SpaceX Starlink is now available in El Salvador. The Salvadoran Government is working to connect public schools to high-speed Starlink satellite Internet. El Salvador is the first country in Central America to have access to the broadband satellite service. The government aims to reduce the country’s digital divide with the advanced broadband satellite technology. Starlink will be useful to connect schools and communities situated in rural and remote areas where the internet is unavailable.
“We have started to connect schools that never had internet before. We plan to continue connecting more schools until all have internet. We are bringing the service where there is none, and we will have a very fast connection. This new technology will allow us to close the digital divide in the country,” said El Salvador Electricity and Telecommunication Superintendent Manuel Aguilar. “Under President Nayib Bukele’s government, the country stands out as a leader in the region, being the first [Central America] nation to have such technology,” he said in a Spanish TV broadcast called ‘Diario La Huella’ on April 17. He also shared that the President had been in talks with SpaceX representatives to bring Starlink to the country since 2022.
“Ya tenemos meses probando #Starlink y lo hemos hecho en las escuelas. El beneficio será llevar internet a los centros educativos, de ahí para las personas que quieran ocuparlo (el servicio)", manifiesta el Superintendente de @SIGETSV, @Manuelsv. pic.twitter.com/vHtxJuXr6t
— Diario La Huella (@LaHuellaSV) April 17, 2023
The first school in El Salvador that got connected to SpaceX Starlink is ‘El Centro Escolar de la Colonia La Campanera’ located in the municipality of Soyapango. School officials state that Starlink will provide 226 students with high-speed internet with an average download speed of 180 Mbps (megabits per second). A video and photographs of classrooms and school representatives using Starlink are shown below. These schools are located in rural communities where there was no reliable internet due to the difficulty of building the infrastructure on mountainous regions. School representatives said in a Spanish news segment that companies also feared building in “crime infested regions,” therefore, Starlink is a good option because it does not require building complex infrastructures. To connect to Starlink’s high-speed satellite internet, the user easily gains Starlink by connecting the antenna and Wi-Fi router to an electricity outlet and the antenna automatically finds the satellites in Low Earth Orbit. “With the connection of Starlink internet it will benefit for our school centers and our students […] who do not have internet service at home [...],” said school Director Martha Sosa. The government also provided laptops to the students. “Thanks to the central government and the President who [...] supports the youth and the kids who are the future of our country,” she said in Spanish language (All quotes were translated from Spanish to English, the video is linked below).
El Centro Escolar de la Colonia La Campanera en Soyapango, ya cuentan con el servicio de Internet Satelital Starlink.
— Santiago City Nonualco Noticias (@CityNonualco) April 21, 2023
Se beneficiará a 226 alumnos, el promedio de velocidad será de 180mb en la escuela. pic.twitter.com/psWQEmdtlL
ESCUELAS DE ÁREAS RURALES CONTARÁN CON ACCESO A INTERNET DE CALIDAD 🛰️
— Diario La Huella (@LaHuellaSV) April 20, 2023
Tras el lanzamiento de #Starlink en El Salvador 🇸🇻, las escuelas en sitios remotos accederán a internet satelital de alta velocidad, gracias a la gestión del Presidente @nayibbukele. pic.twitter.com/HbvKS5quFx
Starlink ahora está disponible en El Salvador → https://t.co/slZbTmZmAt
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) April 12, 2023
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Featured Images Source: Santiago City Nonualco Noticias @CityNonualco via Twitter
About the Author
Evelyn Janeidy Arevalo
Evelyn J. Arevalo joined Tesmanian in 2019 to cover news as a Space Journalist and SpaceX Starbase Texas Correspondent. Evelyn is specialized in rocketry and space exploration. The main topics she covers are SpaceX and NASA.
