Install and experience Elon Musk’s space Internet service

Starlink, Elon Musk’s space Internet service, will cost 60 USD/month.

Starlink, Elon Musk’s space Internet service, will cost $ 60 / month and $ 499 for the device. The service’s “Better Than Nothing Beta” package is currently being tested.

The first people to try Starlink are sharing their first impressions of the service. Overall, Starlink is getting positive reviews, with high-speed and low-latency Internet, even in the suburbs.

Wandering-coder, a Reddit user, has tested the network provided by Starlink in various places such as his home in Northern Idaho, the Hayden Valley Shooting Range, and the Coeur d’Alene National Forest area.

The results show that the satellite dish located in a fairly open forest area has an Internet download speed of 120Mpbs, an upload speed of 12Mbps and a latency of about 37ms. In the forest area, due to the thick canopy of trees blocking the signal path from the satellite to the receiving pan, the results are noticeably worse.

At home, the satellite dish is placed on the ground, there are few elements obstructing the view between the satellite and the dish, the download speed is 135 Mbps, the upload speed is 25 Mbps and the latency is about 21ms. In places that are obscured by trees, fences or houses, download speeds are still high at 46 Mbps, upload speeds are 15 Mbps and latency is 41ms.

Wandering-coder’s test shows that the signal transmission line can “go anywhere”, with the range within the coverage of the satellite array in the sky.

Starlink gear box.

Wandering-coder shared on Reddit that everything is high quality and works much more efficiently than he thought. This service works smoothly, allowing live streaming, video calling with many people, even playing games.

Ookla and PCMag, 2 other users also conducted Starlink’s speed test. Ookla’s results show an average download speed of 79.5 Mbps and an upload speed of 13.8 Mbps. This speed outperforms other satellite Internet services, such as HughesNet (19.84 Mbps download, 2.64 Mbps upload) and Viasat (24.75 Mbps download, 2.64 Mbps download speed) upload rate of 3.25 Mbps). In PCMag’s test, Viasat and HughesNet had latency of 643ms and 728ms, respectively.

Overall, Starlink left a pretty good first impression. Let’s wait and see if Starlink’s service when officially put into operation will “change the internet game”.