SpaceX Starlink: pre-orders open in different countries around the world

A few months ago the private beta began , by invitation only, for the satellite internet according to Elon Musk . Now, without too many big announcements, SpaceX has opened pre-orders worldwide for its internet service known as Starlink .

The company therefore seems to be accelerating on forecasts, and in fact the first confirmations from different countries on the public availability of the service are arriving: United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and others. Pre-order is available from the official website .

Starlink: several bureaucratic obstacles for SpaceX

The "blame" for the fact that it is not currently available in all countries of the world is, however, to be attributed to the bureaucracy of the various countries. In fact, each country has its own laws and regulations and SpaceX must obtain the various permits individually . This is a complex process, and as of 2021, SpaceX has managed to obtain (at the moment) these licenses for the distribution of Starlink in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom , with customers already present in the three countries listed according to online discussions. .

We expect soon to see them available in other countries such as Germany, Mexico, Australia, Greece, France, Argentina and Chile. Unfortunately in Italy we are still in the early stages , together with other countries such as Austria, Philippines, India, Japan, South Africa, Spain, Ireland, New Zealand, Brazil and Colombia.

Starlink and the prices of the service

According to Elon Musk, Starlink's goal is to offer the service at the same price in all countries , with the only difference being the additional local taxes. Currently, pre-orders are made by paying a $ 99 security deposit with the promise that the service will be available in mid-2021 or later this year.

Currently the service costs $ 99 per month, plus the initial $ 500 kit fee, providing average speeds of 50 to 150Mbps with latency of 20 to 40ms . It may always be little in terms of performance, but we are still talking about a satellite network and therefore it is not to be compared to a classic cable network (adsl / fiber). They are also performances that competitors cannot achieve, primarily due to the diversity in terms of the number of satellites in orbit.

The kit includes a dish (plug & play) to be able to communicate with the Starlink satellites, together with a kit that will be used by the equipment to be able to communicate correctly. According to a tweet from Elon Musk, the dishes have motors that allow them to orient themselves independently to have an excellent view of the satellites. In the package there will also be a router , with support for 2.4 GHz and 5GHz Dual Band WiFi.

The service is also currently aimed at residents of rural and peripheral areas who currently do not have access to the internet or who rely on obsolete connectivity technologies in the absence of more effective services, perhaps paying exorbitant figures.

If SpaceX is able to overcome the technological challenges of creating and deploying the service, the company is optimistic about its potential demand and revenue. Musk told reporters in 2019 that Starlink could generate $ 30 billion in revenue annually, which is about 10 times the annual revenue they expect from its core business of launchers.

SpaceX's Starlink article: Pre-orders opened in different countries around the world comes from Tech CuE .