THE TAKEAWAY: SpaceX has revealed that its Starlink satellite Internet service now has more than 12 million active customers across 160+ countries and territories around the globe. And according to CEO Elon Musk, that's just the start of what the space company has planned over the near term.
In a recent post on X, Musk noted that Starlink V3 satellites have more than 10 times the bandwidth of their predecessors, and that they will be launched at a rate of more than 10x. Effectively, Musk said, this will result in greater than 100x the available bandwidth compared to what is possible right now. Depending on how you look at it, Version 3 is 10-20 times more capable than Version 2, he said.
As of mid-May, there were just over 10,000 active Starlink satellites in orbit.
Musk added that the satellites altitude will be reduced from 550km to 350km, which should cut latency in half.
The boost in bandwidth and reduction in latency could be a critical stepping stone in communications. "The future of AI and robots is actually going to require a lot more bandwidth than we currently use," Musk said during a chat with JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon as part of his company's recent IPO pitch to investors.
