TESMANIAN by Evelyn Arevalo May 22, 2021
SpaceX started to accept pre-orders of its Starlink internet service on a ‘first-come, first-served’ basis via Starlink.com early February. The company is primarily focused on delivering high-speed internet connection to rural and remote regions globally, where terrestrial internet infrastructures are difficult or too expensive to set-up. The Starlink broadband constellation already serves customers around the world, in places like the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and some European countries. In February, SpaceX initiated beta internet service in rural areas located in France. Starlink customers purchase a Starlink Kit that includes a phased-array dish antenna and Wi-Fi router device to connect wirelessly to the space-based internet. SpaceX nicknames the antenna ‘Dishy McFlatface,’ according to the company the antenna features technology more advanced than what is currently on fighter jets.
A Starlink beta user living near the French Alps, a mountain range located in the southeast of France along the borders of Switzerland and Italy, shared a beautiful photograph of the Starlink dish with mountains in the background via Reddit. “McFlatface chilling in the French Alps. Merci Elon!” Reddit user irv-swerve wrote on the image, thanking SpaceX founder Elon Musk for the quality of the internet service (pictured above). They shared that Starlink provided them with high-speed internet in the French Alps – download speeds of 306.92Mbps [megabits per second], upload speed of 62.63Mbps, and latency of 41ms [milliseconds], which is quite fast given the location.
These speeds likely fluctuate from time to time because Starlink is still in its beta phase, however, this provides insight into what the network is capable of delivering. SpaceX says that during the Starlink beta service users will experience data speeds varying from 50Mbps to 150Mbps and latency from 20ms to 40ms. “Speed will double to ~300Mbps & latency will drop to ~20ms [milliseconds] later this year,” Musk said in March. As SpaceX launches more internet-beaming satellites to orbit the network will become more reliable. To date, they have deployed approximately 1,677 satellites out of 4,408 that will initially make-up the Starlink constellation.
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