Elon Musk has argued that a constellation of roughly 100,000 next-generation Starlink satellites could take over the job currently done by the fibre-optic cables lying on the ocean floor, in a post on X and in a fireside chat with Tesla investor Ron Baron reported on 8 November 2026. The claim, covered by Wccftech and finance.biggo, lands while ships suspected of links to Iran have been seen lingering over major cable routes in the Gulf of Oman.
Key facts
- Musk wrote that “~100 lasers per satellite, each operating above 10 Tb/s, with over 100k satellites should be able to outcompete undersea cables,” as quoted by finance.biggo.
- SpaceX has filed with the US Federal Communications Commission, the American telecoms regulator, to operate as many as 100,000 Gen3 satellites, finance.biggo reports, following approval to expand Gen2 numbers to 15,000.
- Seven major internet cables pass through the Strait of Hormuz, both outlets note.
V4 vs V3 vs V2 at a glance
All of the following specifications come from finance.biggo’s write-up of figures disclosed by Musk:
- V2: about 575 kilograms per satellite. finance.biggo says capacity figures for V2 were not provided in the source material it worked from.
- V3: about 2,000 kilograms, built for a very low Earth orbit of roughly 350 kilometres, with downlink capacity of 1 Tbps, uplink of 160-200 Gbps, and combined radio-frequency and laser backhaul estimated at about 4 Tbps per satellite.
- V4: described by Musk as 10 times the capability of V3, which he in turn called 10 times better than V2, with long-distance laser links as the centrepiece.
Why it matters for satellite internet
Wccftech’s arithmetic puts the theoretical aggregate of the proposed V4 fleet at about 100,000 petabits per second, against roughly 6.4 Pbps for the world’s existing subsea telecommunications cables — a nameplate gap of more than 15,000 to one. That is the number doing the work in Musk’s argument: at that ratio, a satellite internet layer stops being a thin backup for remote users and becomes arguable as a trunk route in its own right.
Wccftech frames the outcome as SpaceX building a backup backbone for the internet in low-Earth orbit, one that hostile actors could not easily take out en masse. finance.biggo adds two mechanisms behind that: laser inter-satellite links move data through space without touching a ground station or a cable, and the cluster design means a single failed satellite can be covered by others in the same group — redundancy that terrestrial networks lacking multiple routes do not have.
The cable threat behind the claim
Two senior Iranian officials told Reuters that Tehran would target subsea cables in the Gulf if the United States and Israel strike again, according to finance.biggo’s account of the report. Around the same period, vessels suspected of links to Iran were observed near major cable routes in the Gulf of Oman.
One of those ships, the Celestial Sea, remained near the 2Africa cable — which finance.biggo describes as linking Africa, Europe and Asia — for more than four hours on 14 October, and was later seen close to the Europe India Gateway and Transworld cables in the latter part of the month. Both outlets say it is not known whether the vessel was mapping cable positions or preparing to lay sea mines, and neither reports any disruption to traffic on those routes.
Where the numbers disagree
The two accounts carry a discrepancy on laser count, and the two figures come from different Musk appearances.
The Baron chat: 10 lasers per satellite
Wccftech quotes Musk telling the Baron fireside chat that next-generation laser links will run at 10 terabits per second and that “we’ll put 10 of them on.”
The X post: about 100 lasers per satellite
The X post quoted by both outlets refers to roughly 100 lasers per satellite, each above 10 Tb/s, and finance.biggo describes the V4 design the same way, noting these are design targets disclosed by Musk rather than tested hardware. A tenfold difference in laser count per satellite flows straight through to the fleet-wide throughput estimate.
finance.biggo is also explicit that the headline throughput figure sums nameplate capacity rather than what a real network could deliver once routing, contention and ground links are taken into account.
What has to happen first
finance.biggo lists three conditions: Starship reaching routine commercial operation, manufacturing satellites at a pace never attempted, and regulators granting spectrum and orbital clearances. The heavier V3 bus already requires Starship to reach orbit, which puts the next Starship test flight on the critical path for anything larger. The scale discussion also sits alongside SpaceX’s plan to put a million AI satellites in orbit.
The money
Starlink has surpassed 10 million users, finance.biggo reports, with third-quarter Starlink revenue estimated at about $5 billion. SpaceX reported roughly $14.6 billion in third-quarter revenue, an annualised pace of about $58.4 billion — figures also covered in SpaceX’s latest quarterly numbers. At the Baron conference Musk said annualised revenue could exceed $500 billion by December 2027, which finance.biggo says would require growth far beyond the company’s current run rate.
The outlet adds that global space financing reached a record $20.8 billion in the third quarter, according to a report from Seraphim and other firms, with launch and space infrastructure drawing much of that capital. Whether orbital bandwidth becomes a genuine alternative to the cable network or only a redundancy layer beside it, finance.biggo concludes, will be settled by engineering and economics rather than by theoretical throughput arithmetic.
Reporting note: this account is drawn from two secondary outlets, Wccftech and finance.biggo, cross-checked against each other. Starlink-News has not independently verified the V4 specifications, the throughput estimates or the vessel movements described.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many Starlink satellites are already working in orbit?
More than 11,000 working satellites were in orbit as of October 2026, according to finance.biggo, flying at altitudes between roughly 330 and 500 kilometres. That is the constellation the proposed V4 network would be built on top of.
Why would a satellite path be quicker than a fibre cable?
Musk said the speed of light in space is about 40% faster than in cable, and that the orbital path is direct rather than following the outline of land masses, as quoted by both Wccftech and finance.biggo. Neither source published independent testing of that claim.
Would 100,000 satellites change what Starlink costs or where it is available?
Neither Wccftech nor finance.biggo addressed retail satellite internet pricing or coverage in their reports on the claim. The SpaceX filing they describe concerns satellite numbers and orbital clearances, not consumer tariffs or service areas, so no price or availability change can be read into it from this reporting.
Are cable risks limited to the Gulf?
No. finance.biggo cites a report from the Asan Institute for Policy Studies noting South Korea had nine international subsea cables as of May last year, two still being laid, with every route except the direct link to Japan connecting through Taiwan. Institute research fellow Shin So-hyun said a disruption to subsea communications would deal a heavy blow to the country’s economy and national security.
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