Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamat recently spoke with SpaceX founder and world’s richest person Elon Musk in his podcast People by WTF. In this conversation, Elon Musk also talked openly about everything from AI to letter X. Elon Musk has also told about his satellite internet service Starlink in this podcast.
Elon Musk is going to bring his satellite internet service Starlink to India soon. As soon as this service starts, fast internet will be available even in the forests and remote villages in India.
Starlink works in a completely different way
Nikhil Kamat had asked a special question related to this to Elon Musk. He asked how Starlink works? Responding to this, Elon Musk said that Starlink works in a completely different way. It works by staying very close to the Earth, thousands of satellites are rotating at an altitude of just 550 kilometers, which move 25 times faster than the speed of sound. Old geostationary satellites are 36,000 kilometers away, so there is a lot of delay in them, but this is not the case with Starlink.
Then he said that all the satellites are connected to each other with laser light, which means there is a laser mesh in the entire sky. Even if the undersea fiber cable is cut (like it happened in the Red Sea a few months ago), Starlink continues to operate without interruption.
This works best especially in villages and sparsely populated areas because laying fiber or installing mobile towers there is very expensive. In cities there are towers at every kilometer, but in villages there are none. Even if there is a disaster like flood, earthquake or fire, Starlink continues to work. Musk said that in times of such trouble, we make Starlink free and do not take money from anyone, because it is wrong to hide money in times of trouble.
What is Sterling’s model?
Starlink’s business model is very unique, its technology is incredible.
In this satellite constellation Thousands of small satellites orbit the Earth at an altitude of 550 kilometers. It is a very large network, which covers a large part of the earth all the time.
User Dish (Terminal)– The Starlink dish (small antenna) installed in your home directly contacts the nearest satellite in the sky.
Transfer of data- When you click something on your phone or computer, your data first travels from the dish to the satellite. The satellite immediately sends that data to the ground station on the ground through a laser link. From there it goes to the normal internet network. In response, the data travels the same path back to your dish and then to your device.
Starlink’s biggest strength
This entire journey is completed in just 20 to 40 milliseconds, so the user feels that he is using internet as fast as the fiber connection installed on the ground. This low latency is Starlink’s biggest strength, which differentiates it from older, high-altitude satellites.
Why can’t Starlink succeed in cities?
Musk said that in densely populated cities, Starlink will not always be able to work as well as local internet companies. The reason for this is the limitations of technology. He said unfortunately, physics does not allow this. The signals from satellites located 550 kilometers away cannot support the huge crowds of cities continuously at high speed. He also said that even by reducing the altitude to 350 kilometers, this problem cannot be solved completely.
Why can’t Starlink do wonders in cities?
Actually, Starlink is a boon for those areas where there is no internet. But in cities, big companies already have strong mobile towers and cheap fiber connections.
Crowd and price – Internet is very cheap in cities and the speed is also good. Starlink’s kit (about ₹ 33,000 or more) and monthly cost (about ₹ 3,000) are too expensive for the average user in India.
Location- Starlink’s dish requires open and less dense space. Cities have tall buildings, apartments and dense trees. If there is a large obstruction in front of the dish, it will not be able to receive a direct signal from the satellite, and the speed will be reduced.
Capacity – Elon Musk himself has said that Starlink satellites cannot provide internet as fast or better than mobile towers in densely populated cities. The bandwidth capacity of a satellite is limited. If lakhs of users in a small area start using the internet at the same time, the connection will become slow and anyway the number of users is very high in cities.
Apart from this in India data security The government is very strict regarding data security and regulation. Starlink requires several licenses and legal approvals to operate in India, which takes time. In between, security concerns also arose regarding the use of illegal equipment, which further slowed down the approval process.
Due to these challenges, Starlink may not be able to meet the needs of typical households in cities like Delhi or Mumbai, but it could be a good option for special users who need internet in case of a disaster, or for trekking and remote businesses. 1 percent and 2 percent
What is Starlink Sakaa plan?
Today, Starlink is providing its services in many countries of the world. The number of its satellites is continuously increasing, and its valuation has also reached millions of dollars. High-speed connectivity is reaching the most backward areas of the world, where people could not even imagine the internet. Starlink has proved its usefulness through its model itself.
In India too, it has now received official approval, but its real market will not be in cities, but in remote villages, hilly areas of the North-East and island groups like Andaman and Nicobar, where laying cables is almost impossible. Starlink is going to change the future of a large part of India’s digital world. It is not just the internet, but it is the hope that no place will remain away from the digital world now.
