Featured Image Source: Andy Slye via YouTube
SpaceX is working towards connecting the world to its Starlink satellite broaband network. With approximately 1,265 internet-beaming satellites in orbit, SpaceX is accepting service preorders via Starlink.com. The company aims to connect ‘most of Earth’ to the network before this year ends. YouTuber Andy Slye reviewed SpaceX’s Starlink internet service in his channel, video linked below. He visited a friend in Louisville, Kentucky who lives in the outskirts of town and ordered the Starlink service. The only internet provider in the rural area is AT&T internet that provides speeds of ‘less than one megabit per second’ which is very slow.
Andy unboxes the Starlink kit which contains the equipment needed to connect to the broadband satellite network. The box contains a pizza-size phase-array antenna dish, futuristic looking Wi-Fi router which he compares to the design of the Tesla Cybertruck. The kit also contains the necessary mounting and power equipment. “It is a simple and fast setup,” he says. “The reason it has power ran to is because the antenna will actually detect and melt snow that falls directly onto it to help prevent outages and interruptions since Starlink does require a clear view of the sky to connect,” Andy says. The power cable also powers a small ‘tilt’ motor in the antenna that orients the dish to find an optimal view of the satellites in orbit. “You do not need to manually position the antenna angle its all done automatically,” he added.
His friends proceed to setup the dish antenna atop the roof to perform a broadband speed test. Andy shares that Starlink has an App that works alongside the dish to setup the network and find an optimal view of the sky. “It is seriously one of the simplest and fastest setups for an entire satellite internet service in a box,” he says, “It really couldn’t have been easier… It only took around 15-minutes from start to finish.” He shared the network provided them with download speeds of 117 megabits per second and 20 megabits per second upload speeds, “which is insanely fast compared to the point five megabits per second he was getting with AT&T,” Andy said. “Going from less than 1 meg (megabit) to over 100 meg (megabits) its not just a game changer it’s a life changer!” he said impressed by the service, “Its huge for people who live in rural areas and haven’t had access to broadband internet like this.” You can watch Andy Slye’s great 9-minute Starlink review YouTube video below.
About the Author
Evelyn 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.
