Starlink Experiences Rare Global Outage, Affecting Tens of Thousands Worldwide

Elon Musk’s satellite internet service, Starlink, faced a rare and widespread outage on Thursday, July 24, disrupting connectivity for tens of thousands of users across the globe. The downtime lasted approximately 2.5 hours, making it one of the largest outages in Starlink’s history.

What Caused the Outage?

Starlink Engineering VP Michael Nicolls said the issue came from a failure in internal software services that power Starlink’s core network. He confirmed the outage wasn’t caused by hardware and promised a full investigation.

On X (formerly Twitter), Elon Musk apologized, stating, “SpaceX will fix the root cause to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”

Who Was Affected?

The disruption began around 3 p.m. EDT (July 25, 3 a.m. Manila time), with reports flooding the crowdsourced site Downdetector. At the peak, more than 61,000 reports were logged from users in the U.S., Europe, and other parts of the world.

Starlink currently serves over 6 million users across 140+ countries, making the scale of this outage significant.

Experts Weigh In

Doug Madory from internet analytics firm Kentik called this one of Starlink’s longest and most widespread outages. Experts speculated that a bad software update or a cyberattack might have caused the failure, though no one has confirmed evidence of malicious interference.

Gregory Falco of Cornell University noted it could resemble the CrowdStrike software issue that caused global tech disruptions in 2024.

What’s Next for Starlink?

Starlink has expanded rapidly, launching over 8,000 satellites since 2020. It has also partnered with telecoms like T-Mobile to offer direct-to-cell services. The company plays a key role in global communications, from military contracts to providing internet in rural areas.

Although the outage was brief, its global impact shows how crucial Starlink’s reliability is as more users and industries rely on it for essential connectivity.

Were you affected by the Starlink outage? Do you think satellite internet can truly replace traditional networks in the long run?

More…

• https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/7/25/elon-musk-sorry-after-starlink-satellite-internet-suffers-global
• https://www.reuters.com/technology/elon-musks-starlink-network-suffers-rare-global-outage-2025-07-24
• https://ca.news.yahoo.com/starlink-down-tens-thousands-users-202149959.html