We will fully understand if you don’t get the Skynet reference there, but for those of us who were big fans of the Terminator films it’s somewhat hard not to think of the fictional far-reaching A.I. platform that spelled disaster for humanity when we hear of Elon Musk’s ‘StarLink’ satellite internet development. Seems as if everything this billionaire investor does these days is noteworthy, and this is no exception. And let’s be clear – all this development is doing is promising the fastest internet speeds ever available to the average earth dweller.
We can be fairly certain it is NOT going to lead to the Rise of the Machines, or a need for John Connor to save us all from them.
Anyways, enough with the sci-fi movie references. StarLink has the potential to put you in pretty much a Bugatti for roaring down the information superhighway, and we imagine that sounds plenty good to you. Here at 4GoodHosting we’re like every other quality Canadian web hosting provider in that the nature of what we do means we really get how the promise of faster page-loading times and flash media like it was meant to be will really appeal to people.
So it’s for this reason that we think that Mr. Musk and his StarLink are definitely newsworthy enough for this week’s entry. Here’s hoping this all comes to be like it’s predicted it will!
2x Sounds Just Fine
And the meat of that prediction is that Elon has stated that the speeds of the StarLink satellite internet service will double over this year as it continues to build out its global consumer network. More specifically, what’s being suggested is that speed will double to ~300Mb/s and latency will drop to ~20ms later this year. If so, it is quite the development as StarLink routers currently max out at speeds between 50 and 150 Mbps.
That is the consensus, although some users have claimed to get speeds well above that, and even up to 215 Mbps. However, we ca probably safely assume those speeds were recorded by someone enjoying a fairly empty network at the time.
Global Reach
It’s also being reported that StarLink is set to offer these benefits to one and all, and pretty much no matter where it is on the planet you’re calling home. This satellite internet service is promising to reach nearly all customers around the Earth by the close of this year, and the reaches that it can’t quite get to this year would be taken care of successfully by the end of 2022 at the latest.
Lofty aims for sure, but Musk is saying it’s doable – and will be done. He has also said that StarLink is currently very similar to other satellite broadband services in that it’s optimized for customers living in regions with low-to-medium population density. He shares a belief with his lead engineers who are making all of this goodness happen, and that being that traditional methods of providing internet are still best outside of these areas.
The Pikangikum First Nation in Canada is one remote area in a large country with vast expanses of wilderness where the reach and strength of SkyLink is being tested.
Subscribe to the Beta
For $99 a month you can subscribe and try all of this out for yourself, but be aware that by the time you get to that point you’ll already be in for 5 bills at least– for now at least. That’s because it’s $499 for the StarLink kit. The kit includes a Wi-Fi router, mounting tripod and a terminal to connect to the satellites. But it’s not like that’s been dissuading to most people it would seem. So far the service has around 10,000 users participating in the beta test.
So if you want to gauge all this for yourself and you’re not on any sort of a budget, then no one’s stopping you from getting onboard yourself.
It was about three weeks ago now that the company started making pre-orders of StarLink available to other countries like Australia, New Zealand, and Mexico. With a $100 deposit you’ll be put in line to start enjoying the service once it becomes available in those locations. But again with the same hardware expense they’ll be paying $600 upfront for the service.
Possibility of Federal Funding
StarLink reaching both the speed and the coverage that Musk is aiming for is going to be dependent on SpaceX rolling out quite a few more satellites. While they’ve put up more than 1,000 of them for StarLink so far, the goal is to have some 42,000 satellites up there by the middle of 2027.
And of course doing all this is an expensive proposition, and that’s an understatement as is. To help with that SpaceX won $885 million in federal subsidies to expand StarLink. And given what these types of internet speeds along with 5G network connectivity have in potential for federal and municipal governments it’s not surprising that they’re investing to the extent they are.
On the other side of the coin, however, many small internet service providers (ISP) are opposed to this ‘unproven technology’ as they refer to it. They’re asking the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to review winning applications submitted by satellite and fixed wireless providers to ensure this is being rolled out judiciously and fairly. They insist that what is at stake is legit broadband access to millions of people in rural areas and regions that are currently too costly to serve.
It’s true that there have been companies that received millions of dollars in federal funds to expand broadband internet service to rural services, but they then dropped the ball with that. The project trials in rural Canada might suggest that is not going to be the case this time, but we will have to see how it all plays out.
