SpaceX’s Starlink may pave the way for a new and truly wireless internet

A portion of Starlink satellites is already flying on low earth orbit over Earth's surface. Out of 12,000 Starlink satellites, 1200 are already in the active phase of beta service. This project is aimed towards high-speed internet, mainly for remote areas. But everyone can benefit from it and have wireless broadband connectivity. Users of Starlink internet are currently on this beta access to receive wireless internet.

Elon Musk, the brain behind PayPal, Tesla, SpaceX, contributes to new internet distribution. And Starlink is a massive part of it. Falcon 9 rockets produced under the SpaceX roof are helping to launch the satellites into space. Internet is an enormous part of today's world, and we don't need to say how much we appreciate good and high-speed internet with low latency. Wired connections travel thousands of miles before reaching the consumer's end.

But these wireless satellites will empower people to have control over the speed and bandwidth alongside a proper management system and that too without being connected to a long cable. As the program is still in the beta phase, internet speed is not capped yet, and we think it will stay like that until the end of the beta program. But time will tell nonetheless.

StarLink Current State

After securing a firm amount of $885.5 million in grand fund last year, the upgrade will go on. Initial deployment of an additional 30,000 satellites to roam the orbit within the next six years is thought of as the new internet specification. And by no means are these devices cheap. If you ever thought of delivering a litre of fuel in space is costly, think of the thousands of satellites. And these are the space broadcasters. Users will have access to purchase dishes that capture the broadcast. Each of them costs about $500, and they are high-tech stuff. The approved amount for the beta run of the StarLink satellite seems promising. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) put Starlink on its toes with contracts that need to meet demand within the given time. The current deployment plan of 12,000 satellites over the years will live in three stages. They are also called shells. The shells must have a distance of 1150 km over the Earth's surface for the most distant one. The middle ground will be 550 km, and the closest orbiting satellites will roam at about 340 km above the surface.

Generally, geometric positioning serves a great purpose. The closest one from the surface will have less area to cover but will lower latency than those living in a higher atmosphere. The satellites that can transmit data among themselves will create a chain of orbiting networks. An article from CNET published on February 4th this year declared there are approximately 10,000 active Starlink users. And these numbers are only going to grow. We may have high-speed physical connections around us, but remote areas barely get coverage—ships sailing on high seas, places where the internet has a hard time reaching. And even if those areas have internet, it is very costly to provide a quality connection that is 21st Century standard. SpaceX founder Elon Musk thinks ahead of time, just like his Tesla vehicles are changing our transportation. We saw the power of the internet rising in the last ten years, and it was swift. Now we are thinking of making it available like electricity and cable connection. Our lives and business are somewhat online-based one way or another, and this program will help along the way.

The development of Starlink started back in 2015, and since 2018 they began launching satellites into orbit. Starlink connections will be unbounded by traditional infrastructure and wire management. Each receiver unit will have its broadband system to lend other people data access. Unlike conventional internet evolution, where we are ripping the sweet fruit gradually, Starlink came full-fledged. With apps for phones and computers. Fast support, refund management, with a promise to deliver. Data speed on StarLink connection varies from 50-150 megabits with a latency of 20 to 40. The latency on the beta period is mind-blowing. In a recent Tweet, Musk said the connection's speed would go up to 300 MBps by the end of 2021.

Starlink has a monthly subscription plan of $99 with an additional one-time cost of purchasing a disk. Currently, there is no speed cap, but we already discussed it above. Currently, the service is available in the US, UK, Canada, and a few others. With 10% of its deployment done, we can hope for a good result in the upcoming days.