Elon Musk says Starlink will offer a private beta for a global internet service in about three months and start offering a public beta service in 6 months.
Private beta begins in ~3 months, public beta in ~6 months, starting with high latitudes
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 23, 2020
The SpaceX Starlink system will not have any competition for low altitude and low latency satellite service for many years. The nearest competitor, OneWeb, went bankrupt a few weeks ago.
The Starlink system is about 80 times closer to the Earth. Lasers travel faster in a vacuum than through fiber. This means for low latency service Starlink will be superior to any communication system for distances greater than 2000 miles.
Elon Musk described the looks of the Starlink Satellite receiver terminal. It will have motors.
The satellite receiver will need to be able track the low earth orbit satellites and shift to a different satellite. The satellites will be about 30 times farther than the altitude of a commercial passenger jet and they will be moving about 30 times faster. The apparent motion of the satellites relative to people on the ground will be like watching an airplane track across the sky.
Looks like a thin, flat, round UFO on a stick. Starlink Terminal has motors to self-adjust optimal angle to view sky. Instructions are simply:
– Plug in socket
– Point at sky
These instructions work in either order. No training required.— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 7, 2020
There was a patent from SpaceX discussing the phased array shifters that will be needed.
SOURCES- Elon Musk Twitter, SpaceX
Written By Brian Wang, Nextbigfuture.com
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker, a Singularity University speaker and guest at numerous interviews for radio and podcasts. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements.
Their allotments aren’t really valuable though, not to a company with 10,000 satellites in low orbit. That’s part of why they are bankrupt.
EDIT: that’s why OneWeb is auctioning the spectrum off – it is now a depreciating asset https://advanced-television.com/2020/04/01/oneweb-prospective-buyers-limited/asset
Some more info on the allotment priorities https://www.google.com/amp/s/spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/aerospace/satellites/spacex-oneweb-or-kepler-communications-who-really-launched-the-first-kuband-satellite.amp.html
If you live in the sticks $120 is not much. YMMV, though
If they pull it off, we will have Mars base quite soon in some way or another. Musk only needs enough money.
I would pay more for starlink internet, because I would support space exporation with that and not just some pork for few guys.
in my opinion is it quit good reason, to pay for Starlink and support space exploration with that.
SpaceX CEO said people pay $80/month for crappy service. My guess would be $120/month for great service https://spacenews.com/spacex-plans-to-start-offering-starlink-broadband-services-in-2020/
I’m guessing having 80 satellites in your sky 80 times closer than GEO will help, combined with a parallel phased array. I’m guessing the satellites will be able to spike their transmission power by 10x but it will cause battery cycling wear.
I’m very curious to see what the service quality looks like. At the frequencies they are using cloud cover could severely degrade the performance. Rain could knock it out.
What will they charge a month?
I know SpaceX was planning on using lasers but as of now satellite comms are still Ku band. Also Oneweb has filed for bankruptcy but that doesn’t mean they are out of the game. They have valuable spectrum allotments and could be attractive to a lot of companies.
I wish I could beta like right now. lol