A major revolution in the Greek telecommunications market comes at the beginning of 2021 by the American business magnate, Elon Musk.
According to SpaceX, Musk’s aerospace manufacturer and space shuttle services, high-speed satellite internet will be brought to everyone in Greece, and coverage of all Greek territories by the satellites of SpaceX’s Starlink program is expected to be completed within the first quarter. of 2021. “
The SpaceX and Starlink project managers are already in contact with both the National Telecommunications and the Post Commission of Greece, as well as the Greek Ministry of Digital Government, to obtain the necessary licensing and begin the process of replacing the old ISPs.
This major change in Greek telecommunications is also important for scientists, engineers, computer programmers and many more professionals in Greece, as many new and promising jobs with SpaceX will come to the country.
SpaceX, NASA’s largest partner and aircraft provider, reports that “Starlink’s entry into the Internet connectivity services market is expected to cause a major shock in the Greek telecommunications market, and although we predict that it will be priced somewhat more expensive – estimated at around 20 % more expensive than current internet providers – this will provide 100% coverage to the greek area and reach speeds up to 150 Mbps. ”
What does the internet Mbps speed mean?
The current internet speed in Greece varies between 5-50 Mbps (Megabit per second), and 15 Mbps is the average internet speed per household in the country. Specifically, this means that Internet users with such speeds in Mbps are able to enjoy various online activities that collectively reach up to 50 Mbps.
For example, downloading online games (10 Mbps), YouTube videos (5 Mbps), messages on Facebook on another device (5 Mbps), and a movie (10 Mbps) would require at least 30 Mbps for browsers to work fast, pages load fast and all internet activities run smoothly.
The 150Mbps SpaceX satellite internet – the fastest in the telecommunications market – would allow Greek internet users to enjoy multiple online activities simultaneously, from numerous devices, with extremely fast download and online playback speeds, the highest quality 4K and 3D videos and much more.
As most of the country remains ‘hostage’ of outdated infrastructure and therefore low speeds, even in Athens, the impact of SpaceX’s latest internet technology will be huge for communication in Greece and the way businesses operate.
The move by Elon Musk to bring Starlink to Greece will put the country at the top of the list of countries with the fastest internet in the world, next to South Korea (which ranks first), followed by Norway, Singapore and Canada, while the US holds the 11de position, the United Kingdom the 14de, and Australia the 43rd position. Greece currently holds the 54de in the list of countries with the fastest internet in the world.
SpaceX will provide satellite dishes to users in Greece – similar to that of satellite TVs – which enables them to connect to Starlink satellites in space.
In turn, the Starlink satellites will reconnect to a ground station in Greece that will provide the entire country with internet. These ground stations, which are technically the backbone of the global internet and can be found in several countries around the world, are expected to be located in Nemea or in Thermopylae, Greece.
There are currently more than 800 Starlink satellites in orbit, all serving the US and Canada, with several European countries, including Greece, joining SpaceX’s satellite internet in 2021.
More precisely, Starlink is a satellite system built by SpaceX to provide satellite internet and high speed broadband services. The entire SpaceX system consists of thousands of small satellites in a low-Earth orbit, working in combination with ground receivers (ground stations).
Starlink’s development began in 2015, with the first two test satellites launched into orbit in February 2018.
A second pair of test satellites were sent into space in 2019, and the first massive satellite launch took place in May 2019, where 60 operational satellites were launched simultaneously into orbit. The plans, designs and development of the Starlink project by SpaceX took about ten years and cost more than $ 10 billion.
Since the beginning of 2020, SpaceX has been able to send 60 satellites simultaneously, and plans to build a total of 1,584 satellites by the end of 2022 to provide global internet.
In 2020, ELSTAT reported that eight out of ten households in Greece had access to the Internet from their home (80.4%), showing a significant increase from 2010, when 73.3% of households used the Internet.
This number is expected to grow by 2025 and cover the vast majority of remote towns and rural areas in Greece.
It has also been reported that there are on average at least two laptops and three to four smartphones in a Greek household. These numbers place Greece in the top 50 countries with the largest internet access and in the top 30 of countries with the most internet connectable devices per household.
Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX and Tesla Motors, is one of the many business moguls who decided in 2020 to launch new projects in Greece, following Microsoft and Pfizer, among others.
SpaceX claims that the Starlink satellite internet in Greece will currently achieve the highest possible connection speed, which is more than three times faster than the maximum internet speed provided by existing providers in many areas in Greece, even in Attica.
The Starlink team is currently constructing the necessary infrastructure in Greece, as well as fiber optic and satellite receiving stations, with plans to launch the new satellite internet in the country in April 2021.
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