[ih] SpaceX may spend billions to outsource Starlink satellite-dish production, an industry insider says — and could lose $2,000 on each one it sells

[the keyboard of geoff goodfellow]

   - *SpaceX recently launched a public beta test for Starlink, its growing
   network of internet-beaming satellites
   <https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starlink-satellite-internet-beta-testing-public-service-licensing-military-2020-10>.*
   - *Test subscribers pay $100 per month for broadbandlike service
   <https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starlink-internet-speed-jobs-outages-engineers-2020-11>,
   plus a $500 fee for a starter kit that includes a "UFO on a stick" user
   terminal, or satellite dish.*
   - *But each user terminal contains a phased-array antenna, which
   industry experts say can't be made for less than $1,000.*
   - *SpaceX hired STMicroelectronics to manufacture Starlink user
   terminals, a person with knowledge of the agreement told Business Insider.*
   - *The contract with the Swiss-headquartered manufacturing giant calls
   for the production of 1 million terminals and may be worth billions of
   dollars, the person said.*

EXCERPT:

SpaceX is outsourcing a key element of its Starlink satellite-internet
network with a manufacturing deal worth billions of dollars, an industry
insider told Business Insider.

Job postings and statements by SpaceX officials — including founder Elon
Musk — over the past two years indicate the company wants to make as many
Starlink components as possible in-house at its facilities in Redmond,
Washington. For example, SpaceX is building about six 550-pound satellites
per day there, Jonathan Hofeller, the head of Starlink and commercial
sales, said <https://youtu.be/1ag56eO92Mg?t=2371> during an August
conference.

Company reps have revealed less about the production of its *consumer-facing
Starlink user terminal*
<https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starlink-satellite-dish-internet-user-terminal-cost-phased-array-2020-11>
—
the satellite dish that allows customers to get service — with questions
around who's building them, where, and at what cost.

In March, the Federal Communications Commission granted
<https://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/ib/forms/reports/swr031b.hts?q_set=V_SITE_ANTENNA_FREQ.file_numberC/File+Number/%3D/SESLIC2019021100151&prepare=&column=V_SITE_ANTENNA_FREQ.file_numberC/File+Number>
 SpaceX's request
<https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20416570-20190201-fcc-application-spacex-requests-blanket-license-for-1-million-starlink-ground-stations>
to deploy
1 million of the units. In September, SpaceX told
<https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20416461-spacex-degani-ex-parte-9-4-20-ocr>
the
agency that it was "on track to produce thousands of consumer user
terminals per month" and "heading toward high-rate production."

The trick to making that happen, information shared with Business Insider
suggests, may be paying $2.4 billion to *STMicroelectronics*
<https://www.st.com/>, a Swiss advanced-electronics manufacturing giant, to
crank out 1 million Starlink user terminals.
'Our most difficult technical challenge'...

[...]
https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starlink-satellite-dish-user-terminal-cost-stmelectronics-outsource-manufacturer-2020-11

-- 
Geoff.Goodfellow at iconia.com
living as The Truth is True