SpaceX Starlink Service Will Go ‘Fully Mobile Later This Year’

Featured Image Source: Photo by Evan Chasteen via Pexels/Starlink Dish Edit by Tesmanian.com 

SpaceX is already providing Starlink satellite broadband internet in the United States and abroad. With approximately 1,443 satellites in orbit the company is accepting service pre-orders via Starlink.com. Starlink customers use a phased-array dish antenna, nicknamed “Dishy McFlatFace,” and Wi-Fi router to receive high-speed internet from the satellites. The service is currently limited to a specific region and address, the dish antenna cannot be moved too far from the specific user location to receive connection. “Your Starlink is assigned to a single cell,” the company says, “If you move your Starlink outside of its assigned cell, a satellite will not be scheduled to serve your Starlink and you will not receive internet.”

SpaceX does have plans to make Starlink service available on the move. Starlink users will soon be able to take their dishy antenna everywhere they travel to! Users will even be able to access the service during camping trips in remote regions where traditional forms of internet and communication is not available or service is unreliable. SpaceX founder Elon Musk shared on April 15 that SpaceX Starlink service will go “fully mobile later this year.” “…So you can move it anywhere or use it on an RV or truck in motion,” he said via Twitter. “We need a few more satellite launches to achieve compete coverage & some key software upgrades.” The broadband service is still in its beta phase, as more satellites are deployed to space the service will become more reliable and offer more coverage across regions. “Service uptime, bandwidth & latency are improving rapidly. Probably out of beta this summer,” Musk said.

Yeah, should be fully mobile later this year, so you can move it anywhere or use it on an RV or truck in motion. We need a few more satellite launches to achieve compete coverage & some key software upgrades.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 15, 2021

The company is already taking the necessary steps to obtain regulatory approval for Starlink to operate onboard moving vehicles. According to a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) filing that was published on March 5. SpaceX’s filing requests to operate Starlink terminals ‘in moving vehicles, vessels, and aircraft.’ “The Commission has granted a blanket license for operation of up to one million end-user customer Earth stations [dish antennas]. SpaceX Services seeks a blanket license authorizing operation of such end-user earth stations for deployment as Vehicle-Mounted Earth Stations (“VMESs”), Earth Stations on Vessels (“ESVs”), and Earth Stations Aboard Aircraft (“ESAAs”) (collectively, Earth Stations in Motion (“ESIMs”)),” SpaceX wrote in the FCC filing. “SpaceX Services seeks authority to deploy and operate these earth stations (1) as VMES throughout the United States and its territories, (2) as ESVs in the territorial waters of the United States and throughout international waters worldwide, and (3) as ESAAs on U.S.-registered aircraft operating worldwide and non-U.S.-registered aircraft operating in U.S. airspace,” the company told the FCC.

Featured Image Source: Photo by Evan Chasteen via Pexels/Starlink Dish Edit by Tesmanian.com