Christmas just arrived a few days earlier. Starlink owner SpaceX announced that the internet broadband service reached the inaugural mark of 1 million subscribers.
The company, in a tweet, thanked all of its customers and members who helped achieve this impressive feat.
At a minimum subscription price of $110, this means that the service now generates $110 million in revenue every month. However, this figure does disregard RV customers (who pay $135 per month) as well as Starlink’s various business customers that are on substantially higher pricing tiers.
Throughout 2022, Starlink has been able to quadruple its subscriber count, which was equal to 250,000 members at the beginning of the year. The satellites that it launched into Low Earth Orbit (LEO) have increased substantially from 2,000 in January to over 3,300 now.
However, problems have also arisen since. Starlink speeds have dropped significantly in the United States, forcing the company to abandon its unlimited data policy. And concerns about space debris will certainly not diminish, either.
In the meantime, SpaceX is preparing to launch the second generation of its constellation into LEO. The FCC, on December 1st, granted SpaceX approval for the launch of 7,500 Gen2 satellites.
While concerns certainly remain, the rocket ship that is Starlink seems to be unstoppable for now, especially when looking at the slow progress of competitors like Astra or Amazon’s Kuiper Systems.
