迄今为止，SpaceX已为Starlink发射了1500多颗卫星。去年10月份，SpaceX开始以公开测试版的形式向美国、加拿大和英国的客户推出早期服务。服务价格为每月99美元，加上连接网络所需的硬件前期费用为499美元。
Musk, chief executive of SpaceX, said on Tuesday that the number of active users of SpaceX's Starlink Internet service had reached nearly 70, 000 "recently" and expected rapid growth in the coming year.
Speaking online at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona, Spain, Musk said: "We are on the road to hundreds of thousands of users, which could exceed 500000 within 12 months."
Starlink is a satellite Internet project of SpaceX. From 2019 to 2024, SpaceX plans to use five years to send thousands of satellites needed for networking into low-Earth orbit to form a "star chain" network to provide high-speed Internet services around the world.
So far, SpaceX has launched more than 1500 satellites for Starlink. In October, SpaceX began offering early-stage services to customers in the US, Canada and the UK in the form of a public beta. The price of the service is $99 per month, plus the upfront hardware cost of connecting to the network is $499.
SpaceX announced last month that Starlink had received more than 500000 orders and payments, although these may not eventually become actual users.
Musk estimates that Starlink may need $5 billion to $10 billion to be fully operational. But SpaceX believes the service can expand into a larger market, with an estimated annual revenue of up to $30 billion, about 10 times the annual revenue of the rocket launch business.
Musk noted that Starlink "now operates in about 12 countries and is adding more every month."
