Starlink now serves more than four million subscribers across 100 countries, providing download speeds averaging 150 megabits per second to remote farms, research stations, ships at sea, and villages in developing nations. The network has proven particularly impactful in disaster zones, where traditional communications infrastructure is often the first casualty of hurricanes, earthquakes, or conflict.
Competition is intensifying. Amazon's Project Kuiper launched its first commercial satellites this year, and a European consortium backed by Airbus has entered the market with a focus on government and enterprise customers. The proliferation of satellite broadband networks is raising concerns among astronomers about light pollution affecting ground-based telescope observations, sparking regulatory debate at the International Astronomical Union.
