Satellites in the News

It seems like there is daily news concerning satellites used for broadband and telecommunications. Starlink experienced a worldwide 2.5-hour network outage on July 23 that was blamed on “key internal software services that operate the core network”. This raises questions about using satellite broadband for mission-critical uses, such as for military field operations. T-Mobile has been plastering the airwaves with ads that tout the ability of T-Mobile customers to use its satellites to send text messages from remote locations. The service is available free to T-Mobile cellular and broadband customers and is available to others for $10 per month. T-Mobile enabled the service for free to everybody in the Kerr County, Texas area after the recent flooding, and the company said it would do the same for future disasters. Project Kuiper is now in the deployment phase of its satellite constellation that will compete with Starlink. The latest launch of 27 satellites brought the number of deployed satellites to 102. The company has scheduled 80 more launches and believes it can begin offering some commercial services by the end of this year. The first planned constellation will consist of 3,236 satellites.