A Big Launch Year for Low Earth Orbit Satellites
2024 marked the year LEOs went from experimental to expansive.
Jericho Casper
In 2024, the sky was no longer the limit for low Earth orbit satellites, as they became a widely recognized solution for expanding broadband access in rural communities.
What seemed like a futuristic solution when SpaceX’s Starlink was launched in 2019 has now become a crucial tool in connecting the hardest-to-reach – driven by rapidly increasing commercial launches, government efforts to streamline satellite deployment, and the creation of new regulatory frameworks and government bodies to foster innovation and competition in satellite broadband.
The 12 Days of Broadband (click to open)
- On the First Day of broadband, my true love sent to me:
An extra-planetary-life-promoting tech billionaire set on electing a president. - On the Second Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me: 23 million served by the Affordable Connectivity Program.
- On the Third Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
3rd year without the Federal Communications Commission having spectrum auction authority. - On the Fourth Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
$42.5 billion in Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment funds already allocated. - On the Fifth Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
5,500 active satellites currently in Low-Earth Orbit. - On the Sixth Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
6 years of service at the FCC by Commissioner and Chairman-designate Brendan Carr. - On the Seventh Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
70 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually consumed by 2,700 data centers in the U.S. - On the Eighth Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
$8 billion dollars in annual Universal Service Funds. - On the Ninth Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
$90 billion in global telecom Merger & Acquisition deals value in 2024. - On the Tenth Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
100 broadband-related rulemakings at the FCC relying on Chevron Deference. - On the Eleventh Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
Nearly 11 years to complete the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, complete with defaulted locations. - On the Twelfth Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
12 Senators and Representatives signing the Andreessen-Horowitz “Little Tech” agenda.
This year, the number of operational satellites orbiting in low Earth surged to more than 5,500, according to the Union of Concerns Scientists’ satellite database – about half the total number of 11,000 satellites that the Federal Communications Commission estimates are orbiting the Earth in higher, geostationary orbit.
