Amid the imbroglio between the Federal Supreme Court (STF) and X, formerly Twitter, which belongs to billionaire Elon Musk, Minister Alexandre de Moraes requested the blocking of Starlink accounts in Brazil a subsidiary of SpaceX, Musk’s aerospace technology company.
Starlink operates a network of satellites that aim to bring internet to remote locations that do not usually have access to the web. Musk’s company is ranked first in the Brazilian satellite connection market, and 16th in providing internet access in general.
Currently, there are 224.5 thousand Starlink customers nationwide and around a third of them are in the North of the country.
How does Starlink satellite connection work?
The difference with satellite connections — which work by sending data through the vacuum of space, instead of using cables or fiber optics — is that they can bring the internet to remote locations, where traditional connections cannot easily reach.
This explains why the largest number of Starlink subscribers in Brazil are located in Boa Vista, the capital of the state of Roraima.
The company has more than 6,000 satellites in orbit and is the only one that has the capacity to launch its own satellites into space, through SpaceX spacecraft.
Starlink promises lower latency in the connection, that is, shorter response time for sending and receiving data between the user and the satellite, and download speeds between 100 Mb/s and 200 Mb/s.
Most satellite internet services use individual geostationary satellites that orbit our planet at an altitude of about 35,000 km. This results in higher latency times, making satellite connections too slow for high-speed activities like streaming, online gaming, video calling, etc.
Starlink satellites orbit the Earth approximately 550 km away, making latency time shorter and the connection more viable.
Internet access grows, but Brazil still has “digital exclusions”
This content was originally published in Starlink: understand how Elon Musk’s company’s satellites work on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
Charles Grill is a tech-savvy writer with over 3 years of experience in the field. He writes on a variety of technology-related topics and has a strong focus on the latest advancements in the industry. He is connected with several online news websites and is currently contributing to a technology-focused platform.
