STARLINK BEGINS TO FULLFIL ITS SATELITE INTERNET PROMISE

This plan intends to bring broadband — with download speeds of at most limited 25Mbps — to six million houses and companies with no broadband. As part of its performance, Starlink displayed internet performance tests with download speeds of within 102Mbps to 103Mbps, upload speeds of 40.5Mbps to not 42Mbps, and a latency of 18 milliseconds to 19 milliseconds.

That’s much more advantageous than the current satellite internet. Equivalent to low-end cable internet, and far away what most rural internet users can get.

Other autonomous third-party tests are registering lower performance numbers. Users posting to TestMy.Net offer a typical download speed of 37.04Mbps, with the highest speed of 91.04Mbps. Additional tests present the highest download number of 103Mbps, an upload speed of 41.99Mbps, and a latency of 18 milliseconds. That’s still substantially better broadband than many rural users have been seeing.

Obviously, the Linux-powered Starlink satellites are, however, in beta. With nearly 775 Starlink satellites now in orbit, the setting is far short of its primary goal of 12,000 satellites. SpaceX has appealed to the FCC to launch 30,000 Starlink satellites. As told by the SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk, SpaceX requires about 400 Starlink satellites to render “minor” coverage and 800 for “moderate” content.

Pent-up request for Starlink’s fast Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) internet is likewise increasing.

 SpaceX lately petitioned for an FCC license to roll out five million ‘UFO on a stick’ end-user terminals over its initial request for a million terminals

This came after 700,000 US citizens signed up to be updated about the service’s availability.

It’s not just broadband-hungry people who want Starlink services. Rural governments, such as the Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities (FONOM), are also looking to the sky for broadband.

Hence, why don’t we notice more beta testers or even a new release program? The explanation is there aren’t enough terminals in the production pipeline. A close interpretation of the SpaceX FCC application to modify the Starlink satellite planets orbits reveals SpaceX is on track to deliver thousands of consumer user terminals per month, directing toward high-rate production. If they’re on track to produce thousands, that implies they’re now only making hundreds of terminals per month.

Research moreover confirms this theory for SpaceX Starlink’s job openings. The LinkedIn search exposed that the company is actively searching for gifted production associates to set new production and test methods and ultimately ramp to full-scale manufacturing for the user terminal. The company is also in demand for skillful and well-rounded maintenance technicians to ensure our high-volume Starlink User Terminal manufacturing facility’s high productivity and reliability. SpaceX is also looking for production engineers to create millions of consumer-facing tools that will convene in customers’ houses.

In conclusion, what can be seen is that while Starlink satellites can produce broadband goods, it will yet be months more before a sufficient number of SpaceX’s CA-based factories can satisfy the need for first hundreds of thousands and ultimately millions of terminals.