On Thursday, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved a satellite internet network from Elon Musk’s company, SpaceX. SpaceX’s service, Starlink, can now be used in moving vehicles. The company plans to offer the service to airlines, shipping companies, and truck companies.
Starlink is a system of satellites that sends internet connections to Earth. The company is growing fast and they want to focus on business customers in the fields of automotive, shipping, and airlines. Starlink’s first customers were people in rural areas that had no internet connections.
The FCC says that new hardware for SpaceX’s satellite system will improve capabilities and can work with connections that are moving. SpaceX said the same thing last year when it requested the FCC to approve the project.
Since 2019, SpaceX has launched around 2,700 Starlink satellites. SpaceX has hundreds of thousands of users. Many of the users pay $110 USD per month for the internet connection and also buy a $599 USD hardware kit to connect to the satellites.
A space company called The Hawthorne has focused on selling Starlink to airlines for WiFi on airplanes. It recently got Hawaiian Airlines and a semi-private jet company called JSX as clients.
Jonathan Hofeller, the B2B sales chief at Starlink, says that the company focuses on the passenger experience. He hopes that passengers are impressed by the service.
With permission from the FCC, SpaceX tested the Starlink service on private jets and U.S. military aircraft.
The founder and CEO of SpaceX, Elon Musk, says that Starlink is designed to be used with aircraft, ships, large trucks and RVs. Musk, who is also CEO of the car company Tesla, thinks that Starlink isn’t a good match for cars because the hardware is too big.
There will be competition in the satellite internet field soon. A company called OneWeb and Amazon want to offer similar services. Jeff Bezos, the former CEO of Amazon, is in charge of Amazon’s satellite internet service. It’s called the Kuiper Project.
VOCABULARY
- Commission – committee; a group of people approved by the government; council
- Satellite – a machine in space that flies around the world; a computer in space that sends information to Earth
- Airline – a company that moves people by airplane (Lufthansa, Etihad, KLM, Delta, etc.)
- Automotive – related to cars; with connection to automobiles
- Rural – far from a city; countryside
- Hardware – equipment; machines; tools; gear
- Launch – to shoot; to fire; to push; to throw; to send something into space
- hundreds of thousands – more than 200,000
- Chief – head, boss, leader, manager
- Permission – allowed to do; authorization; approval; it’s OK to do
- Aircraft – airplane
- Founder – a person who starts a new company
- Competition – challenger; opponent; rival; enemy; opposition
- Field – sector; type of business; area
Original story from Reuters below:
