SpaceX plans to offer global Starlink coverage by September

jsilva

Posts: 325   +2
Something to look forward to: Even if you do not live in a zone covered by Starlink, there's a good chance that you'll be able to use it before the end of the year. According to SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwel, Starlink is expected to offer global coverage by September, but only if regional regulators permit it.

SpaceX's Starlink is closer than ever to become a global ISP. In a conference with Macquarie Group (via Reuters), Shotwel said that the company has already launched about 1,800 satellites into space. Once they reach their operational orbit, which is expected to happen by September, Starlink will be in a position to offer continuous coverage to the globe.

The 1,800 satellites deployed until now are far from the 12,000 promised by the company, but there's still plenty of time to launch more.

Besides the satellites, SpaceX will also have to handle the regulatory paperwork and receive approval from regional telcos. Once that happens, those who have been plagued by slow Internet speeds will finally have an alternative to their current service.

Since Starlink entered the "Better Than Nothing Beta" public program, it amassed over 10,000 subscribers in 11 countries. In broad terms, users are impressed with its performance. Download speeds can surpass the 200Mbps mark, upload speeds can go above 30Mbps, and latency ranges between 20-45ms.

Some users also reported the service occasionally dropped, but that's common considering it's still in the beta phase. As the number of satellites increases and the product matures, the situation should improve.

Image credit: NASA

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Curious about price, privacy, reliability. I also know there is concern about the satellites themselves. Besides messing with astronomy, once nations start shooting at each others' satellites, near space will be full of debris and we may be stuck on this planet.

On the other hand, here in the States we need some competition to the regional Internet provider monopolies. It is a pretty shocking situation. I am a pro-business centrist. Business creates economy. But the deep pocket special interests have been allowed too much power. Its out of balance.
 
Curious about price, privacy, reliability. I also know there is concern about the satellites themselves. Besides messing with astronomy, once nations start shooting at each others' satellites, near space will be full of debris and we may be stuck on this planet.

On the other hand, here in the States we need some competition to the regional Internet provider monopolies. It is a pretty shocking situation. I am a pro-business centrist. Business creates economy. But the deep pocket special interests have been allowed too much power. Its out of balance.

Price is $500 for the dish, $100/mo
Currently still in beta but reliability is getting pretty good. (I've had it since March.)
Speed runs from 50 to 300mbps down and 15 to 50mbps up depending on how many satellites are in range. IT IS NOT AFFECTED BY WEATHER. If has stayed connected through rain and snow storms with little loss in speed.
It really does not matter if the speed is not consistent it is still FAST compared to my old WISP which got me 10-12mbps down and o.6mbps (600kbps) up.

I downloaded my entire steam, epic, and gog game libraries (about 800GB) in 12 hours when I got my new computer.

If I was still on my old WISP it would have taken me about 2 weeks and I probably would not have downloaded the entire library.
 
Too late and too expensive. I'm on symmetric 500Mb/s FTTH - $50/mo and no reliability problems.
 
In the USA, it's just not "cost effective" to provide broadband fiber/cable to everyone. I see story after story about how the USA lags behind the rest of the world in broadband speed/coverage. Yes, some of it is the #$(!^% cable/teleCo's, but part of it is how spread out the USA is. You could fit the entire land area of Japan, South Korea, England and most of France, Germany etc within the land area of the 48 states.
I remember once taking a trip to see Mt. Rushmore, traveling west from Omaha NE, how many miles you could travel, before seeing a farm house. Eventually wireless through satellite will become more common I think, for many rural areas. Plus, depending on how some communist countries are, perhaps some of those people hiding in fear, will be able to access something besides their nation's propaganda.
 
In the USA, it's just not "cost effective" to provide broadband fiber/cable to everyone. I see story after story about how the USA lags behind the rest of the world in broadband speed/coverage. Yes, some of it is the #$(!^% cable/teleCo's, but part of it is how spread out the USA is. You could fit the entire land area of Japan, South Korea, England and most of France, Germany etc within the land area of the 48 states.
I remember once taking a trip to see Mt. Rushmore, traveling west from Omaha NE, how many miles you could travel, before seeing a farm house. Eventually wireless through satellite will become more common I think, for many rural areas. Plus, depending on how some communist countries are, perhaps some of those people hiding in fear, will be able to access something besides their nation's propaganda.

Someone actually gets it. Thank you.
 
In the USA, it's just not "cost effective" to provide broadband fiber/cable to everyone. I see story after story about how the USA lags behind the rest of the world in broadband speed/coverage. Yes, some of it is the #$(!^% cable/teleCo's, but part of it is how spread out the USA is. You could fit the entire land area of Japan, South Korea, England and most of France, Germany etc within the land area of the 48 states.

Similar problem in Australia.. and we have even less people spread over an equal area. Means traditional wired infrastructure to small locations is just not very cost effective, or expensive for the end consumer.

Starlink is perfect for this.
 
Too late and too expensive. I'm on symmetric 500Mb/s FTTH - $50/mo and no reliability problems.
I have this weird feeling, that this offer do not target customers with access to FTTH infrastructure.... but that's me.
 
Similar problem in Australia.. and we have even less people spread over an equal area. Means traditional wired infrastructure to small locations is just not very cost effective, or expensive for the end consumer.

Starlink is perfect for this.
Unfortunately, it may only work in the south of your country. The antenna experience thermal throttling around ~35-40C, and shutdown to self-protect.
 
I have this weird feeling, that this offer do not target customers with access to FTTH infrastructure.... but that's me.
Well, my point was that had Starlink come along before FTTH was available to me, I might have jumped at it since before that, Spectrum was the only option. Most ISPs in the US, such as Spectrum, have monopolies in any area that they serve, and Spectrum's customer service is crap.
 
I'm curious about the regional pricing, because 100 USD here in Hungary is nearly third of a minimal wage. They can't sell it for the same price everywhere. I can get unlimited mobile internet for like 30 USD. Ofc it is way (cca. 30 megabit) slower than Starlink.
 
Unfortunately, it may only work in the south of your country. The antenna experience thermal throttling around ~35-40C, and shutdown to self-protect.
Interesting. Sounds like an issue they are going to have to work out; otherwise, it will not be able to meet the goal of bringing internet access to everyone.
 
Too late and too expensive. I'm on symmetric 500Mb/s FTTH - $50/mo and no reliability problems.

I live in a city of 1.2 million people and no FTTH exists in my neighborhood. I have both gigabit cable with horrible bufferbloat and DSL which has good latency but is slow as F'. I'm paying 160$ Canadian for the two internet connections and I'm not happy with either.
 
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