SpaceX operates approximately 3,200 internet-beaming Starlink satellites in Low Earth Orbit which actively provide service to over half-a-million users living across all seven continents. On November 22nd, SpaceX announced its Starlink broadband satellite service is “now operating in two of the most remote areas in the world: Pitcairn Island and Easter Island, both of which are thousands of miles away from the nearest continent,” the company said.

Pitcairn is a group of four volcanic islands located in the southern Pacific Ocean that are part of Britain. The four islands are: Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno which are scattered across several hundred miles across the sea and have a combined land area of about 18 square miles but only the Pitcairn Island is inhabited. The region’s internet has been unreliable for high-speed video streaming or gaming. According to officials, the government has ‘turned off’ the internet to the rest of the island temporarily on multiple occasions just to get enough bandwidth to perform important court hearings by video-conferencing. But now with SpaceX’s Starlink satellite network providing coverage over the region, everyone can have access to high-speed internet.

The islands nearest to the Pitcairn Islands are Mangareva (which is part of French Polynesia) to the west and Easter Island to the east. Easter Island is a special territory of Chile in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, which also now has SpaceX Starlink satellite internet coverage. Most of the remote island lacks reliable access to internet services, typically only available in hotels for tourists and at internet cafes. In an effort to close the digital divide, Chile’s government set-up free public access to the internet in public spaces but it is slow when too many people use it, according to residents. Starlink can solve this issue. SpaceX offers multiple options to access the Starlink constellation, including: Starlink for residential use and Starlink for businesses which can allow hundreds of users to connect to the internet simultaneously. Visit Starlink.com for more information.

Starlink is now operating in two of the most remote areas in the world: Pitcairn Island and Easter Island, both of which are thousands of miles away from the nearest continent pic.twitter.com/Oa6ZCsqqnh

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 22, 2022

Featured Image Source: SpaceX