- General
- January 10, 2021
- 3 minutes read
SpaceX’s Starlink Gets UK Greenlight
Starlink, the proposed satellite internet service from SpaceX, has received licensing approval from the UK’s communications regulator, clearing the way for the…
Starlink, the proposed satellite internet service from SpaceX, has received licensing approval from the UK’s communications regulator, clearing the way for the venture to get into another major broadband market. An authorization for SpaceX’s Starlink was granted in November, according to a statement from a spokesman at the UK Office of Communications (Ofcom).
Going by local reports, Starlink has also received approval in other European countries including Greece, Germany, and Australia. The satellite internet service originates from the US where SpaceX is based and has begun tests in both the country and neighboring Canada.
Starlink consists of a planned constellation of thousands of mass-produced small satellites in low Earth orbit that’ll beam internet access to the Earth by working in combination with ground transceivers. Already, SpaceX has launched more than 950 Starlink satellites into orbit out of a planned constellation of 42,000 such satellites, for which it’s received permission from US authorities to launch 12,000.
SpaceX began beta testing Starlink in the US and Canada in late 2020, the two countries representing major broadband markets that SpaceX is seeking to disrupt. Now the UK which is another major broadband market has been added to SpaceX’s Starlink target base.
In the UK, SpaceX could disrupt established broadband providers such as BT Group and Vodafone. In its own space of satellite internet, the popular American aerospace company is notably facing competition from OneWeb, a company that was recently rescued from bankruptcy partly by the UK government.
