Featured Image Source: Starlink satellite render created by @ErcXspace via Twitter.
SpaceX partnered with global non-profit organization Fight for Peace (‘Luta Pela Paz’) to provide free Starlink internet to a low-income community in Brazil, according to a regulatory document the company filed with the National Telecommunications Agency of Brazil [ANATEL] on Monday, November 22. The organization is dedicated to support young people get an education to reach their full potential in underprivileged communities affected by crime and violence.
“Through the NGO Fight for Peace, Starlink would like to demonstrate its equipment and services by connecting a student community center. It provides educational resources for more than 40 students in the neighborhood of Savoyzinho, being a high-speed connectivity test for a low-income group in the city of São Paulo,” SpaceX wrote in Portuguese to the regulatory agency. The company plans to deliver Starlink user terminals to the community by February 04, 2022. The equipment is very easy to set up, simply plug into an electricity outlet and point the antenna to the sky so that it receives internet data from SpaceX’s satellite constellation in Low Earth Orbit. To connect wirelessly the antenna works alongside a Wi-Fi router device. Visit SpaceX's official website Starlink.com for more information.
The filing also states the company setup a ground station [Starlink gateway] in the country to communicate with the satellites in orbit. “Starlink’s system will provide high-speed, low-latency broadband services. In addition to the ground station, the focus will be on testing the terminal equipment […] Users are informed that the Starlink antenna needs a clear sight of the sky to ensure better quality service. Users must simply plug in the source of Starlink’s power and antenna will automatically self-level and search for satellites with on-site coverage […],” the company told Brazil’s telecommunications agency (all quotes were translated from Portuguese to English language).
The filing was submitted after SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell and SpaceX founder Elon Musk met with the Brazilian Minister of Communications Fábio Faria on November 15. “Soon, Elon Musk will be in Brazil to connect rural schools and protect the Amazon using SpaceX/Starlink technology. We at Government of Brazil have no optimism and no pessimism, we make it happen!!! I believe in Brazil!!” Faria announced, alongside a photograph of him next to SpaceX founder (pictured below). “We are working to forge this important partnership between the Brazilian government and SpaceX. We want [SpaceX] to combine the technology developed with the Ministry of Communications’ Wi-Fi Brazil program. Our goal is to bring Internet to rural and remote areas and to curb illegal fires and the deforestation of the Amazon forest,” said Faria after the meeting. In Brazil around 40 million people (19 percent of the population) have no access to the Internet. Starlink aims to provide internet coverage to hard-to-reach regions in the country. To date, SpaceX operates a bit over 1,800 internet-beaming satellites that provide internet coverage to rural and remote regions across 20 countries. Read more in the previous TESMANIAN article, linked below.
Brazil's Minister Of Communications Meets SpaceX Officials To Discuss How Starlink Broadband Can Benefit Rural Communities & Help Protect The Amazon Rainforesthttps://t.co/i32IztsKDl
— Tesmanian.com (@Tesmanian_com) November 16, 2021
Featured Image Source: Starlink satellite render created by @ErcXspace via Twitter.
About the Author
Evelyn Janeidy Arevalo
Evelyn J. Arevalo joined Tesmanian in 2019 to cover news as a Space Journalist and SpaceX Starbase Texas Correspondent. Evelyn is specialized in rocketry and space exploration. The main topics she covers are SpaceX and NASA.
