SpaceX is getting closer to offering Starlink Internet

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SpaceX is getting closer to offering Starlink Internet

SpaceX deployed the eleventh fleet of Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit on August 18. Now, the aerospace company has a total of 648 internet-beaming satellites out of the 12,000 that will initially make up the broadband constellation. Starlink will provide SpaceX with additional revenue towards making life multi-planetary. Tuesday’s launch brought the company closer towards offering Starlink internet. Company officials said service will be offered in northern portions of the United States and Canada after 12 satellite fleet deployments, which would increase the size of the constellation to almost 800 satellites to provide “moderate” internet coverage. SpaceX says it needs 24 launches to start offering broadband internet on a global scale.

The satellites are small compared to others in orbit; they feature a single solar array and four powerful phased array antennas that are flat enabling it to beam signal to the ground in all directions without moving. The first satellites in the constellation will all operate at an altitude of around 540 to 570 kilometers above Earth.

Customers will receive Starlink’s signal from space via a user terminal dish and Wi-Fi router. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) already approved the operation of 1 million user terminals and routers in the United States. SpaceX recently submitted a new request with the FCC, seeking to increase the number of Starlink user terminals and routers to 5 million. “SpaceX Services requests this increase in authorized units due to the extraordinary demand for access to the Starlink non-geostationary orbit satellite system,” the company wrote to the FCC. Early last month, SpaceX asked potential customers to submit their e-mail to receive updates of when the service will be available in their area. “Despite the fact that SpaceX has yet to formally advertise this system’s services, nearly 700,000 individuals represented in all 50 states signed up over a matter of just days to register their interest. To ensure that SpaceX is able to accommodate the apparent demand for its broadband Internet access service, SpaceX Services requests a substantial increase in the number of authorized units,” the company stated.

In June, SpaceX submitted a filing to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), applying for a telecommunications license in Canada. The license SpaceX is seeking is a Basic International Telecommunications Services (BITS) license. If approved, it would authorize the company to beam Starlink’s – “telecommunications traffic between Canada and any other country,” the filing reads.

According to SpaceX Vice-President of Starlink and Commercial Sales Jonathan Hofeller, the company already initiated a private beta testing phase of the Starlink network. He shared with reporters the Starlink terminal is easy to install. – “I have deployed one on my house, it’s very exciting to get one. The instructions are super-easy. You plug it in, and you point it at the sky, and a few seconds later you have internet. It’s truly remarkable,” he said.

Anonymous Starlink beta testers shared their internet speeds via Reddit. SpaceX officials stated engineers target low-latency of 20 milliseconds (ms). Assuming only some of the 600 satellites in orbit are in operation during testing, the network is still showing promising results – latency under the 100ms FCC threshold. The latency rates between eight beta testers in Los Angeles, California, ranged from 20ms to 94ms; And download speeds varying from 11Mbps to 60Mbps, with upload speeds ranging from 5Mbps to 18Mbps. Starlink’s latency and speed will improve and show consistency across users once more satellites are deployed.

Source: Tesmanian
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Thought, and let me know your opinions on this. Musk said he's not trying to go into densely populated areas do to bandwidth restrictions and not wanting to compete with the major ISPs. Do you think that starlink will offer a package to those who own a Tesla in big cities? If you do it this way you bypass all the legal bs that the large ISPs will try, plus you are limiting bandwidth to customers only.
 

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Last spring I received an e-mail from StarLink asking if I were interested in the service and to submit my zip code which I did. A couple of months later I got another e-mail asking for my street address which I also submitted. Since then I have heard nothing further. Note: this is in rural Canada.
 

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Thought, and let me know your opinions on this. Musk said he's not trying to go into densely populated areas do to bandwidth restrictions and not wanting to compete with the major ISPs. Do you think that starlink will offer a package to those who own a Tesla in big cities? If you do it this way you bypass all the legal bs that the large ISPs will try, plus you are limiting bandwidth to customers only.
I think for the initial release of starlink to the public, they will probably just do what they have said they will do. You can find speedtests by beta users and for people in a big city with good service and tons of access to wifi, starlink might not be as good until they have more satelites up. However for rural areas and especially northern Canada; these people have much more expensive internet, and unreliable service.

I hope that they get their worldwide network up around the time I get my Cybertruck. I really want to take some time off work, and go on one hell of a roadtrip with my dog. Constant service for netflix, skyping with friends, and just staying in touch with the world would be a huge bonus.
 
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9d1cda85-abc4-482b-8d54-37e36545088d-earth-surrounded-by-starlink-satellitespng.jpeg

Starlink's future visualized
 


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It should be an amazing service once it's in place. They won't be providing internet for cars, but Elon did mention the possibility of a travel size antenna with reduced bandwidth. I don't know if they will do it, it was more of a passing thought it seemed. I plan to order one when they are more available, my house isn't far from a city but it would be nice to also have an antenna that I can unplug and take camping with me in my Cybertruck.
 

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SpaceX originally planned to launch 4425 satellites. Then in 2017 it became known that the SpaceX satellite constellation would consist of 11,943 satellites. In addition to the initial 4425 vehicles, it is planned to include 7,518 satellites in lower orbits - from 335 to 346 kilometers. SpaceX carefully hides the details of the project, so the technical side of the global Starlink Internet raises many questions.
 

