Starlink, owned by the Tesla CEO, has put more than 1,400 satellites into orbit, building a network — or constellation, as the company calls it — to provide Internet service to people across the country. Launches from Florida began in 2019 through a partnership between SpaceX and NASA. So far, there have been 10 this year. Eight of those carried Starlink satellites…
The satellites will work with a ground network called gateways, which will be placed up to 700 miles apart and utilize fiber optic cable, according to Karen Lightman, executive director of Metro21: Smart Cities Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. Internet service will then be connected via dishes placed on homes and buildings.
“They’re considered a carrier of last resort because there’s a gap” in Internet service, Lightman said. “Nobody’s filling it because the Comcasts and the DQEs and the AT&Ts are like, ‘We’re not going to lay fiber. There’s nobody living there for 200 miles.’ But you can do it with satellite.”
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