Musk says his company has done the ITU filings, adding that securing permissions shouldn't pose a problem. "Whereas there's high scarcity for cellular bandwidth, there is not high scarcity for space-to-Earth bandwidth," he says.

Musk voiced concerns about the satellite constellation getting hacked and says he plans to guard against this by implementing a read-only memory chip that would put a compromised satellite into safe mode and automatically take it out of orbit in the event of a hack.

The day before his satellite announcement, Musk also said, via Twitter, that he plans to build a five-mile test version of the Hyperloop, his proposed design for high-speed transportation to shoot passenger-filled capsules at 760 mph though low-pressure, 88-in.-dia tubes atop pylons between cities 400 to 900 miles apart (ENR 11-17/24-14 p. 41).

"Will be building a Hyperloop test track for companies and student teams to test out their pods. Most likely in Texas," said Musk's tweet.