Blog Public Beta for Starlink Internet Service Coming Soon

SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk said the company plans to roll out a public beta of its Starlink broadband service soon.

Musk said on Twitter that a “fairly wide” beta version of the service will be ready for action as soon as the latest satellites “reach their target position.”Musk said the service will provide internet to the northern United States and “hopefully” southern Canada.

SpaceX is building a constellation of satellites to beam internet service around the world. Musk has said Starlink will require about 12,000 satellites to reach that scale. SpaceX tweeted earlier this month that initial tests of Starlink show speeds capable of streaming “multiple HD movies at once and still have bandwidth to spare.”

SpaceX has grown the Starlink constellation to around 800 satellites to date, including 60 that were delivered Tuesday in the 13th Starlink mission to date.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1313462965778157569

A tweet last week from Washington state’s Military Department and Emergency Management Division revealed the first known application of the service. Starlink was employed to provide service to emergency responders battling wildfires in Washington state. SpaceX Chief Executive Musk replied, saying the company is “prioritizing emergency responders & locations with no Internet connectivity at all.”

Photo: SpaceX

 

[miimura]

from your Lat Lon it appears you are in Mongolia in the middle of nowhere. Yes?

Minus 113... is Montana. Plus 113... is Mongolia.

 

[Rick_T]

SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk said the company plans to roll out a public beta of its Starlink broadband service soon. Musk said on Twitter that a “fairly wide” beta version of the service will be ready for action as soon as the latest satellites “reach their target position.”Musk said the service will provide internet...
[WPURI="https://teslamotorsclub.com/blog/2020/10/07/public-beta-for-starlink-internet-service-coming-soon/"]READ FULL ARTICLE[/WPURI]

Wouldn't it be nice if the new service cold be used on our M3's. I have no cell service where I live, so I lose music and navigation.

 

[doghousePVD]

from your Lat Lon it appears you are in Mongolia in the middle of nowhere. Yes?

MINUS longitude, not POSITIVE longitude. Montana, not Mongolia

 

[Jimbo435]

We could seriously use this at my work. We have a preschool in Los Altos, CA, 37.4 Lat. Copper here is unusable for internet most times, and unusable for phones when it rains. No access to cable. I was able through a crazy twist of fate to get fiber. $476/mo for 10mb.

 

[Subzero]

I have a friend that's been beta testing and he said that he's getting over 400mbs down and around 5 up. Maybe that will change when everyone else get's on it but that's waaaaay faster than 100mbs that others are stating. It may also depend on where you are Lat. wise. Not sure...

 

[jeremymc7]

It’s also largely going to depend on traffic. With extra users under heavy load it will slow down unless they are doing to lock performance, which is something it sounds like isn’t happening.

 

[JPoldo]

Can't WAIT to dump Comcast!!!!

YES, join the other 100,000 users who want to dump Comcast. Any way you can avoid this despicable company, do it.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

YES, join the other 100,000 users who want to dump Comcast. Any way you can avoid this despicable company, do it.

Starlink won't be able to provide the kind of density that cable companies can provide.
Maybe Starlink will have lotteries.

 

[Maxtrap]

At 48N, 122W (N of Seattle), I wonder how close to vertical the orbits will be? Lots of trees and hills here, and abysmal internet service.

 

[RVTechNomad]

The guy from Montana does not have cable at all. Starlink will be great for him. Regular cable users (Comcast and other hated ISPs) will have too high a population density to use Starlink.

Starlink will be very effective for remotes that have very poor to no Internet, and remote mobile, such as airplanes, long haul trucking, ships, transoceanic yachts, military, etc. The amount of shipping and air traffic in greater Los Angeles will absorb essentially all the Starlink capacity, leaving very little bandwidth for fixed residential.

Hey, RVTechNomad, go sign up at Starlink.

Thank you, I did sign up but hoped there would be a way to request the service or do testing.

 

[RVTechNomad]

It depends on how he is getting 'cable'. As remote as Sula, MT is, the cable is probably a microwave relay that will be affected by weather and other atmospheric conditions.

