Starlink’s revenue is skyrocketing: $6.6 billion in 2024. It’s bad news for certain users

SpaceX has found its golden goose in Starlink. The company itself manufactures, launches and markets its broadband Internet satellites throughout the world. But rapid growth has a downside for users, especially those who live in areas where demand for the service is high.

$6.6 billion in revenue. This is what Quilty Space analysts they expect Starlink to invoice in 2024:

The accounts for Starlink don’t look bad either in the EBITDA box (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization). $3.8 billion in 2024, Quilty Space projects. A spectacular jump in profitability, taking into account that the EBITDA of the service was -128 million dollars in 2022. And the income from the new cellular service is yet to arrive.

A dizzying growth. The formula with which Starlink has come out of the red is no secret. SpaceX plans to launch 144 rockets in 2024, almost three per week; most, with Starlink satellites.

Starlink operates more than 6,000 satellites in low Earth orbit and already has 2.7 million customers in 75 countries. Argentina and Uruguay have been the latest to join the growing list. Not bad for a constellation that has been built fundamentally in the last three years.

The bad news: price increases. Despite the number of satellites in orbit, and although they are capable of communicating with each other through laser links, SpaceX has announced price increases in areas where demand is so high that it exceeds the capacity of the network.

Starting with the United States, where customers in areas with “limited Starlink capacity” will go from paying $90 a month to paying $120; an increase of 30 dollars per month that will become effective on June 10. In contrast, customers in areas with “excess capacity” will pay $90 for the service.

The advantage of reusing rockets. The demand problem has an easy solution: continue launching satellites until the planned constellation of 12,000 is completed. And luckily for Starlink, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 is the only medium-lift rocket with a booster capable of landing for reuse.

Initially, SpaceX launched more than 60 Starlink satellites per flight, but as satellites became larger, heavier and more powerful (especially with the V2 mini generation), launches were reduced to batches of 23.

Future Starlink V3s will be even larger, heavier and more powerful. However, SpaceX hopes to continue making them profitable thanks to the Starship, capable not only of launching more than 100 tons, but of doing so every few hours.

Image | SpaceX

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