Elon Musk stated that Starlink is providing affordable and dependable internet worldwide and said he hopes to bring the service to India soon. In an appearance on the People by WTF podcast, he noted that Starlink now operates across 150 countries.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said his company is making progress with its Starlink program, which aims to provide low-cost, reliable internet across the world.
Speaking to Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath on the People by WTF podcast, Musk highlighted the program’s international footprint.
The tech entrepreneur expressed optimism about expanding Starlink operations in India, which would be an important step in the company’s goal of connecting underserved regions globally.
Musk’s comments hint at the potential expansion of Starlink services in India, a market where there is a high demand for improved connectivity, especially in rural and underserved areas.
“SpaceX is doing a great job with the Starlink program, providing low-cost, reliable internet around the world and hopefully in India. We would love to work in India. That would be great. We are working with Starlink in 150 different countries now,” Musk said.
Reliable Connectivity
Musk stressed that Starlink aims to deliver high-speed, low-latency internet to areas where traditional networks are unavailable or limited. The program uses thousands of low-Earth orbit satellites to provide coverage around the world.
Low-Earth Orbit and Low Latency
Musk explained the technical basis of Starlink, emphasizing the low-Earth orbit satellites.
“They’re at an altitude of about 550 km, which is typically in low Earth orbit. Because they’re in low Earth orbit, the latency is low.”
Interconnected Satellite Network
Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk spoke about the laser mesh that connects Starlink satellites, ensuring redundancy and reliability.
“There are thousands of satellites around the world that provide low-latency, high-speed internet, and they are also interconnected. There are laser links between the satellites, so they form a laser mesh. If the cables are cut, the satellites can talk to each other and provide connectivity.”
Starlink in Disaster Relief
Musk also emphasized Starlink’s role in emergencies.
He said, “Whenever there’s a natural disaster, we always provide free Starlink internet connectivity to people. We don’t take advantage of a tragic situation.”
Serving rural areas
The CEO pointed out that Starlink is particularly beneficial in rural areas where traditional networks struggle.
“In cities, you have these cell towers that are just a kilometer apart. But in rural areas, cell towers are inefficient. So, rural areas have the worst internet because it’s very expensive and difficult to lay all the fiber optic cables or put up high-bandwidth cellular towers. So, Starlink is very complementary to the existing telecom companies.”
Limitations in densely populated areas
Musk admitted that physics limits the effectiveness of Starlink in cities with dense local networks. Unfortunately, physics does not allow this. We are too far away. So, at 550 km, even if we try to reduce it, the least we can do is 350 km, which is still a long way away. So it is not physically possible for Starlink to serve densely populated cities.
