Currently, SPACEX produces about five thousand user terminals of the Starlink global satellite Internet system, or about a quarter of a million such devices per year, Teslarati reports the statement of the financial director of the American company Brita Johnson. The publication also discloses the condition of profitability of SPACEX satellite business.
The publication reminds that today Starlink has more than one hundred thousand active users, and the data voiced by the financial director “hints at the inevitable and rapid growth of the company’s Internet services.”
Johnson said that in the fourth quarter Spacex plans to increase the release of STARLINK terminals, as a result of which the cost of the user set to access the satellite Internet will fall from the current 1300-1500 dollars to 650-750 dollars. Currently, the company sells such sets at a loss of $ 500 per unit.
According to Johnson, improving the antenna design and launching a new production line will allow SPACEX several times to increase the volume of the terminals produced compared to the current five thousand devices per week. “For a cost of about $ 700, only two years after the start of production, it is almost inevitable that the cost of [satellite] Plate Starlink will fall significantly lower than the current price of $ 500 for consumers,” – suggests the publication.
According to Teslarati, if Spacex can produce annually and sell a million terminals at the current price, starting from 2022, it will receive 500 million dollars for their sale every year. “Because Spacex probably spends about 1-2 billion dollars a year to finance the development of Starlink, it is possible that this business can become self-sufficient, having only a few million active users,” writes the publication.
In September, Bloomberg wrote that Kuiper Systems, a subsidiary of Amazon.com, in circulation to the US Federal Communications Commission sharply commented on Spacex actions, accusing it in violation and ignoring the general rules. In a letter to the regulator, controlled by Jeffrey Bessel, the company accused Ilona Mask, in particular, in the unauthorized use of satellite radio transmitters, not agreed with the competent launch bodies, the illegal construction of landflowing infrastructure facilities and the construction of a automotive factory bypassing the current rules.