Elon Musk's SpaceX signs deal with Google Cloud for Starlink internet connectivity

Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp SpaceX on Thursday announced that it was collaborating Google with its Starlink satellite internet service to support businesses that require cloud-based applications. Last month, SpaceX launched 60 Starlink satellites from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida to boost the company's internet satellite constellation system. Under its new deal with Google cloud, SpaceX will install ground stations within Google data centres worldwide to generate fast and secure internet by the second quarter of 2021. 

Starlink terminals in Google centres will enable the data delivery to remote areas and support cloud commutation firms such as Microsoft and Amazon that have also tapped into the telecom sector to use 5G connectivity. SpaceX will team up with Google to provide computing customers with satellite-based internet connectivity and cloud services. In a press release Thursday, Google said that it struck a deal with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which had invested close to $900 million in 2015 for the manufacturing of the Starlink satellites, and launched nearly 1,625 Starlink satellites into the orbit to provide beta high-speed, low-latency broadband services to the remote areas in the United States. 

“Combining Starlink’s high-speed, low-latency broadband with Google’s infrastructure and capabilities provides global organizations with the secure and fast connection that modern organizations expect,” Gwynne Shotwell, CEO of the Hawthorne, Calif.-based SpaceX, said in a statement. “We are proud to work with Google to deliver this access to businesses, public sector organizations, and many other groups operating around the world,” he added. 

Connectivity in 'remote locations'

Google Cloud’s senior vice president of infrastructure said in a statement that the Starlink and Google deal can prove to be transformative for the computing firms, whether they’re operating in a highly networked or remote environment. He continued that Google and SpaceX partnership will ensure that the organizations with distributed footprints have seamless, secure, and fast access to the critical applications and services they need to keep their teams up and running. He added that the companies will require consulting partners and integrators in order to deploy new advanced technologies such as edge applications and the deal will imply that there will be connectivity in remote locations.