A Prayer Answered: SpaceX to Expand Internet Coverage in Rural Alaska With FCC Approval | Business
By: Jenna Kunze (Native News Online)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Details By Jenna Kunze April 29, 2021
"I have really slow internet at my house," Alaska Native Inupiaq seventh grader, Kaden Kulukhon, wrote in a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Kulukhon was among a handful of middle schoolers and educators beseeching the FCC to approve a licensing modification to send satellites into polar orbit, effectively offering remote Alaskan villages access to broadband internet. "All the people in my house use the internet. When COVID hit all the websites that I used at school could not load at my house," he wrote. "Even at our school some websites won't load properly and we consider the school internet 'fast.'"
Since 2019, business magnate and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has sought FCC approval for SpaceX Starlink, the upcoming satellite-beaming internet service, to offer high-speed internet to remote tribal areas in the U.S., where broadband is notoriously spotty, throttled and expensive.
The satellites will beam high-speed broadband connectivity to remote areas through a one-time purchase of Starlink's self-installing equipment, including a dish receiver to fit on a user's roof. In early January, the FCC approved the launch of 10 satellites to travel into polar orbit, covering Alaskan communities along the Arctic Circle for the first time ever.
Now, a total of 2,814 of those SpaceX satellites have the green light to fly at lower orbit, making them useful to internet users in the polar region. Flying satellites at a lower orbit allows SpaceX to deliver latency, or the time it takes for a computer to communicate with its server and back, at around 30 milliseconds, less than half of the current speed throughout the Arctic region.
"Several individuals, businesses, and organizations from Alaska submitted letters in the docket urging the Bureau to act on the SpaceX modification to allow SpaceX to begin deployment of its Starlink service in Alaska," the FCC noted in the order. "These filings discuss the scarcity of reliable internet service, the extreme expense of the internet service that is available, the difficulties of maintaining that service, and the effect this has on Alaska communities. They argue the Starlink service will finally bring ubiquitous internet connectivity within reach for these areas."
Official SpaceX image.
SpaceX promises a flat rate of $100 a month for its unlimited broadband services, plus a one-time equipment fee of $500 for the SpaceX dish. The company's satellite service offers at least a 10-fold speed increase compared to the Arctic hub city's current internet service. In Utqiavik, the transportation and political hub of the North Slope of Alaska, internet speed is about 10 megabits per second (Mbps) to upload and download, one local school teacher said. Starlink beta sites are experiencing about 150 Mbps, and in some places as fast as 250 Mbps.
Jake Calderwood, a music teacher in Utqiavik, who has been advocating for SpaceX in Alaska since it's beta launch phase last year, said he expects the satellites to save families around $420 a month in internet bills.
"When the service is rolled out, it helps twofold: Schools and families will have access to high quality, modern internet and the economic impact will be vast," Calderwood told Native News Online.
Another teacher in the roughly 200-person village of Kaktovik, Carey Halnier, wrote to the FCC that her village of 100 percent Alaska Native Inupiaqs is "an extreme environment, one of extreme cold, extreme isolation, as well as extreme kindness and human warmth." What her students lack, she noted, is equal access to education.
Letters from nine middle schoolers bare out that reality.
Sixth grader Lucas Aishanna wrote, "I have no internet at home with 3 kids in my house. When Covid hit I had to use paper packets for schoolwork. All the stuff I learn on the computer will not load at school."
Another student, Ada Agiak, wrote that her home internet speed inhibits her from learning math.
"One of my favorite math games, Prodigy, keeps on lagging so I can't learn Math on it," Agiak wrote. "When we have remote learning, Khan and Aleks, (math websites), will not load because my other siblings are on the internet doing school work too." She went on to say, "We would like Starlink internet because they are offering fast internet to rural Alaska."
Additional letters of support were sent to the FCC from the Akiak Native Community—a federally recognized tribe in remote southwest Alaska—and a consortium of 50 rural community leaders of the Kodiak Archipelago Rural Regional Leadership Forum.
In opposition to the approval was one in-state telecommunications company, citing concern about satellite collision. On a larger scale, Amazon filed multiple objections to SpaceX's application, backed by other companies saying such approval might cause interference with other satellite networks.
Ultimately, those concerns were dismissed by the FCC's approval, which ordered that SpaceX issue a report twice a year including the number of near misses with other satellites in the past six months.
