This is all changing as Elon Musk’s Starlink network of satellites is steadily deployed across the planet’s orbit. Find out what it brings to the table compared to traditional satellite service providers—Viasat and HughesNet.

When it comes to deploying communication devices into the Earth’s orbit, many obstacles have to be overcome. The highest one is the cost because the only way up there is via rockets. However, as part of SpaceX, Starlink drastically mitigated this problem by deploying its satellites with reusable rockets—Falcon 9. You may have already seen videos of them as they deploy their cargo in space and then land back on the Earth’s surface.

Thus far, Falcon 9 rockets have launched more than 125 times, having reflown 67 times. Once it became cheaper to deploy satellites via reusable rockets, the next obstacle was coverage and latency.

Traditional satellite networks, such as HughesNet or Viasat, position their satellites about 35,400 km above the surface in a stationary, geosynchronous orbit. Due to the vast distance, it takes a long time for the signal to bounce back to the surface, resulting in high latency—on average 500–800ms.

However, high-orbit satellites do provide much greater coverage. For example, HughesNet Jupiter 2 satellite provides coverage of the entire United States, from coast to coast.

Starlink uses a different approach, solving the problem of latency by deploying its satellites in low orbit instead—at only 500km. Because they are in such a low orbit, many more will have to be deployed to provide the same coverage. The number of satellites will peak at 12,000, with 8,000 in the first deployment stage at 500km orbit and the other 4,000 at 1200km orbit.

The key to Starlink’s low latency is inter-satellite communication via light-based data transmission in the form of lasers. Starlink uses Ku-band and Ka-band microwave frequency ranges to deliver the signal to Earth, 12–18GHz and 16.5–40GHz, respectively. Both are needed to penetrate various densities of atmospheric water vapor (clouds).

When the Starlink network is fully completed, the stated speed should be at a maximum of 10Gbps, which is comparable to Google Fiber. However, with just over 1,700 satellites launched, Starlink’s internet speed is up to 150Mbps for download (DL) and up to 15Mbps for upload (UL).

According to the Ookla aggregator speed test between Starlink, HughesNet, and Viasat, the median performance of the three satellite services is as follows.

As you can see, Starlink’s approach to deploying numerous LEO (low-Earth orbit) satellites massively paid off for improved user experience. All the right numbers are high—download and upload speed—while the bad number—latency—is exceptionally low, comparable with high-quality 4G mobile internet.

Note that for watching FullHD movies (at 1920x1080 resolution), the recommended internet speed is 20Mbps. If you are having trouble watching video streaming platforms because of constant buffering, these video streaming service tips will help you resolve the issue.

With Starlink’s more than ample DL speed, you should have no trouble watching even 4K streams. In other regions of the world, such as Canada, South America, and Europe, the performance remains at about the same levels across the three categories. However, it seems that Europe has, on average, higher Starlink DL and UL speeds, between 10 and 23 percent.

Clearly, Starlink’s novel approach to satellite deployment and technology also brings about novel performance, leaving behind the old tech in the dust. So whether you want low latency for gaming or daily Zoom meetings, for the first time in satellite history, Starlink can make it happen. The question then is, what is the price tag, and are you eligible to receive Starlink based on your location?

Both Hughesnet and Viasat have four data cap tiers, and they both provide complete coverage over the entire United States. Broadly, their pricing plans are as follows.

Presently, Starlink has about 90,000 active users, with about half a million on the waiting list, for which you can apply here. When it comes to coverage, Elon Musk has a target date to exit the beta stage at the end of 2021.

As for Starlink’s area coverage, this changes every month, so you may want to visit this regularly updated globe map. With a few exceptions, in South America, Australia, and New Zealand, most coverage consists of the US, UK, and Canada, between 44 and 53 degrees latitude. You can check the disposition of Starlink satellites using the live satellite tracker.

Lastly, in addition to the up-front hardware of $499, you should also expect a shipping and handling fee of around $50. Interestingly, the Starlink terminal will not be portable yet, but there are plans to make it fully mobile in the near future.

If you are not within the coverage, bookmark the websites above and keep checking. SpaceX Starlink is supposed to be completed by the end of 2022.

Starlink—Fourth Industrial Revolution Internet

Owing to the high latency problem, satellite internet has been a matter of necessity in undeveloped regions. SpaceX low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites make it equivalent to 4G mobile internet, but this is only the beginning. If all goes according to plan, Google Fiber’s level of service will become within reach to most areas on the planet.