On June 29, Elon Musk, CEO of Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX), made announcement on the space communication project Starlink saying, “In August we should have global connectivity in everywhere except the poles,” in the Mobile World Congress, an exhibition of mobile communication equipment held in Barcelona. He said that Starlink project already had approximately 69,000 customers and could hit more than 500,000 in 12 months. 1,500 artificial satellites have already been launched, and it is planned to increase the number to 15,000 in the future.

Amazon.com, Inc. has been also preparing for space communication services. Amazon’s Project Kuiper is the project to deploy 3,236 satellites in low Earth orbit and provide broadband services to customers everywhere between 56 degrees north and 56 degrees south latitude, including depopulated areas and mountainous areas. The investment amount of this project is $10 billion. Although an official announcement has not been made yet about the start time of this project, it is expected that half of the planned number of satellites will be deployed by 2026, and all the rest by 2029.

In Japan, SoftBank Group Corp. is leading the domestic market. On June 9, Softbank announced a partnership with Skylo Technologies Inc. formed to utilize its satellite communication services to provide IoT services to industries such as the fishing industry and the shipping industry from 2022.

Softbank has established a system in which its subsidiary HAPSMobile Inc. provides stratospheric communication services, and OneWeb Ltd., a company SoftBank Group invested in, provides low-Earth orbit satellite communication services. This collaboration enables the provision of seamless communication services from ground base stations to outer space.

The main field of communication infrastructure is shifting from the ground to non-ground including outer space. However, large-scale business requires a huge amount of money. Although OneWeb in which SoftBank Group in invested, was driven into bankruptcy in March 2020 because it could not bear the burden of upfront investment, a consortium including the U.K. government announced financial support to OneWeb in July 2020, and SoftBank Group also decided to reinvest in OneWeb in January 2021, believing in the potential of the business for the future.

Not to mention, there is a great risk in this business. Nevertheless, Musk proudly and confidently said that additional investment amounting to $5 to $10 billion is required to make profits, and the total investments could run to $20 to $30 billion. He believes the growth of the business in the future, and his confidence seems as if he will eventually register its headquarters outside the stratosphere. Everyone equally has an ability to envision the future. The difference between Musk and many others may be whether or not to have “the ability to believe in the envisioned future.”

This Week’s Focus, July 2

Takashi Mizukoshi, the President