A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with 58 satellites for SpaceX’s Starlink broadband Internet network will be launched on August 18.
Photographer: Paul Hennessy / NurPhoto / Getty Images
Photographer: Paul Hennessy / NurPhoto / Getty Images
Elon Musk’s Starlink’s satellite broadband system has received license approval for its user terminals from the UK communications regulator, paving the way for the billionaire’s venture to enter another important market.
The authorization was granted in November, an Ofcom spokesman said in an email on Saturday. According to local reports, Greece, Germany and Australia have also approved the new system.
Musk – now the world’s richest man – aims to expand global super – fast internet coverage to connect users beyond the reach of existing broadband networks by sending thousands of satellites to low-Earth orbit.
Starlink has already launched hundreds of satellites and started testing a beta service in North America. It’s part of the billionaire’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp., known as SpaceX, which launches the satellites into space.
The approval paves the way for Musk’s venture to enter the UK broadband market where it can compete with rural UK internet providers such as BT Group Plc and traditional satellite companies such as Inmarsat Group Holdings Ltd., as well as OneWeb – the low-Earth satellite system recently Saved by Government and India from Bankruptcy telecommunications conglomerate Bharti Global.
Read more: Elon Musk’s new big thing is 40,000 broadband satellites
Musk said in December that Starlink was likely to be a candidate for an initial public offering once its revenue growth became “reasonably predictable”. The British approval was earlier given by the Sunday Telegraph newspaper.
– With help by Bill Lehane