Get best of the week

What is happening on the space Internet market

Last time, we talked about space projects in which engineers deploy global cryptographic key distribution systems. Today we’ll continue the topic and talk about satellite Internet - the latest milestones of companies that are launching devices into orbit, and potential difficulties (including those related to regulation).


/ Unsplash / Bill Jelen


One of the most famous projects in the industry is Starlink from SpaceX and Elon Musk. The company launched its first two vehicles into orbit in 2018. Since then, their number has increased significantly and exceeded 350 pieces.

Such a number of devices will allow the company to offer Internet services to its first customers in America and Canada. The United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has already approved the installation of the million terrestrial receivers needed to connect users to Starlink. According to Elon Musk, the delay in transmitting data will be only 20 milliseconds. In the future, it will be reduced to 10 milliseconds. These numbers are comparable to the capabilities of wired networks.

Another company engaged in the construction of space Internet infrastructure is the British OneWeb. There are 74 vehicles in orbit, 34 of which were launched from Baikonur last week. In total, the company planned to use 600 satellites, but its plans, most likely, were not destined to come true (we will talk about the reasons below).

Fresh posts from our blog on Habré:


One of the new players on the market is Amazon with its Kuiper project. Within its framework, they plan to launch 3.2 thousand satellites. To solve this problem, at the end of last year, the company began to build a new factory for the production of spacecraft. But the corporation was in the role of catching up in the emerging market. She missed the deadline set by the FCC when applying for the right frequencies. Representatives of the company asked the commission to make an exception, but given the general negative reaction of the market to such a decision, Amazon, most likely, is waiting for a refusal. How the situation will develop further is not yet clear.

Space infrastructure is also being built in our country. At the end of the year , construction began in the suburbsplant for the production of multifunctional system "Sphere". It will include 600 devices - their deployment is planned for 2023–2028.

Prospects for Satellite Internet


This idea is not new in itself - in the 90s several companies launched dozens of satellites at once. According to the professor of aeronautics Olivier de Weck (Olivier de Weck) from MIT, most of the projects were canceled due to lack of demand. Since then, the situation has changed - the worldwide network has become an integral part of our lives. However, approximately half of the inhabitants of rural areas of India, China, Brazil, Japan, Germany, Russia, the United States and Great Britain still do not have access to the network. And projects like Starlink and OneWeb can solve this problem.

Elon Musk at the recent Satellite 2020 conference toldthat Starlink will not compete with large telecommunications companies. The main customers of the service will be 3-4% of the world's population living in hard-to-reach places where there are no land lines. In this case, the speed of access to the network will be quite high. The same OneWeb promises a bandwidth of 10 Tbps.

But there are problems


According to analysts, the space Internet will be economically unprofitable until thousands of satellites are put into orbit. But such a number of aircraft increases the likelihood of collisions. Last September, the European Space Agency already had to initiate an evasion maneuver to take the Aeolus probe off the Starlink trajectory.

Mega-constellations of satellites pose potential problems for astronomers. Scientists are worried that global systems will change the look of the night sky. They can obscure the image from optical telescopes and interfere with radio astronomy observations.


/ Unsplash / SpaceX

Companies deploying networks in orbit will also have to pay particular attention to information security issues. If a signal from one of the devices is intercepted by hackers, they will be able to affect the operation of the entire “mega-system”. The industry may also face an additional obstacle in the form of regulation. For example, in Russia at the beginning of last year, the government issued a decree according to which foreign satellite communication systems should have gateways in Russia.

Coronavirus also contributed to the development of the industry. Companies also had to introducesevere restrictive measures for the period of the epidemic. Given that the implementation of space projects takes a huge amount of money and resources, a pandemic can affect their well-being. For example, yesterday it became known that OneWeb began a bankruptcy process.

Given these factors, the potential of the “Internet from orbit” is still unclear. How much technology is in demand and viable will become clear only when companies begin to offer their services to the general public.

What we write about in the VAS Experts corporate blog:

More articles:


All Articles