Starlink, a fast-growing constellation of
internet-beaming satellites in orbit, has long sought to grow its customer base
from individual broadband users in rural, internet-poor locations to enterprise
customers in the potentially lucrative automotive, shipping and airline
sectors.
"Authorising a new class of terminals
for SpaceX's satellite system will expand the range of broadband capabilities
to meet the growing user demands that now require connectivity while on the
move," the FCC said in its authorisation published Thursday, echoing plans
outlined in SpaceX's request for the approval early last year.
SpaceX has steadily launched some 2,700
Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit since 2019 and has amassed hundreds of
thousands of subscribers, including many who pay $110 a month for broadband internet using $599
self-install terminal kits.
The Hawthorne, California-based space
company has focused heavily in recent years on courting airlines around
Starlink for in-flight WiFi, having inked its first such deals in recent months
with Hawaiian Airlines and semi-private jet service JSX.
"We're obsessive about the passenger
experience," Jonathan Hofeller, Starlink's commercial sales chief, said at
an aviation conference earlier this month. "We're going to be on planes
here very shortly, so hopefully passengers are wowed by the experience."
SpaceX, under an earlier experimental FCC
license, has been testing aircraft-tailored Starlink terminals on Gulfstream
jets and the US military aircraft.
Musk, the founder and CEO of SpaceX, has
previously said that the types of vehicles Starlink was expected to be used
with pursuant to Thursday's authorisation were aircraft, ships, large trucks
and RVs. Musk, also the CEO of electric car maker Tesla, had said he didn't see
"connecting Tesla cars to Starlink, as our terminal is much too big."
Competition in the low-Earth orbiting
satellite internet sector is fierce between SpaceX, satellite operator OneWeb,
and Jeff Bezos's Kuiper project, a unit of e-commerce giant Amazon which is
planning to launch the first prototype satellites of its own broadband network
later this year.
© Reuters
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