It’s been a while since we checked in on the ubiquitous Elon Musk and his Starlink project. If it’s not Starlink, then it could be one of many other ventures the seemingly tireless visionary (think Cybertruck, SpaceX, Hyperloop, Tesla, solar roof panels, Starhopper, Starship, just for starters) has underway.
Starlink has gained increasing attention of late, some positive, some not so good. Starlink’s vision and business plan are quite basic: deliver high-speed internet service across the planet, particularly in underserved areas, through low earth orbit (LEO) satellites. Sell the service around the world and use the profits to fund manned missions to Mars.
Not just a few satellites, not just even hundreds. No, thousands. The attention of late has come from the fact that Starlink is almost at the thousand mark, launching satellites in batches of 64 or so. Musk has said that the business needs 1,200 to operate a thorough beta test, and then up to 12,000 for an initial round of global service.
As of the end of October, the company has begun contacting potential beta testers who filled in a simple form a few months back. Musk has publicly stated that the first round of testing will be conducted across the northern United States and Canada. He also famously has said that the system will be simple to use, consisting of a “UFO on a stick” antenna and a terminal, and that setup will consist of “pointing at the sky” and “plugging in” the terminal device.
Just how straightforward the Starlink ground station setup will be remains to be seen as no word has been heard yet from beta testers not directly connected with the company. Actual non-affiliated beta testers will likely have to sign non-disclosure documents. We do know, however, from company statements, that early internal testing shows speeds on the order of 50–150 Mbps, and latencies (a measure of response time) around 25 ms. Musk has stated that he expects both parameters to improve as the Starlink constellation of satellites increases in number.
Perhaps most telling is the name that Starlink is attaching to the testing getting underway: the “Better than Nothing” beta. You see, that identifies the potential market for Starlink, and, hint, it’s not for urban dwellers who already have access to big data pipes at prices on the order of a hundred dollars a month.
According to anonymous posts on Reddit.com from at least one person who has been signed up for the beta test, there is a significant cost attached as well. About $500 for the equipment, and then $100 a month for the service. Whether any beta tests are already underway in Canada is not known at this time. Starlink has a licence to operate here as an internet service provider but it may not yet have a spectrum licence for the actual signals to and from its satellites.
That level of pricing is easy to dismiss. Think of what you are paying monthly, say, for a Telus or Shaw internet feed to your house at, say, 500 Mbps performance. Around a hundred dollars in all likelihood. However, if you are somewhere in rural B.C., you might not even have internet access, or you might be paying a ridiculously high price for service that doesn’t even hit 10 Mbps.
Twitter user @Tonypallotta may be indicative of the customers likely to flock to Starlink. “@elonmusk (I) live in a rural area in Canada that gets under 1mbps. Would love to be a beta tester in my area. Please have the team contact me. @SpaceX #Starlink”
I spoke with Daniel Berrios, who lives in Caracas, Venezuela. He pays about $100 a month for a service nominally rated at 7 Mbps. He says the Starlink project would be an amazing improvement if it were to go global. “I’d definitely make the investment, just to have decent internet.”
He went on to describe his present service. “It’s pretty bad, sometimes it drops to 1mbps and even lower. The latency is not bad when the connection works, at least it allows me to play online games at a decent speed. But compared to Starlink my connection is something out of the stone age, and let me remind you that I’m paying $100 a month for it.”
Both represent viable and possible customers for Starlink. We’ll know more by the summer of 2021 as real-world test data begins to emerge. If Starlink launches continue at the present rate, the constellation will be well over 2,000 satellites. Astronomers by then should also have a better handle on mitigation efforts by Starlink to reduce, if not eliminate, the light streaks produced by its satellites on their long exposure images.
As for the developing issue and concern over the proliferation of space junk, let’s leave that for another day. However, I will add that the Starlink satellites are deployed with a planned deorbit strategy at the end of their lifespans.
Follow me on Facebook (facebook.com/PeterVogelCA), on Twitter (@PeterVogel), or on Instagram (@plvogel)