Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) will bring its satellite internet in Philippines by the end of 2023. The US-based company has recently signed an agreement with Data Lake Inc., a Philippine firm owned by tycoon Henry Sy Jr making the latter the first partner of the US company in Southeast Asia.
With the deal, SpaceX aims to provide satellite internet to enterprises and the government.
Data Lake Inc. stated that it signed a deal to be the first collaborator of SpaceX’s Starlink service in Southeast Asia.
“The Philippines is an archipelago, and connecting our country to the wider world often requires extensive infrastructure,” Data Lake Chairman Anthony Almeda said in a statement.
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Satellite internet in Philippines will address the geographical issues to establish an internet service
The Philippines is a country with 7600 islands and many of them are separated and suffer from irregular terrain making a more traditional fixed-line internet service difficult to establish. Besides, the country suffers from around 20 tropical storms which add a further adversary to wired communications as cables and infrastructures are vulnerable to extreme climatic conditions. Satellite internet is an ideal alternative to overcome these obstacles.
Starlink has a constellation of satellites in low orbit to provide wireless broadband in remote regions on earth with irregular landscapes. For countries that struggle for communication due to their geography, satellite service becomes a default option.
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The state of broadband is not encouraging in the Philippines. Still, only seven out of 100 people have access to fixed broadband service. The country lags behind by a mile from regional neighbors such as Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and others, the data from the World Bank show.
SpaceX is venturing towards Asian markets and could expand to many more countries by the end of 2023. Likewise, the Information and Communications Technology Ministry of the Philippines said that Starlink internet will enter the country somewhere in 2023.