#18
What's next for Starlink (direct to cell, revenue)?
Interviews
9
Answers
10
X posts
10
Span
2023 to 2026
First asked Oct 5, 2023, most recently Oct 20, 2026. Excerpts below are from machine transcripts with filler words (um, uh, you know) and stutters removed; … marks a cut. They are not checked word for word, so use the link to hear the exact words, or the transcript link for the raw text. Timestamps: 0 cross-checked against YouTube captions, 8 from the archive transcript only, 1 checked against our transcript of the X replay, 1 unverified (archive time, not checked against the X video). X has no link-to-time option, so X links open at the start.
How the answer evolved · oldest first
Oct 5, 2023 · International Astronautical Congress · asked by Interviewer
Q: What do you see for Starlink being used as a relay, let's say around the moon, or for comm relay all the way to Mars and back?
Yeah, Well, for Mars you'd want basically like a laser relay system. Essentially. It sort of depends on what you, what bandwidth are you looking for? Obviously, in order to have continuous coverage with Mars, you'd have to have some relay system because you can't transmit through the sun. So when Mars on when the sun's between you and the, and Mars, you have to do a bank shot through a relay satellite so that your …
Dec 21, 2023 · X Spaces: Cathie Wood & Elon Musk · asked by Brett Winton (ARK)
Q: Is Starlink enough or does that still, do you still need that second kind of like business model built on top of SpaceX to make it happen?
I think Sonic is enough. I think Sonic is enough. You know. There's a little diagram on the Sonic router. It's a. People probably didn't notice but it's a Hohmann transfer from Earth to Mars. So if you look on your Starlink router, you'll see that Hohmann transfer diagram that Starlink is the means by which light becomes multi planetary.
Jan 6, 2024 · Moonshots with Peter Diamandis · asked by Peter Diamandis
Q: And did your, your next iteration of Starlink spacecraft have gone up the direct to cell phone?
Okay, yes, that just went up. So you know, we still have to prove that it works and all, but we're confident that even if the, if these early satellites don't work, we're confident from a physics standpoint that it can work. It is a challenge because we have to emulate a self tower on the ground in order for the phones to accept the signal. So we have to do Doppler compensation, for example, and do some sort of. …
Sep 7, 2025 · All-In Summit · asked by Host
Q: I know you can't see it, but it's everyone?
All right, cool. So this is a kind of a long term thing. It will allow SpaceX to deliver high bandwidth connectivity directly from the satellites to the phones. But there are hardware changes that need to happen in the phone. So since these frequencies are not supported in current phones, the chipset has to be modified to add these frequencies and that probably is a two year time frame. So the phones that are able …
Sep 7, 2025 · All-In Summit · asked by Host
Q: Not today, but at some point. Is that the end goal?
That would be one of the options. To be clear, we're not going to put the other carriers out of business. They're still going to be around because they own a lot of spectrum. So there's. But yes, you should be able to have a Starlink. Like you have an AT&T or T mobile, Verizon or whatever. You could have an account with Starlink that works with your Starlink antenna at home for your WI fi as well as on your phone. …
Nov 30, 2025 · People by WTF · asked by Nikhil Kamath
Q: So he was telling me about how in densely populated areas, Starlink works differently than it might be in a place with not as many people. Can you explain how it works?
Yeah. So Starlink, there's several thousand satellites in low earth orbit and they're moving around 25 times the speed of sound in these. They're zipping around the earth basically. And they're at an altitude of about 550 km, which is called generally low earth orbit. Because they're at low earth orbit, the latency is low, like the distance, because the distance is not that far compared to a geostationary satellite, …
Jun 8, 2026 · SpaceX Technical Talk: AI Satellites at Scale · asked by Moderator
Q: In fact we're turning on new production lines for new units, right?
Yes. In fact these are the new Starlink terminals which we made in much higher volume than the current terminals. Ultimately we think there's probably going to be a few hundred million Starlink terminals out there. And then our Starlink direct to cell Constellation will connect directly to people's cell phones and enable high bandwidth communication directly from your phone of space.
