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FCC approves SpaceX to deploy up to 1m small antenna for Starlink

These terminals would work on the ground with the company’s Starlink satellite constellation to deliver global broadband internet service.

The FCC has authorised SpaceX to begin rolling out as many as 1m ground antenna for its Starlink internet project.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has described the plug-and-point terminals, which are made in California, as looking like a “thin, flat, round UFO on a stick.”

Starlink is intended for about the 3% “hardest to reach customers” for telecommunications companies, in rural areas where “5G is really not well-suited,” Musk said earlier.

About 360 satellites have been sent into low Earth orbit so far, and thousands more are expected to launch in the months and years to come. Limited service could begin as early as this year. SpaceX intends Starlink to have a high-speed connection for any users, with latency below 20 milliseconds.