SpaceX sends invitations to Starlink beta subscription of $ 99 per month

SpaceX invites certain users to a Starlink beta internet subscription. The company calls the plan Better Than Nothing Beta and expects to be able to deliver speeds of 50 to 150Mbit / s. The subscription requires users to purchase a $ 499 antenna.

A Reddit user first posted about the Starlink email invitation, after which multiple users confirmed the message. It seems to be only for US users at this point. According to the email the user received, the Starlink team expects to be able to deliver data rates of between 50Mbit / s and 150Mbit / s, with a latency time of 20ms to 40ms. It is unclear whether the connection is symmetrical, or whether, for example, the download speed will be higher than the upload. Starlink warns users that there will be ‘short periods’ when there is no connection.

Starlink says launching additional satellites, installing more ground stations and optimizing network software will improve connectivity in the near future. Users can expect improvements in data speed, latency and uptime, according to Starlink. For example, Starlink expects to have reduced the latency time to 16ms to 19ms by the summer of 2021.

The subscription now costs 84 euros per month excluding VAT. To use the subscription, subscribers must purchase Starlink’s phased-array user terminal. Converted excluding VAT, this costs 422 euros. For this, users receive the antenna, a mounting tripod and a WiFi router.

It is not known how many users the mail was sent to. CNBC says it has spoken to several people who received the mail. According to the site, SpaceX said last June that “nearly 700,000” Americans had expressed interest in the service. At the time of writing, SpaceX has launched 900 Starlink satellites, which should be enough to provide coverage over the northwestern United States. By 2021, the majority of the inhabited world should receive Starlink coverage, SpaceX writes with the recently introduced Starlink Android app.