Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk said on Tuesday that his Starlink venture was growing quickly as he forecast total investment costs in the satellite internet business at between $20 billion and $30 billion.<\/p>\n
The Tesla Inc CEO and founder of SpaceX, a rocket ship venture that seeks to colonize Mars, said up-front investment costs before Starlink achieves substantial positive cash flow would be $5-$10 billion.<\/p>\n
\"It's a lot, basically,\" Musk said in a video interview from California with the Mobile World Congress, the telecoms industry's largest annual gathering that is being held in Barcelona.<\/p>\n
Starlink, an array of low-orbit satellites offering high-speed connectivity for people living in remote areas, is already offering a trial service and says it aims for near-global coverage of the populated world this year.<\/p>\n
It now has more than 1,500 satellites aloft and is operating in about a dozen countries, adding more every month, said Musk, forecasting that total customer numbers would reach half a million over the next 12 months, from 69,000 now.<\/p>\n
Skeptics question whether satellite internet can ever develop a viable business model, because the main market it targets is people living in remote areas, who are too few in number to support the vast up-front investment costs.<\/p>\n
He pushed back against that idea, saying that Starlink could help fill in the gaps in fifth-generation mobile and fibre-optic networks.<\/p>\n
\"There's a need for connectivity in places that don't have it right now,\" said Musk.<\/p>\n
This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text.<\/p>\n
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Go here to read the rest: Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk said on Tuesday that his Starlink venture was growing quickly as he forecast total investment costs in the satellite internet business at between $20 billion and $30 billion. The Tesla Inc CEO and founder of SpaceX, a rocket ship venture that seeks to colonize Mars, said up-front investment costs before Starlink achieves substantial positive cash flow would be $5-$10 billion. Continue reading
\nMusk ready to invest as much as $30 billion in Starlink - Mint<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"