PHOENIX — Many people throughout the state have noticed an array of lights streaking across the sky recently.
The lights have been interpreted as aliens, UFOs and planes but in reality, they are the SpaceX Starlink satellites.
Graycee Skousen of Snowflake, Arizona immediately whipped out her cell phone and recorded them.
“They were a perfect, straight line, and then they were all together,” Skousen said. “And then like stopped. And then a separation came between them. And then they’re flashing. It was weird. It was cool to see.”
SpaceX is sending up hundreds of them to create a new broadband provider.
Ken Colburn of Data Doctors said, “Elon Musk launched this initiative to try and create real Internet possibilities in rural areas and underserved areas.”
So far, the technology looks promising, according to Colburn.
Unlike older satellites, which orbit more than 20,000 miles above the earth’s service, Starlink satellites orbit about 300 miles above the earth’s surface. This allows the signal to be transferred at unprecedented speeds without costly infrastructure.
"The reports are that people are averaging over 100 megabits per second,” Colburn said. “So that’s probably five times faster than what the average home user is getting.”
In addition to potentially being the answer to high-speed Internet in rural areas, Colburn said that this technology has the potential to make what Arizonans know as RV or van life much more of a reality for people still working.
Previously, due to an incredibly limited customer base, traditional Internet providers have found infrastructure development to be cost-prohibitive in rural areas.
Starlink might be about to change that.
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