, and Australia along with North America.
In the future, SpaceX plans to invest more than 10 billion dollars (approximately 11.1 trillion won) in building Starlink. If the business is on track, it is expected to generate annual sales of 30 billion dollars (33.4 trillion won).
Then, how should the existing telecommunications industry accept Starlink? Elon Musk has repeatedly emphasized that Starlink is complementary to the services of existing telecommunications companies and will not pose a threat. In remote areas and suburbs with poor internet access, SpaceX can save investment costs by concentrating on densely populated urban areas. The company explained that due to the limitation of satellite bandwidth, the speed is bound to drop in densely populated areas such as large cities.
However, some analysts analyze that if SpaceX continues to launch satellites in the future and has price competitiveness through technological improvements such as speed and bandwidth, and economies of scale, it will inevitably eat into the pie of the existing telecommunications industry.
The possibility that Starlink’s Internet service will enter the mobile service market in the future cannot be excluded. This is because it is theoretically possible to provide the same high-speed communication quality anywhere in the world without roaming. It can give the same shock as Apple’s iPhone, which changed the paradigm of the mobile phone market. In addition, Starlink is expected to be applied to various fields such as autonomous vehicles, drones, and ships.