- SpaceX said in a submission on Thursday that Starlink has more than 10,000 users in the US and abroad.
- Elon Musk’s airline launched the Starlink public beta in October.
- In the submission, SpaceX requested that it be eligible for federal cash to expand Starlink.
- Visit the Insider Business Department for more stories.
SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service gathered more than 10,000 users around the world just four months after entering beta, Elon Musk’s airline said in a submission on Thursday.
SpaceX said in a petition to the Federal Communications Commission that “more than 10,000 users in the United States and abroad today use the service.”
In the petition, SpaceX asked the FCC to be named a ‘eligible telecommunications carrier’, which makes it eligible for federal cash, including money from the FCC’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund which it won in December.
The fund is a $ 20.4 billion effort to spread high-speed Internet in the US, especially to rural areas.
Read more: SpaceX is finalizing a massive new round of funding. This is why investors are striving for one of the world’s most valuable businesses.
The FCC awarded SpaceX nearly $ 900 million in December to expand Starlink in the U.S. as part of the first phase of the RDOF.
But SpaceX did not immediately get the money. It should remove more obstacles and provide more details about its plans – being a eligible telecommunications carrier is part of that.
SpaceX said the ETC designation will help expand its service rapidly to new areas, specifically Alabama, Connecticut, New Hampshire, New York, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.
In the petition, it was noted that the space company gained access to the areas under the RDOF.
SpaceX’s grant under the RDOF has angered small internet service providers. Several said Thursday that the company and other large companies use “unproven” technology, and they called on the FCC to aggressively use applications for a veterinarian.
Starlink’s public beta test, called ‘Better Than Nothing Beta’, is now operating in the northern US, Canada and parts of Europe. British regulators approved Starlink in January; Insider received the Starlink kit with one of the first UK users.
SpaceX said in an email to subscribers when the beta was launched, speeds of 50 to 150 megabits per second. Admission costs $ 99 per month, plus $ 499 up front for a kit with a tripod, a WiFi router and a terminal to connect to the satellites.
To date, the company has launched more than 1,000 working satellites into orbit via its reusable Falcon 9 rocket. The latest launch was on Thursday, when the Falcon 9 delivered 60 Starlink satellites in orbit.
The goal is to set up a high-speed Internet service that spans the globe. SpaceX said it wants to launch up to 42,000 satellites by mid-2027.