Elon Musk’s satellite internet venture Starlink suffered a widespread outage on Monday, leaving tens of thousands of users without service.
A message posted on the company’s website read: “Starlink is currently experiencing a service outage. Our team is investigating.”
No further information was provided. According to outage-tracking site Downdetector, more than 43,000 users in the United States reported problems with the network shortly after midnight, at around 12.35am Eastern Time (0435 GMT).
Starlink, which is operated by Mr Musk’s space exploration firm SpaceX, delivers broadband through a vast network of satellites orbiting in low-Earth orbit.
The system is widely used in rural and remote communities that lack traditional infrastructure, and has also played a role in conflict zones where communications networks have been disrupted.
More than 40,000 users reported internet disruptions on Downdetector, which said the outage was concentrated in several US cities, including Seattle, San Francisco, Phoenix, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Chicago and Washington.
Around 40 per cent of the users said they were facing a total internet blackout, while 60 per cent said they were having issues.
Many customers took to social media to raise concerns about the outage.
“Starlink down in the SoCal area?” one user asked.
“Ugh, my starlink is down again,” wrote another user.
“Someone please explain how I’ve had #starlink for years and never had an issue, now all the sudden these outages are consistently occurring??” asked a user on X.
A similar outage was reported in July. Then Starlink apologised after thousands were left without internet connection for several hours. “We understand how important connectivity is and apologize for the disruption,” the company’s official X account wrote on 24 July.
Musk also apologised for the outage personally and reassured users that it would only be temporary.
Starlink, active in roughly 140 countries and territories and used by a growing number of militaries and government agencies, is a key source of revenue for Mr Musk’s SpaceX. The network has grown rapidly since 2020 into a disruptive force in the satellite communications industry.
