According to sources, Space Exploration Technologies Corporation’s (SpaceX) Starlink satellite internet constellation has begun to push back pre-order delivery deadlines for its equipment until next year. Starlink had supplied some consumers with expected coverage and delivery dates for late 2021, but as the year approaches a close, it has sent them letters telling them to check the revised status of their purchases. These revisions come as pre-orders for the service approach a million, and SpaceX struggles with a global semiconductor scarcity and supply chain freeze, leaving it unable to mass build its equipment in adequate quantities.
Today’s news comes from the social media network Reddit, where people have expressed their dissatisfaction with their inability to get Starlink equipment and service despite having paid pre-order deposits for months. Naturally, because this is social media, it is impossible to verify all of the complaints, but the sheer volume of them appears to indicate that numerous customers are seeing their expected delivery dates slip to mid-2022 and even 2023.
Other consumers fared better, with several having their delivery predictions pushed out from mid-2021 to December 2021. These users, who published their delivery predictions in a separate thread, were joined by others whose delivery dates were also pushed forward to 2022.
A poll launched on the same Reddit topic found that the majority of people who responded had their delivery and coverage timeframes pushed up to mid-2022. This still-active poll, which had a little more than 2,500 votes at the time of publication, saw 1,000 respondents specify the mid-2022 shipment estimate. The fewest had their estimates pushed ahead to next month, while a large number had their deadlines pushed back to March/April 2022, late 2022, or even beyond.
Some of the worst news, on the other hand, was reserved for individuals whose timelines were extended until 2023. A user from New Mexico, who signed up for the program in February of this year, is one of them.
On Reddit, the member explained:
Signed up on Feb 8. I knew I was moving to very remote, rural NM; so I signed up for service there. they said MTL 2021. Last month when everyone’s dates got extended, mine remained MTL 2021. Then, the day before yesterday, late in the day I got the email. I went in to check my account and it had been moved to 2023! I was devastated. My sister wants to come live with me, but she needs to be able to work from home and my internet isn’t near good enough for that to happen. So, now she can’t come.
I have two adjacent properties, so just on a whim, I signed up the other property, yesterday, for Starlink. I checked the delivery and it said ETM 2022. After I signed up, it still said ETM 2022. So, what the heck? The properties share a fenceline. All of the other addresses I checked say ETM 2022 (on both sides of the property that says 2023. Grrrrr………….So frustrating. I have no cell service and my crappy DSL upload speeds are .2mbps IF it will stay up. It drops out about 20 times a day (sometimes for a few seconds, sometimes for hours). I’d love to have a part-time online job, but no way with this kind of service.
The persistent semiconductor shortage has had an impact on practically every business that relies on chips. According to Dr. C.C. Wei, chief executive officer of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the scarcity is projected to endure until 2022 owing to increased demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and fifth-generation (5G) technologies.
Others, such as Intel Corporation CEO Mr. Patrick Gelsinger, are concerned that they will last until 2023, while Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) CEO Dr. Lisa Su is confident that the second half of 2022 will be better. According to a presentation given to the FCC earlier this month, Starlink presently has more than 750,000 pre-orders and serves 140,000 people internationally.
The full text of Starlink’s email courtesy of Reddit user QuiramJudaculla:
Thank you for being a supporter of Starlink! Over 14 million people have inquired about Starlink service in their area and today Starlink is available in over 20 countries (and counting).
The Starlink team has been working hard to expand service and increase capacity while continuously improving the quality of service. We will be able to accommodate more users per area as we increase the number of satellites in orbit.
Check delivery timelines in your account
Silicon shortages over the last 6 months have slowed our expected production rate and impacted our ability to fulfill many Starlink orders this year. We apologize for the delay and are working hard across our engineering, supply chain, and production teams to improve and streamline our product and factory to increase our production rate.
You can check estimated delivery times by logging into your account page on Starlink.com. You will still receive an email from the Starlink team when your order is ready to ship, and you may cancel your order at any time for a full refund of your deposit.
Latest Starlink is now in production
We recently released the latest version of Starlink which was designed for high volume manufacturing. The latest version of Starlink has comparable performance to the previous version and will begin to ship globally next year.
Expanding to more countries across the world
Since our October 2020 launch in the United States, we have expanded our service to 20 additional countries: Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, New Zealand, Australia, Austria, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Switzerland, Portugal, Chile, Poland, Italy, Czech Republic, Mexico, Sweden, and Croatia. Pending regulatory approval, we are planning to launch in an additional 45+ new countries by the end of 2022.
More satellites in orbit with newer technology
We recently completed our 31st Starlink launch with our latest generation of satellites that are equipped with inter-satellite laser links, which enable our satellites to transfer data between each other. Once fully deployed, inter-satellite laser links will make Starlink one of the fastest options available to transfer data around the world.
Thank you for your continued support!
The Starlink TeamStarlink pushes back its pre-order delivery deadlines until 2022