Jul 8, 2026 · The Sean Hannity Show: Interviewed by Gov. Greg Abbott · asked by Greg Abbott
Q: So for those Starlink deployments, about how many launches do you have a year and about how many satellites do you have across the universe?
Yeah, so SpaceX right now delivers about 85% of all the payload to orbit of Earth. So of the remaining 15% most of that is China, and then I think they're probably about 8%, and then about roughly 7% is the rest of the world, including the rest of the US. So SpaceX transports almost 10 times as many satellites to orbit as the rest of the world combined. Yeah.
Aug 4, 2026 · SpaceX Q2 2026 Earnings Call · asked by Andrea Williams (Investor Relations)
Q: Once you start launching broadband v3 satellites, how quickly will they translate into improved Starlink service?
So we need some critical mass of B3 satellites, probably at least on the order of about 1,000, but probably that's I mean, approximately second quarter next year would be, I think, where we'd get to that point.
Watch on X at 0:58:20 ↗Transcript ↗Unverified timestamp: from archive transcript, not checked against the X videoOct 20, 2026 · SpaceX Q3 2026 Earnings Call · asked by Opening remarks
Q: Starlink update (prepared remarks)
So what I expect over time is, not in the distant future, probably within 3 years, that we will have about a hundred times the bandwidth of the current Starlink constellation. … So probably something on the order of a hundred thousand satellites, each of which have more than ten times the bandwidth of the current Starlink system.
Watch on X at 0:14:35 ↗Timestamp checked against our transcript of the X replay
In his own posts on X
@elonmusk · Dec 5, 2024
The first Starlink satellite direct to cell phone constellation is now complete. This will enable unmodified cellphones to have Internet connectivity in remote areas. Bandwidth per beam is only ~10Mb, but future constellations will be much more capable. https://t.co/wJHMGEzzE4
View on X ↗@elonmusk · May 15, 2026
Most airlines are partnering with @Starlink. The others will have terrible WiFi and lose customers as a result. https://t.co/rjqVSZSarY
View on X ↗@elonmusk · May 24, 2026
There will also ultimately be >100k V3/V4/V5 satellites for Starlink broadband and direct to cellphone connectivity. If growth continues, Starlink will one day carry the majority of Internet traffic. At that point, it is the Internet and everything else just connects to Starlink.
View on X ↗@elonmusk · Aug 6, 2026
Whether or not an airline has Starlink will be a deciding factor for consumer choice, especially on long flights https://t.co/xrNCP8Eatc
View on X ↗@elonmusk · Oct 7, 2026
Starlink Mobile (direct-to-cell) V2 satellites are incredible. This @SpaceX constellation will enable more than 100 times the bandwidth of our current V1 system! https://t.co/qX8D73c5Cs
View on X ↗@elonmusk · Oct 8, 2026
Starlink will be of great help to areas of India that have bad or no Internet and even no mobile coverage. No country has perfect coverage, including America, but Starlink can fill in the coverage gaps for those who most need it. https://t.co/XLQaEhazIq
View on X ↗@elonmusk · Oct 8, 2026
Starlink provides Internet connectivity to the least-served, enabling self-education and prosperity by giving people access to sell their products worldwide! https://t.co/uoBhtM6WAB
View on X ↗@elonmusk · Oct 10, 2026
The ridiculous arguments by Ambani’s army of Internet shills make no sense On the one hand, they say Starlink couldn’t possibly compete with the amazing low prices offered by Ambani’s de facto monopoly in India and then, in the same breath, they essentially claim that Starlink would be too strong of a competitor! This is absurd hypocrisy and hyperbole. The reality is that competition would greatly benefit the average citizen in India by giving them more choices, as it always does. Ambani’s profits will be lower, but he is not going out of business. And, obviously, if Starlink is too expensive in India, no one will buy it, so SpaceX will need to make pricing affordable.
View on X ↗@elonmusk · Oct 16, 2026
@seti_park @Tesla SpaceX Starlink enables precise navigation without the need for GPS satellites
View on X ↗@elonmusk · Oct 16, 2026
Southwest Airlines going all-in with @Starlink! https://t.co/fE58IZVZaE
View on X ↗
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