Elon Musk’s Starlink vs. Its Competitors: A Race for Broader Internet
Starlink started offering its internet system for the beta testers. But how are its competitors trying to achieve success?
We all have heard it. Elon Musk is preparing to broaden the internet connectivity using a “mesh” of satellites traveling on the low Earth orbit. He has been recently sending many satellites to space to achieve this as quickly as possible. They recently started offering beta testers a Starlink service terminal that includes an antenna and router for $499 and $99 a month internet service accessible from anywhere.
But many other companies are trying to achieve the same goal of increasing internet connectivity. They all somewhat differ from Starlink in how they launch satellites and satellite technologies but try to achieve a similar end goal.
In this story, we will compare and contrast the satellite specifications of those competitors with Starlink to better understand the current state of the art and success potential.
For the baseline numbers, a Starlink satellite is around 500 lb in weight and carries Ku, Ka, and E band antennas. They plan to send 42,000 satellites to low Earth orbit (LEO) with altitudes ranging from 210 to 750 miles above the ground.
Why Choose LEO for Internet Connectivity?
Before we start, let’s answer an important question: we already have satellite internet, so why do we need more LEO satellites?
The reason for companies are targeting the LEO is the proximity of the satellites to the Earth. LEO is defined as an orbit with an altitude less than 1200 miles above the ground. Being closer to Earth enables faster connections and low latency — quicker signal transfer, and lower launch cost per unit mass.
However, LEO satellites are not stationary with respect to the Earth and have a smaller area coverage. Therefore, they need more satellites to cover the same amount of area of the Earth. Although coverage area is large for satellites at higher altitudes, they are costly to launch as they need to reach higher orbital speeds and altitudes.
In the next part, we will divide the companies into two buckets: targeting LEO and higher Earth orbits and look at their satellite specifications, if publicly available.
Companies Targeting Low Earth Orbit
In this section, we will take a look at companies focusing on developing satellites for low Earth orbit (LEO). LEO is defined as an Earth-centric orbit with an altitude of fewer than 1200 miles.
Amazon Project Kuiper
Similar to SpaceX, Amazon is also designing a satellite to achieve internet access. According to what they unveiled, they invented a cheaper and smaller ‘Ka-band phased-array antenna’ that combines the receiving and sending signals together, thereby reducing the overall cost of the system.
According to Amazon, this technology is enabled by analyzing the customer behavior of transferring the data from the internet. As the amount people send is much smaller than what they receive, they combined two antennas in one. Another difference is the proximity of their satellites to Earth. They will be sending 3,236 satellites orbiting at 391 miles from Earth.
OneWeb
OneWeb is a UK-based company targeting the low Earth orbit around 750 miles above the ground, and they plan to send 48,000 satellites. Their satellite also weighs around 330 lb and includes a Ku-band antenna with 50 Mbps internet capability. OneWeb seems to be a direct competitor of Starlink. However, they recently have faced financial issues.
Telesat
Telesat is a Canadian telecommunications company also concentrating on low Earth orbit. In 2020, they announced the plan to send 1600 satellites. They haven’t announced the specifications of their satellite yet. But they mentioned that unlike Starlink, they concentrate on business to business deals and military applications.
European Union Consortium Led By Airbus
According to Business Insider, European Union is also planning to send a constellation of satellites to space. It will be headed by Airbus and include satellite companies from France, Italy, and Germany. Although their satellite specifications haven’t been revealed, they will be focusing on LEO, and it will cost 7.3B$.
Hongyun, Hongyan, and Galaxy Space
Similar to Europe, China has three constellation projects underway. They target 864 satellites with Hongyun, 320 satellites for Hongyan, and an undisclosed amount for Galaxy Space. Although they haven’t yet revealed much information about their design, satellite weight is 250 kg, and they plan to achieve 1 Gbps internet speed.
Kepler Communications
Kepler is a Canadian startup concentrating also on LEO. They have tested their prototypes and planning to launch 140 cube sats — smaller cubit satellites. According to their website, their competitive advantage lies in the “software-defined ratio” high bandwidth data transfer technology.
Other Proposals
Other than these companies and consortium, there are some other proposals from Boeing and Viasat for constellations targeting LEO. But, there haven’t been much data published for their specifications after their FCC filing.
Companies Targeting Higher Earth Orbits
In this section, we will concentrate on companies developing satellites for orbits greater than 1200 miles. These include medium Earth orbits or geocentric orbits — orbits stationary with respect to Earth’s motion.
For completeness, we should mention that some existing companies such as Viasat already provide satellite internet, but, in this story, we will only concentrate on satellite constellations or new technologies targeting to provide broader low latency internet coverage.
O3b mPOWER
Unlike their competitors, O3b Mpower targets geocentric medium Earth orbit, which means their satellites are stationary with respect to Earth. Their altitude is 5010 miles. Their satellite is 3750 lb and carries a Ka-band antenna capable of providing 50 Mbps to 10 Gbps speeds. Higher speed means their market can extend towards more commercial and military applications.
However, due to higher mass, its satellite will be more costly to manufacture and launch to the higher altitudes of geostationary orbit. But since they don’t need to launch as many satellites as LEO companies, final cost numbers will determine how successful they would be to capture the internet connection market.
Astranis
Astranis is a startup in silicon valley, which is also designing a satellite for internet connectivity. Similar to O3b Mpower, they are concentrating on geostationary orbit.
Although the technology is not yet revealed, according to their website, their satellite is “order of magnitude” smaller and cheaper than other GEO with some technical improvements. If true, this could give them a significant advantage at competing with all other companies in the future.
Who Has a More Competitive Edge?
As you can see above, many companies are trying to broaden internet connectivity in the world. Similar to Starlink, some of these companies have already sent many satellites to space.
Although some of these companies don’t target consumer applications, it seems that Starlink is the only one that started providing consumers with beta testing equipment to test their technology. However, Amazon’s Kuiper could gain a market edge if they can reduce the satellite weight significantly, causing a significant cost reduction.
Unlike LEO, for higher Earth orbit companies, satellite mass and internet speed will be crucial factors in achieving success as there already incumbents in this space. If its reduced weight is proven, Astranis has a great potential to disrupt the higher earth orbit market.
Conclusion
In conclusion, ultimately, success will depend on how costly and how fast each company will provide internet connectivity. Scaling manufacturing capability to mass produce all the satellites efficiently will also be a key component for success.
As internet connectivity is a large market, there will likely be more than one winner. To this end, we will need to wait for more data from the companies to reach a conclusion.
