TESMANIAN by Evelyn Arevalo December 22, 2020
SpaceX started to offer Starlink service to select customers in Northern United States and Canada under a ‘Better Than Nothing Beta’ Starlink test program which offers early access to the network. The company currently operates approximately 960 internet-beaming Starlink satellites in low Earth orbit, out of over 4,400 it plans to deploy. As more satellites are deployed to orbit SpaceX will have the capability to rollout a wider Beta service across the country next year.
To receive Starlink internet from the satellites customers use a phased-array dish antenna the company nicknamed “Dishy McFlatFace.†The antenna works alongside a Wi-Fi router device to access the satellite broadband service. This week, early Starlink Beta Testers shared SpaceX sent out an e-mail where the company announces it deployed multiple Starlink updates. “The Starlink team has continued to introduce upgrades and improvements since we first rolled out our Better Than Nothing Beta service just two months ago,†the company wrote in the e-mail, “Most notably, the Starlink team has begun repositioning of more than 500 satellites in an effort to improve coverage and decrease outages. These maneuvers may introduce short outages in the near term, but the final result is expected to substantially improve user experience in Q1 [Quarter One] 2021.â€
The company also upgraded the “Starlink WiFi router to improve Network Address Translation (NAT) types for online gaming. Users will see notable improvements in the quality of peer-to-peer (P2P) gaming as we continue to grow the network in the coming months,†SpaceX wrote. Engineers also “resolved a bug in the Starlink WiFi router software that was causing packet loss during Xbox Live gaming and connection diagnostic tests.â€
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https://www.tesmanian.com/blogs/tesmanian-blog/starlink-snow-1
