Musk ready to beam cheaper Internet with Starlink public beta

Elon Musk-run SpaceX has launched its 12th Starlink Mission which brings its internet-beaming satellite constellation to just under the 800 it needs to deliver moderate coverage in North America.

“Once these satellites reach their target position, we will be able to roll out a fairly wide public beta in the northern US and hopefully southern Canada,” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said in a tweet.

“Other countries to follow as soon as we receive regulatory approval”.

It is expected that there will be gigabit speeds on offer, meaning up to 1Gbps Internet speeds, with a fairly low latency of up to 25ms.

Starlink plans to offer these Internet services for around $80 per month, which is priced at par if not lower than similar speed broadband plans in most countries, including India.

With the latest launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday, SpaceX has launched 775 Linux-powered Starlink satellites to date.

Starlink has been running a private beta since July in parts of the northern US and while it has had coverage of southern Canada, services there are pending regulatory approval, according to reports.

However, the private beta was largely limited to SpaceX employees, according to TechCrunch.

Starlink satellites orbit Earth at an altitude of about 500 kms, far closer to Earth than traditional conventional satellite broadband services.

SpaceX recently presented the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Starlink internet performance tests showing it was capable of download speeds of between 102Mbps to 103Mbps, upload speeds of 40.5Mbps to not quite 42Mbps, and a latency of 18 milliseconds to 19 milliseconds.