Cable? Microwave? I wish! There is nothing. If I drive 14 miles I can connect to a Verizon tower and use my cell phone for internet.

 

[Lloyd]

Think they will go as far south as 35 Degrees with the Beta release?

 

[Laftree1]

Can't WAIT to dump Comcast!!!!

 

[Laftree1]

You got that right! Question does anyone know if we get to keep the email address. Like when you switch the phone carrier,Your number is transferable.

 

[BCRuth]

SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk said the company plans to roll out a public beta of its Starlink broadband service soon. Musk said on Twitter that a “fairly wide” beta version of the service will be ready for action as soon as the latest satellites “reach their target position.”Musk said the service will provide internet...
[WPURI="https://teslamotorsclub.com/blog/2020/10/07/public-beta-for-starlink-internet-service-coming-soon/"]READ FULL ARTICLE[/WPURI]

We would love to be part of the Beta Test, we are building our retirement home, off grid, (50.5883971, -120.6792837) cell phone is our only option for anything. We have solar power. Taking my Model S in requires the highest suspension settings, dirt and gravel road to get in.

 

[Tummygun]

I live in Worceser, MA, the second largest city in New England. Fifty years ago on returning from the war in Vietnam I worked for a company that was installing the first cable here. Last week, after realizing that almost half of its grammar school students are without internet access, the city decided to spend many millions, that it does not have, and take many years, that its children do not have, to own its own system. Much better to beta test this product, if possible, don't you think? .

 

[hmcgregoraz]

I live in Worceser, MA, the second largest city in New England. Fifty years ago on returning from the war in Vietnam I worked for a company that was installing the first cable here. Last week, after realizing that almost half of its grammar school students are without internet access, the city decided to spend many millions, that it does not have, and take many years, that its children do not have, to own its own system. Much better to beta test this product, if possible, don't you think? .

I would actually suggest working in parallel.

If density is high enough, which for Worceser, MA, it very much is, Fiber is the way to go.

The local school district in Tucson did a project ~5 years ago with Zayo, 10 year $15M contract, about 80% paid via e-Rate (so it cost the district about $3M), 10 years, ~110 sites, and about 130 route miles of fiber.

Horse shoe, between a far off high school and the main district office, about 8-11 school per horse shoe, it daisy chains into each school, 10 gig in each direction, 1 gig hand over at the school, so the speed of the horse shoe is 10 gig, and each site really has access to the full 1 gig hand over.

They then did a 40 gig redundant ring between the high school and the district office, so if a break happens in any or multiple horse shoes it can self heal over the 40 gig ring.

At a cost of $1.5M/year, or $300K/year after e-Rate contribution, it is by far the fastest and cleanest choice.

You can see a lot of the network here, as Zayo is one of the few providers that make most of their fiber maps public: Tranzact by Zayo® type in Tucson AZ and then click "view zayo fiber" in the map, and you should be able to see most of the Tucson network, the legs going into residential areas were to connect schools.
-----

For residential a PON network works great if you have the density, and access.

For FAST deployment, fiber + fixed wireless would be a good bridge.

StarLink would work well for outlaying locations, but not for high density.

-Harry

 

[doghousePVD]

Latitude 38 and ready for Beta. Please sign me up or tell us how to sign up. Soooo ready for Starlink especially for my Model S. I live where there are lots of canyons and no internet or phone service in those canyons.

Starlink won’t work in deep canyons. It needs clear access to the sky about 25° in all directions. If the sky is only at 45° it won’t work very well.

 

[doghousePVD]

W

You got that right! Question does anyone know if we get to keep the email address. Like when you switch the phone carrier,Your number is transferable.

hy would you have an email tied to an ISP? That’s so 1990. Convert to an independent email provider, such as Gmail, Yahoo, etc.

 

[SageBrush]

I was thinking about StarLink today in the context of being a pretty satisfied cable customer. StarLink has a killer technical advantage in having much higher upload rates. If SpaceX can bring the subscription cost down to within perhaps $10 a month of cable and have equal reliability then the legacy companies are in deep doodoo.

Can't WAIT to dump Comcast!!!!

I am dumping my COX service

If you get cable now, Starlink is not for you.