SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service has achieved a new milestone. As per Elon Musk on X, the SpaceX team has successfully ramped Starlink to 99 countries across the globe. The satellite internet service has also passed 3 million customers.
The milestone was announced on X by both Elon Musk and Starlink’s official account on the social media platform. The Starlink team celebrated the milestone by posting a video on its official X account, which features people across the world and across all walks of life accessing the internet using the satellite-based system.
The team also extended its gratitude to its customers over the years. “Starlink is connecting more than 3M people with high-speed internet across nearly 100 countries, territories and many other markets. Thank you to all of our customers around the world!” the Starlink team wrote in a post on X.
The rise of Starlink as a legitimate internet service provider has been very impressive. Starlink began the first public beta of its service in October 2020, less than four years ago. By February 2021, SpaceX noted that it was already serving 10,000 users in the United States and abroad. The service has growth substantially since, with Starlink reaching 1 million users in December 2022 and 2 million users in September 2023.
While Starlink has attracted notable amounts of criticism due to Elon Musk’s polarizing nature, the service has proven itself invaluable worldwide. The system has played a key part in the war in Ukraine, as it allowed Ukrainian forces to maintain communications despite Russia’s efforts to cut the country off the internet. Starlink has also been used in emergency situations, the most recent of which was in Brazil, which was damaged by floods.
As per Elon Musk, Starlink would be donating 1,000 terminals to emergency responders and make usage of the system in affected regions free of charge until areas that were affected by the floods have recovered. Interestingly enough, Starlink’s donation to Brazil came amidst a conflict between Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, and the Brazilian Supreme Court.
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