[Starlink] Re: Starlink Community Gateway Wamena,Indonesia First Community gateway with 6 antenna configuration

[Ulrich Speidel <u.speidel@auckland.ac.nz>]

Not sure where in Wamena it is or who the customer is. What I do know is 
that SpaceX's original application for SES-LIC-20230427-00924, which is 
what community gateways operate under, provides for simultaneous 
communication with up to 32 Gen. 2 and up to 8 Gen. 1 satellites, using 
up to 40 antennas. So I presume that 6 is reflective of the size of and 
demand from the Wamena community.

Iqaluit has a population of around 7500, Unalaska about 4250, Tarawa 
(where the gateway is/was more of a gap filler given the prevalence of 
conventional Starlink terminals there along with the cable that was 
meant to have gone live before Christmas or thenabouts - need to check) 
has an estimated 75k. Nauru around 12k (and now cable). Wamena has 66k 
and FAIK has no cable coming because of where it is (no road access).

Note also that the antennas at community gateways are conventional 
dishes, which point at a satellite mechanically and need to move 
mechanically to point at the successor of the satellite they're 
tracking. That's unlike the Ku band consumer Dishys which can switch 
between satellites instantly with their phased arrays. So adding dishes 
reduces the dip in available bandwidth while dishes transit between 
satellites, and also provides redundancy in case of mechanical failure.

On 27/12/2025 8:21 am, Inemesit Affia via Starlink wrote:
> Does anyone know where it is?
>
> Who is the customer?
>
> Why six instead of four like Iqaluit and Unalaska
>
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-- 
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Dr. Ulrich Speidel

School of Computer Science

Room 303S.594 (City Campus)

The University of Auckland
u.speidel@auckland.ac.nz
http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~ulrich/
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