Elon Musk's Starlink satellite internet boosts its subscriber base by nearly 30% in a single month, nearing the 100,000-user milestone
- SpaceX's Starlink has gained 20,000 users in a month, boosting its subscriber base by almost 30%.
- About 90,000 have signed up for Starlink satellite internet, SpaceX said at the end of July, per CNBC.
- One month earlier, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said Starlink had about 70,000 users.
SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet has boosted its subscriber base by almost 30% in one month.
Starlink, which beams internet down from 1,650 satellites floating in orbit, had about 90,000 users in 12 countries, SpaceX said in a call with Federal Communications Commission (FCC) officials on July 29, per CNBC.
This means it added 20,000 users in a single month - SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on June 29 that Starlink had passed "the strategically notable number of 69,420 active users."
Starlink is currently in beta, and has rapidly added new customers in recent months - in February, SpaceX said in a FCC petition that Starlink had more than 10,000 users in the US and abroad.
SpaceX wants to send up to 42,000 Starlink satellites into orbit by mid-2027.
SpaceX launched the public beta test, called "Better Than Nothing Beta," in October, promising users speeds between 50 and 150 megabits per second (Mbps), with intermittent outages. Some users are hitting much higher speeds, of more than 200 Mbps.
A subscription costs $99 a month, and users also have to pay $499 up front for the Starlink kit, which includes a terminal to connect to the satellites, a tripod, and a WiFi router.
The service currently only works in houses and businesses, but SpaceX wants to connecting its satellites to ships, trucks, RVs, and planes.