Spacex is working with microchips manufacturers to integrate devices in phones to support its incipient Starlink cellular servicea key step after the US $ 17,000 million agreement of the company led by Elon Musk to acquire wireless spectrum of Echostar Corp.
“We are working with chips manufacturers to get the appropriate chips for phones,” Said Spacex’s president Gwynne Shotwell, at a space conference in Paris on Tuesday.
The Musk space transport company has signed millions of customers in more than 100 countries for its Starlink Internet service. Most customers connect to the system through a small parabolic antenna, but Spacex is also exploring an emerging market known as “direct to the device”, which would provide mobile service from space to conventional cell phones.
Satellite operators such as Spacex looking for this technology usually need to associate with at least one company that possess land mobile licenses. Spacex currently maintains an alliance with T-Mobile Ub Inc., but the Echostar spectrum agreement would allow you to offer your own services more independently.
“Now we will start conversations with telecommunications companies in a different way,” said Shotwell. “Now it is our spectrum, but we want to work with them, practically providing capacity and offering it wholesale to its customers.”
Spacex intends to launch new satellites that support its direct connection business in the next two years and perform testing with mobile phones at the end of next yearSaid Shotwell.
Shotwell also approached the recent launch of the Spacex Starship Rocket, which performed its tenth test mission in August. Shotwell said the flight met all its goals, a key milestone after a difficult year for the Starship program.
“My Starship team needed that victory,” Shotwell said. “Development programs always work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and I was very happy for them.”
Shotwell reiterated that Spacex plans to launch a final version of the current Starship prototype, known as V2. Subsequently, the company will focus on the following prototype, known as V3, which is supposed to be more capable than its predecessor.
