Since its inception in 2019, Starlink, Elon Musk's constellation of satellites providing high-speed Internet and phone connectivity, has launched an average of 3 satellites per day, and it now constitutes 62% of active satellites in orbit.
The rapid expansion of Starlink has also coincided with Pakistan's Internet woes, with various incidents of damage to underwater fiber optic cables connecting Pakistan to Europe and the information superhighway.
Musk's X, formerly Twitter, remains banned in Pakistan, where the Internet sector is experiencing a slowdown of speed, much to the chagrin of consumers and ISPs nationwide.
Starlinks' launch was celebrated with the purchase of Twitter, which, with its massive user base worldwide, gives depth to its technological credentials.
Since Tesla has also invested heavily in AI, being at the forefront of a global initiative to produce self-driving cars, one can expect Musk to follow a path of more acquisitions and mergers, horizontally and vertically, to meet X's strategic objectives.
Such acquisitions could also be profound in the telecom sector, where, with a planned constellation of 42000 satellites, Musk aims at launching a satellite phone company with global coverage.
Free from the impediments facing cellular networks and their reliance on cellular towers for signals, Starlink can nevertheless network and integrate the shorter-range cellular networks (by-passing a plethora of towers) with its massive array of orbiting satellites.
It is reasonable to expect that Starlink, with its own association with NASA, aims at gaining a stranglehold over communications and signals.
Given that the rapid influx of Artificial Intelligence into the technological mainstream necessitates new innovation and technologies, it is reasonable to expect that Starlink will find no recourse other than to make sizeable investments in acquiring software houses, as well as moving further infield into the realm of quantum computing and hardware.
It must be said, that Starlink has exhibited extraordinary skill at manufacturing, whether it be satellites, batteries or cars, and remains, at its core, a ground-breaking manufacturing enterprise.
Earth-based communications; jamming and anti-jamming technologies; signals; targetting systems; guidance systems; counter intelligence; espionage; information management systems; data management; cloud storage; and the flow of ideas, news and propoganda is all about to undergo a fundamental transformation.
Pakistan's Internet and information woes are set to worsen, over time.
All warfare is about to be revolutionized.
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