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This is a real step forward for the remote communities in Alaska and to all remote communities in all 50 states.
Between all of his ventures Musk has built an empire.
This is wonderful news for the people on the North Slope! And it will be cheaper for them
Yes, it will and with all the additional satellites that were authorized by the FCC, we may be seeing a lot more of the rural communities in the US gain access to this.
A good thing.
I have never used satellite. I had always heard about cable satellite going in and out depending on weather.
Thick clouds and heavy rain or snow can attenuate the signal severely. Don't know if these newer satellites are any more efficient.
"A watt is a measure of signal power that combines two other measurements, volts and amps, to try to give you a good idea exactly how much electricity is being used. Signals that get to your satellite dish are very, very weak and are expressed in fractions of a milliwatt.
In fact, the signal that gets to your satellite receiver is usually about -50dBm. Looking at that, we know that -50 describes a fraction 1/100,000. Start with a milliwatt, and that means the signal is…
.00000001 watts. That’s a seriously weak signal.
Pretty impressive that you can get 1,000 channels of digital TV from a signal that’s got so many zeros in it. If I read that number right, it’s one-ten-millionth of a watt."
"
When I was a kid we learned that remote Alaskans did their schooling by radio
Breaker 1 9, what is 10 x 12.
Hey Fairbanksteacher. I have the answer, it is 120, come on back.
That is correct. 10 4 good buddy.
At least math would be fun
It is about time this prayer was not only heard, but, finally acted upon. It is long over due in treating the many in Alaska as if they are actually part of the US.
But notice it took a businessman from another country to finally do something for them
Musk continues to be a true innovator and shows us how he can benefit everyone with the tech that he keeps investing in. He is even selling off most of his personal assets to finance these ventures.
This SpaceX dish will benefit untold numbers of Indians who have been left off the grid for such a long time. And one must not forget that there are many people in remote areas that have no access to the internet and that this will benefit them, too.
I think he's the reincarnation of Nickola Tesla
He is more accurately the missing part of Tesla. Tesla was a technical genius but was an absolutely horrible businessman. In fact, he was so bad, one should not even use that label for him.
Musk shares the visionary aspect held by Tesla but brings with that a keen sense of market savvy, relationships and finance. Tesla really could have used a Musk.
In more ways than one, it sounds like...
Well...I think people like Westinghouse and Edison screwed Tesla over
Absolutely!
I'm a huge fan of Tesla and these are two of my favorite quotes of his.
“I don't care that they stole my idea . . I care that they don't have any of their own”
''The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine.''
Me too. The man was truly extraordinary and it sucks that he could not really work to his true potential (and become wealthy in the process).
He's a little nuttier than Tesla was. Actually rather dumb about some things, like the coronavirus last year.
Maybe he's really an alien in human form. Would make a good Sci-Fi story, like K-Pax.
He's one of my heroes. I saw a movie on Prime (?) about his life
His story is painful. It just sickens me to see such wasted genius. He did leave this world with AC and the AC engine (among other things) but he clearly was capable of so much more.
It's a myth that Musk's ventures are all privately funded. SpaceX has received billions of taxpayer dollars for research and development over the years, and they recently received another $900 million for Starlink.
From CNBC, last December - SpaceX’s Starlink wins nearly $900 million in FCC subsidies to bring internet to rural areas
Don't get me wrong, I think Starlink might turn out to be a good thing. He just damn sure hasn't been paying for all of this stuff with private money.
I'm actually thinking about getting Starlink, myself. They finally have enough satellites up to offer service at my latitude (they started up north and are working their way down). Not 100% daily coverage yet, but they should be there before long. My current satellite internet isn't all that hot. Starlink is supposed to be much, much faster.
Jesus, Mary and Joseph, they were having to pay over $400 per month for internet, and shitty internet at that? Yikes. How wonderful that an alternative is becoming available.
And all the competitors fought SpaceX getting the OK from the FCC.
Come on, Kavika, that's American competition - Look what happened to the Tucker Torpedo that was decades before its time.
I doubt it's just American competition, I'd guess that it goes on in most countries.
The SpaceX for the North Slope of Alaska will henceforth be known as Tesla Waasamoo-asabing (Tesla on the internet)