Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starlink in talks with UK Project Gigabit

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is in talks with the UK for the company’s Starlink satellite unit to potentially gain funding as part of the government’s new $ 6.9 billion Internet infrastructure program, CNBC confirmed.

UK Minister of Digital Infrastructure Matt Warman recently met with the leadership of Starlink, a person familiar with the negotiations told CNBC, as part of ongoing discussions with a number of technology communications companies for the plan ‘ Gigabit ‘project launched on Friday.

Sky News reported the conversations for the first time, noting that UK Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden believes that Starlink is one of the best options for providing internet service in hard-to-reach areas across the country.

SpaceX did not respond to CNBC’s request to comment on the discussions, while the UK government declined to comment.

Starlink is the company’s capital-intensive project to build an interconnected internet network with thousands of satellites, known in the space industry as a constellation, designed to provide high-speed internet to consumers anywhere on the planet.

The company has launched more than 1,200 satellites in orbit so far and, in October, began launching the Starlink service in a public beta that now extends to customers in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany and New Zealand – with service costing US $ 99 a month in the USA

The United Kingdom launched on Friday the first phase of the Gigabit Project, which is the government’s $ 6.9 billion (£ 5 billion) program to update the Internet service of more than one million homes and businesses.

The first phase of the project will bring together proposed solutions from companies with a variety of delivery methods, including satellites and other “high altitude platforms”.

The Gigabit project represents SpaceX’s potential to add more government grant gains to Starlink, as the company received nearly $ 900 million in federal grants at the end of last year at the Federal Communications Commission’s rural broadband auction.

The FCC awarded SpaceX the fourth largest amount of funds in the $ 9.2 billion auction, with grants to be distributed in monthly payments over the next decade. But the SpaceX award was met with protests from other US broadband providers, notably from DISH Network, with other internet service providers dismissing Starlink as a “scientific experiment” with “completely unproven technology”.

SpaceX responded by telling the FCC that complaints from other providers “have no valid basis” and come as a way of “harming a competitor”.

SpaceX continued to expand Starlink’s service in the interim, with the public beta gaining more than 10,000 users in its first three months. The Musk company plans to expand the Starlink service beyond homes, asking the FCC to extend its connectivity authorization to “moving vehicles” so that Starlink can be used with everything from aircraft to ships and large trucks.

SpaceX also signed an agreement with NASA in January, the US space agency revealed last week, to cooperate on avoiding collisions with the company’s Starlink satellites.

With the company adding more spacecraft to orbit monthly, as its rockets launch 60 Starlink satellites at a time, NASA said “greater interaction and partnership” is needed “to ensure continued safe operations” in orbit.

“NASA has agreed not to maneuver in the event of a potential conjunction to ensure that the parties do not inadvertently maneuver one another. NASA will operate based on the autonomous maneuverability of Starlink satellites will attempt to maneuver to avoid conjunction with NASA assets, and that NASA will maintain its planned trajectory, unless otherwise informed by SpaceX, “the agreement said.

The agency also said it will work with SpaceX to “share technical knowledge and lessons learned” to reduce the brightness of satellites.

The company had previously announced changes to the satellites to decrease glare, after complaints from astronomers due to the increasing presence of Starlink satellites in the sky.