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I'd love to become a reseller/installer.

The motor coach/RV and trucking industry is going to really love this service
 
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SpaceX originally planned to launch 4425 satellites. Then in 2017 it became known that the SpaceX satellite constellation would consist of 11,943 satellites. In addition to the initial 4425 vehicles, it is planned to include 7,518 satellites in lower orbits - from 335 to 346 kilometers. SpaceX carefully hides the details of the project, so the technical side of the global Starlink Internet raises many questions.

100 Mbps is 5x faster than what HughesNet satellite internet currently offers(25 Mbps), which is going to disrupt satellite internet service the same as Google Fiber did here on earth.

It doesn't give that speed on the Starlink website though and not sure why.

I got this ......... 'During the launch of its latest batch of internet-beaming Starlink satellites, SpaceX revealed key details about the planned constellation’s abilities, claiming that the satellites have shown “super low latency and download speeds greater than 100 mbps.” The speeds are still not as fast as what SpaceX originally claimed for the constellation, but they are slightly faster than what early user testing has shown.'

from THE VERGE dated Sept 3, 2020

'Space lasers' are mentioned as well ...... 'During the webcast, Tice noted that SpaceX had successfully tested two satellites in orbit that had inter-satellite links, “space lasers” that allowed the satellites to transfer “hundreds of gigabytes of data” between the two spacecraft.'
 


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The Kármán line lies at an altitude of 100 km (62.1 miles) above the Earth's sea level, and is commonly used to define the boundary between the Earth's atmosphere and outer space
 
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SpaceX on target for lunchtime Starlink launch from Cape Canaveral

Space Coast residents and visitors enjoying lunch Wednesday afternoon will have a chance to look toward Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and see SpaceX launch its third Starlink mission this month.

A 230-foot Falcon 9 rocket, its payload fairing packed with 60 internet-beaming satellites, is targeting 12:36 p.m. for liftoff, the opening of an instantaneous window. Launch Complex 40 will host the liftoff and Just Read the Instructions will act as the drone ship for the 162-foot first stage's landing in the Atlantic Ocean.

Space Force weather forecasters expect conditions to be 60% "go" during the window due to the possibility of storms. SpaceX must launch at 12:36 p.m. or delay to another day, meaning launch engineers won't be able to wait for weather to clear if it "goes red."

"This activity will affect the spaceport for the primary launch window, with the main weather concerns the cumulus cloud rule associated with Atlantic shower activity as well as the thick cloud layer rule associated with the enhanced mid-level cloudiness," the 45th Weather Squadron said Tuesday.

After separation of the flat-packed satellites from the second stage, SpaceX will have launched 895 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit. If all 60 function correctly after Wednesday's launch, the current size of the constellation will stand around 820; a small percentage have de-orbited as planned or were commanded to burn up in the atmosphere after malfunctioning.

See our full launch calendar at www.bit.ly/3czB11m.

Launch Wednesday, Oct. 21

  • Rocket: SpaceX Falcon 9
  • Mission: 60 Starlink internet satellites
  • Launch Time: 12:36 p.m. ET
  • Launch Window: Instantaneous
  • Launch Complex: 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
  • Landing:Just Read the Instructions drone ship
  • Weather: 60% "go"
Watch live video and join our chat at floridatoday.com/space beginning at 11 a.m. Wednesday.

SOURCE: FloridaToday
 
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SpaceX's Starlink Can Start Serving Users in Canada, Regulator Says

However, SpaceX will reportedly still need to set up the ground stations in Canada necessary to operate the satellite internet system for local users.

SpaceX’s Starlink can start serving internet users in Canada.

On Friday, Canada’s Innovation, Science and Economic Development agency (ISED) granted the necessary spectrum for SpaceX’s Starlink network, a next-generation satellite internet service.


The approval clears the way for Starlink to begin beaming high-speed broadband to customers in rural and remote communities in Canada, according to a spokesperson for Navdeep Bains, the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry.

“Our government recognizes that high-speed Internet access is no longer a luxury — it is essential. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted how much we all rely on digital connections. Now more than ever, Canadians are working, learning and communicating with friends and family from home,” the spokesperson said in an email.

SpaceX recently kicked off the public beta for Starlink in the northern US, and already early users have been receiving internet speeds at over 100 Mbps. Now the company can begin expanding the trials to southern Canada, which is in line with SpaceX’s originally stated goals for 2020.

However, the initial Starlink service in Canada may be pretty small scale. According to SpaceQ.ca, the company still needs to secure regulatory approval to establish ground stations in Canada, which will be connected to optical fiber networks. The same stations can then beam the internet data to the Starlink satellites as they orbit through the sky and communicate to users back on the ground.

As a result, SpaceX is looking at first bringing the public beta to Canadian users that live near the US border. In the US, SpaceX has already secured approval to operate ground stations in several states.

To become a beta tester, you can go to Starlink.com and sign up for the email newsletter, which has been sending out invites for the satellite internet system. The company has been charging $99 per month for the service, along with a $499 one-time fee for the satellite dish and modem.


SOURCE: PCMAG.com
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