Starlink, Elon Musk’s satellite internet connection system suffered a global outage this week.
On Tuesday, users around the world complained of a general outage of Elon Musk’s satellite internet system. If things seem to have returned to normal since then, users (and SpaceX) are wondering about the reason for this global cut.
Occurred around three o’clock in the morning (Western European time), and it was New Zealand users who gave the alert first. After more than four hours without a single network bar, service returned, at much lower rates than before.
Thomas Ricker, the journalist for The Verge stationed in the Netherlands, saw his internet connection with Starlink go from 200 Mb/s to only 32. For the moment SpaceX has not given much information on the failure, explaining only that the brand’s engineers were investigating these events.
It seems clear that even the company itself doesn’t really know what the reasons are that led to this cut.
What is Starlink?
Starlink is today a satellite internet offer. Proposed by billionaire Elon Musk’s company, SpaceX, this offer provides access from anywhere on the planet to a very good quality internet connection. The service was notably used in Ukraine during the Russian invasion attempt.
In the West, the service is mainly used by enthusiasts. Its price is still very high and only a minority of people have chosen this satellite offer. In order to attract new users, Starlink has lowered its offer in many countries in recent weeks.
A promising partnership with T-Mobile
A few days ago we learned from the voice of the CEO of the telephone operator T-Mobile, that an offer would soon be offered using the satellite data connection. Thanks to the SpaceX constellation, it is possible to have internet access anywhere in the world “it’s like having a giant antenna in the sky”, explained Mike Sivert, the big boss of the operator during the announcement. of the partnership.
If for the moment no details have been given concerning the conditions of this offer (price, dated capacity, and availability), we should know more before the end of the year. In addition to SpaceX, other companies are interested in connecting to the internet via satellite.
According to the latest rumors, Apple also would have put in place such an offer. The hardware solution could also be integrated into the iPhone 14. All that remains is for Apple to find a partner to market a telephone plan using satellites in orbit around the Earth.
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