SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet constellation is facing a major outage, with reports on Down Detector showing that more than 65,000 people reported a disruption moments ago. Starlink confirmed the outage on X and added that it is working on fixing the issue to restore service. The service disruption came just as Starlink and T-Mobile announced that their partnership to eliminate cellular dead zones in America was out of beta testing and available to customers from AT&T and Verizon as well.
Starlink Outage Affects Thousands Of Users As Partnership With T-Mobile Exits Beta Testing
SpaceX has rapidly grown its Starlink network over the past couple of years and expanded its user base to cover more than six million users worldwide. Data released by SpaceX earlier this month showed that the average download speed for its network was 180 Mbps while latency dipped below the 55 millisecond mark. Yet, as its number of users grows, the constellation of roughly 8,000 satellites does sometimes struggle to maintain coverage in blocks with higher user density.
Starlink experienced an outage today when users reported at Down Detector that they were unable to use the service. The initial number of reports sat at 7,830 at 3:10 p.m. Eastern Time but soon swelled to touch 61,572 less than half an hour later at 3:25 p.m. Simultaneously, users took to social media to report that they were experiencing a disruption. The reports belonged to accounts claiming to be from within the US and abroad.
Starlink confirmed that it was experiencing an outage at 4:05 p.m. and added that it was "actively implementing a solution." Interestingly, the outage also appeared to have overwhelmed a community-run Starlink status checker page initially, which did not share any details about the status of SpaceX's internet service.
The outage, which appears to have affected users in several countries, came on the day SpaceX and T-Mobile removed their cellular coverage service called T-Satellite from beta mode to public use. T-Mobile shared on social media that the service was also available to Verizon and AT&T users. The T-Satellite service relies on more than 650 Starlink satellites that are capable of providing cellular coverage to remove dead zones across the US.
Since its initial update, Starlink is yet to provide additional details about the outage. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk also commented on the disruption as he shared that his firm "will remedy root cause to ensure it doesn't happen again." Musk apologized for the outage and added that "Service will be restored shortly."
About the author: Ramish is a seasoned technology writer and editor with more than a decade of experience. He specializes in semiconductor fabrication and market analysis. With a background in finance and supply chain management - via his bachelors in Finance and a micromasters in supply chain management from MIT - Ramish combines financial rigor with deep industry insight to deliver accurate and authoritative coverage.
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