That 30k / 42k number is mostly Musk lies. It's very unlikely to ever happen given the size of the market, the cost of launches, and the short lifetime of satellites in LEO.
Basically, they would have to constantly launch significantly more satellites than they do today to ever maintain a 30-40k satellite network in LEO. And even Musk estimates like 500k customers - this would basically mean 1 satellite for every 10-20 customers, once every few years. There is no way for that to make economic sense.
My prediction is that they will stop somewhere around the current number of satellites, in fact. At the very most, they might triple the current number.
Basically, they would have to constantly launch significantly more satellites than they do today to ever maintain a 30-40k satellite network in LEO. And even Musk estimates like 500k customers - this would basically mean 1 satellite for every 10-20 customers, once every few years. There is no way for that to make economic sense.
My prediction is that they will stop somewhere around the current number of satellites, in fact. At the very most, they might triple the current number.