Elon Musk teases Starlink’s speed will double later this year

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said in a tweet Monday that Starlink, a global broadband network created by a constellation of satellites, would double customers’ internet speeds to around 300 megabits per second. Additionally, Musk said latency – the time it takes to send data from one point to another – will drop to around 20 milliseconds later this year.

The tweet came in response to a Starlink customer who showed speed tests ranging from 77 to 130 megabits per second.

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Musk added in a separate tweet that Starlink will reach customers around “most of Earth” by the end of the year, and is working on full global coverage by next year before focusing on “coverage densification”.

“It’s important to note that cellphones will always have the edge in dense urban areas,” Musk said. “Satellites are best for areas of low to medium population density.”

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Pre-orders for the Starlink service became available earlier this month for $ 99.

The company’s website points out that pre-orders are “fully refundable,” but notes that “placing a deposit does not guarantee service.” Pre-orders will be processed on a first come, first served basis. For some locations shown on the website, SpaceX says coverage will not be available until “mid to late 2021,” while other regions will not have service available until 2022.

The full Starlink kit costs $ 499 and includes a mountable satellite dish, Wi-Fi router, and power supply. The service will first be offered in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom

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According to a filing with the Federal Communications Commission, Starlink has launched more than 1,000 satellites into orbit and has more than 10,000 users in the United States and abroad since its “Better Than Nothing” beta launched at home and abroad. abroad in October.

Starlink’s website said beta users could expect to see data speeds ranging from 50 megabits per second to 150 megabits per second and latency from 20 milliseconds to 40 milliseconds in most places in the world. over the next few months, as the company continues to expand its coverage.

The FCC filing noted that Starlink’s service “meets and exceeds 100/20 megabits per second (‘Mbps’) for individual users,” while most users see latency “of at least 31 milliseconds ”.

On February 15, SpaceX deployed 60 additional satellites as part of its Starlink L-17 mission, the eighteenth mission to date. The Falcon 9 rocket appears to have fallen into the ocean after failing to land on a platform at sea. Starlink L-17 was originally scheduled to be launched a few hours away from Starlink L-18, but experienced a series of delays while the launch of Starlink L-18 went on schedule.

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Musk also hinted earlier this month that Starlink could launch an initial public offering once the aerospace company can “predict cash flow reasonably well.”

“SpaceX must cross a deep chasm of negative cash flow over the next year to make Starlink financially viable. Every new satellite constellation in history has gone bankrupt. We hope to be the first not to do so,” Musk said. “Starlink is an extremely difficult technical and economic undertaking. However, if we do not fail, the cost to end users will improve every year.”

Musk’s statement echoed comments from SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell last year that Starlink is “the right kind of business that we can go ahead and make public.”

SpaceX recently completed an $ 850 million round of funding at around $ 419.99 a share, skyrocketing the aerospace company’s valuation from about 60% to around $ 74 billion, according to reports. The company previously raised $ 1.9 billion to a value of $ 46 billion in August, its largest round of funding to date.