We will fully understand if you don’t get the Skynet reference there, but for those of us who were big fans of the Terminator films it’s somewhat hard not to think of the fictional far-reaching A.I. platform that spelled disaster for humanity when we hear of Elon Musk’s ‘StarLink’ satellite internet development. Seems as if everything this billionaire investor does these days is noteworthy, and this is no exception. And let’s be clear – all this development is doing is promising the fastest internet speeds ever available to the average earth dweller.
We can be fairly certain it is NOT going to lead to the Rise of the Machines, or a need for John Connor to save us all from them.
Anyways, enough with the sci-fi movie references. StarLink has the potential to put you in pretty much a Bugatti for roaring down the information superhighway, and we imagine that sounds plenty good to you. Here at 4GoodHosting we’re like every other quality Canadian web hosting provider in that the nature of what we do means we really get how the promise of faster page-loading times and flash media like it was meant to be will really appeal to people.
So it’s for this reason that we think that Mr. Musk and his StarLink are definitely newsworthy enough for this week’s entry. Here’s hoping this all comes to be like it’s predicted it will!
2x Sounds Just Fine
And the meat of that prediction is that Elon has stated that the speeds of the StarLink satellite internet service will double over this year as it continues to build out its global consumer network. More specifically, what’s being suggested is that speed will double to ~300Mb/s and latency will drop to ~20ms later this year. If so, it is quite the development as StarLink routers currently max out at speeds between 50 and 150 Mbps.
That is the consensus, although some users have claimed to get speeds well above that, and even up to 215 Mbps. However, we ca probably safely assume those speeds were recorded by someone enjoying a fairly empty network at the time.
Global Reach
It’s also being reported that StarLink is set to offer these benefits to one and all, and pretty much no matter where it is on the planet you’re calling home. This satellite internet service is promising to reach nearly all customers around the Earth by the close of this year, and the reaches that it can’t quite get to this year would be taken care of successfully by the end of 2022 at the latest.
Lofty aims for sure, but Musk is saying it’s doable – and will be done. He has also said that StarLink is currently very similar to other satellite broadband services in that it’s optimized for customers living in regions with low-to-medium population density. He shares a belief with his lead engineers who are making all of this goodness happen, and that being that traditional methods of providing internet are still best outside of these areas.
The Pikangikum First Nation in Canada is one remote area in a large country with vast expanses of wilderness where the reach and strength of SkyLink is being tested.
Subscribe to the Beta
For $99 a month you can subscribe and try all of this out for yourself, but be aware that by the time you get to that point you’ll already be in for 5 bills at least– for now at least. That’s because it’s $499 for the StarLink kit. The kit includes a Wi-Fi router, mounting tripod and a terminal to connect to the satellites. But it’s not like that’s been dissuading to most people it would seem. So far the service has around 10,000 users participating in the beta test.
So if you want to gauge all this for yourself and you’re not on any sort of a budget, then no one’s stopping you from getting onboard yourself.
It was about three weeks ago now that the company started making pre-orders of StarLink available to other countries like Australia, New Zealand, and Mexico. With a $100 deposit you’ll be put in line to start enjoying the service once it becomes available in those locations. But again with the same hardware expense they’ll be paying $600 upfront for the service.
Possibility of Federal Funding
StarLink reaching both the speed and the coverage that Musk is aiming for is going to be dependent on SpaceX rolling out quite a few more satellites. While they’ve put up more than 1,000 of them for StarLink so far, the goal is to have some 42,000 satellites up there by the middle of 2027.
And of course doing all this is an expensive proposition, and that’s an understatement as is. To help with that SpaceX won $885 million in federal subsidies to expand StarLink. And given what these types of internet speeds along with 5G network connectivity have in potential for federal and municipal governments it’s not surprising that they’re investing to the extent they are.
On the other side of the coin, however, many small internet service providers (ISP) are opposed to this ‘unproven technology’ as they refer to it. They’re asking the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to review winning applications submitted by satellite and fixed wireless providers to ensure this is being rolled out judiciously and fairly. They insist that what is at stake is legit broadband access to millions of people in rural areas and regions that are currently too costly to serve.
It’s true that there have been companies that received millions of dollars in federal funds to expand broadband internet service to rural services, but they then dropped the ball with that. The project trials in rural Canada might suggest that is not going to be the case this time, but we will have to see how it all plays out.
At a more basic level, people are going to be absolutely thrilled at the prospect of consistent 2x faster internet speeds.
