Starlink is SpaceX’s big cash cow. And it just reported some mixed results.
On Tuesday, during the company’s earnings call, SpaceX said its satellite-internet service had 13.6 million consumer subscribers at the end of September, up 1.6 million from three months earlier. That fell short of the 14.2 million expected by Bloomberg analysts — though the company said the figure excludes hundreds of thousands of enterprise subscribers and aviation customers.
Still, Starlink is making a lot of money. Monthly consumer revenue per user rose 5% from the previous quarter, while enterprise and government revenue jumped 91% from a year earlier to $2.1 billion.
A big, important customer? Airlines. The company said that, as of the end of September, 3,800 total aircraft had been outfitted with Starlink equipment.
“Aviation remains a major growth opportunity, as we’re still early in the installation phase with many of the largest carriers worldwide,” CFO Bret Johnsen said on Tuesday’s earnings call.
SpaceX’s next venture: your phone
The company has recently focused on becoming a mobile provider.
On October 8, SpaceX announced it had agreed to buy a portfolio of low-band wireless spectrum from Grain Management. The deal gives SpaceX a key ingredient that could turn its Starlink satellite-internet provider into a direct challenger to Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile.
SpaceX said the spectrum would power Starlink Mobile, which it has described as a hybrid satellite-and-terrestrial network designed to work indoors, outdoors, and in cellular dead zones.
It also comes after SpaceX hinted that it saw itself as a challenger to mobile carriers during its first-ever earnings call in August. The company’s president, Gwynne Shotwell, hinted that the company was considering building a “cellular base station on basically the gear that holds the Starlink broadband dish,” rather than a ground-based system.
They said the market was worth $600 billion annually.
“I anticipate us to be able to acquire quite a few of their customers,” Shotwell said.
During the earnings call, Shotwell said, “The vast majority of mobile connectivity is actually WiFi,” an area where Starlink is already well-versed.
“Keep in mind, Starlink broadband does a lot of WiFi work as well,” she said. “As far as the mix goes, I think we expect that the S-band spectrum will provide the majority. And then obviously, you need the low-band spectrum, the 800 megahertz spectrum, to basically penetrate buildings. So if you’re not on WiFi, you can still receive the signal.”
Musk said that there was probably a need for a longer presentation about their Starlink plans.
“I can say we do see a clear path to several hundred billion dollars a year in connectivity revenue,” he said. “But I think we should lay — probably describe that in a — in more detail in a forum that’s not limited to a few minutes at an earnings call.”
