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SpaceX working with Cloudflare to speed up Starlink service

2023-08-2321:065064www.reuters.com

Elon Musk-owned SpaceX is working with Cloudflare to boost the performance of its satellite internet service Starlink, the Information reported on Wednesday, citing a person with direct knowledge of…

Illustration shows SpaceX logo and Elon Musk silhouette

SpaceX logo and Elon Musk silhouette are seen in this illustration taken, December 19, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File photo Acquire Licensing Rights

Aug 23 (Reuters) - Elon Musk-owned SpaceX is working with Cloudflare (NET.N) to boost the performance of its satellite internet service Starlink, the Information reported on Wednesday, citing a person with direct knowledge of the project.

Shares of Cloudflare, which provides content delivery services, jumped 7.2%.

The two companies are working on a way to increase Starlink's network of mini data centers around the globe that could help it deliver faster network speeds to its customers, the report said.

Starlink is one of a growing number of makers of small satellites that are focused on providing satellite-based internet, including Amazon.com's (AMZN.O) Kuiper, Britain's OneWeb and venture capital-backed Planet.

The report did not specify the financial terms of the partnership.

Cloudflare did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Reporting by Jose Joseph and Chavi Mehta in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.


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Comments

  • By mcpherrinm 2023-08-246:23

    This article is very vague, but I’ve heard complaints on HN before about Starlink cgnat not working well with Cloudflare.

    Is this just announcing Starlink is peering privately with Cloudflare now, perhaps solving some of those issues?

    Or is this some bigger partnership where Cloudflare is running some portion of Starlink’s internet connectivity?

    Most other reporting online is just parroting this Reuters piece so I haven’t seen much interesting additional info.

  • By 7e 2023-08-244:272 reply

    Starlink latency is still too high, and goodput is too low, especially as they oversubscribe their service. This will help a bit, but it’s no panacea for Starlink’s woes.

    • By yencabulator 2023-08-2415:22

      You seem to have forgotten the slogan "Better than nothing". Starlink is the best ISP available to me, and some 10-20x better than its competition. If you can do better with something else, please do.

    • By fooker 2023-08-246:211 reply

      Starlink latency is too high if your server is nearby.

      If it’s on the other side of the earth it beats everything.

      • By dzhiurgis 2023-08-248:212 reply

        Do they actually route all the way across planet using laser interlinks? Are there any tests by someone?

        • By panick21_ 2023-08-2410:57

          They have both sats with and without lasers. Starlink with lasers are still being rolled out.

          So it will depend very much from where to where. The certaintly can go direct.

          It would be interesting to know their internal routing logic but I don't think we know.

        • By raphaelj 2023-08-249:241 reply

          My guess is that they do not.

          Routing these packets around the planet would be a huge waste of their limited electrical and transmission resources.

          • By dzhiurgis 2023-08-2411:29

            Premium plans would fix that...

  • By pr337h4m 2023-08-246:161 reply

    >Starlink is one of a growing number of makers of small satellites that are focused on providing satellite-based internet, including Amazon.com's (AMZN.O) Kuiper, Britain's OneWeb and venture capital-backed Planet.

    Planet is in the earth observation business, not satellite internet

    • By mlindner 2023-09-041:34

      And Amazon hasn’t launched any satellites yet and appears to be still years away from a production constellation.

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