Starlink Version 3 satellites are being deployed now. They are substantially different from the V1 and V2 satellites that built the initial constellation and the differences matter for SpaceX's revenue trajectory heading into the IPO.
The most important change is laser inter-satellite links as standard across the entire V3 fleet. V1 satellites used ground stations as relay points — signals traveled from user to satellite to ground station to destination. V2 introduced laser links on some satellites. V3 has them on all satellites. The practical effect is that Starlink can now route traffic across the constellation without touching the ground — which means coverage in the middle of the Pacific Ocean or over Antarctica is as capable as coverage over a major city with ground infrastructure.
This matters enormously for the government and enterprise market. Military units operating in remote locations, ships at sea, aircraft over oceans — these customers need connectivity where ground infrastructure doesn't exist. V3's laser link standard makes Starlink genuinely competitive for these use cases in a way that V1 and V2 were not.
The second major change is capacity. V3 satellites carry substantially more bandwidth per satellite than their predecessors. As V3 satellites replace earlier generations the total constellation capacity grows even as the satellite count stays roughly constant. More capacity per satellite means more subscribers per orbital slot and better economics per bit delivered.
The competitive picture is relevant here. Amazon's Kuiper constellation is in early deployment. OneWeb is operational at lower capacity. Neither has Starlink's scale, coverage, or the V3 laser link architecture. Kuiper is the most credible long-term competitor and it is years behind on constellation build-out.
Starlink at 7,200 satellites with V3 laser links is a different product than Starlink at 1,000 V1 satellites. The $11.4 billion in 2025 revenue was built on the earlier constellation. The V3 upgrade is the infrastructure behind the next phase of revenue growth. Watch the subscriber numbers over the next 18 months — V3 deployment is the engine behind them.