TECH NEWS – The satellite internet service owned by Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter and Tesla, experienced difficulties in the United States.

According to Down Detector reports, more than 65,000 users reported a significant outage of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet constellation. Starlink confirmed the outage on Twitter, adding that they were working to fix the problem and restore service, which they have since done. The outage occurred just as Starlink and T-Mobile announced the end of the beta phase of their partnership to eliminate dead zones in the U.S. mobile network and the availability of the service to AT&T and Verizon customers.

SpaceX has rapidly expanded its Starlink network over the past few years, growing its user base to over six million worldwide. According to data released by SpaceX earlier this month, the network’s average download speed is 180 megabits per second, and latency has dropped below 55 milliseconds. However, as the number of users has increased, the approximately 8,000-satellite constellation sometimes struggles to maintain coverage in areas with higher user density. Users also reported service outages on social media, with reports coming from accounts allegedly not only in the US but also abroad.

Starlink confirmed an outage occurred in the afternoon, US time, and stated that they are working to resolve the issue. Interestingly, the outage initially overwhelmed the community-run Starlink status check page, which did not provide details about SpaceX’s internet service status. The outage appears to have affected users in multiple countries and occurred on the same day that SpaceX and T-Mobile transitioned their T-Satellite mobile network coverage service from beta mode to public use. T-Mobile announced on social media that the service is available to Verizon and AT&T users as well. The T-Satellite service relies on more than 650 Starlink satellites, which can provide mobile network coverage across the United States.

Elon Musk commented on the disruption, saying his company would fix the root cause so it would not happen again. He apologized for the outage and added that the service would be restored soon. This has already happened.

Source: WCCFTech