SpaceX releases Starlink app, prices for satellite internet service
Elon Musk's high-speed satellite internet experiment is finally taking off.
The Starlink satellites from SpaceX will start to connect users to WiFi this week. CNBC reported Tuesday that SpaceX emails about pricing for early users went out Monday .
According to the documents CNBC viewed, Starlink service will be $99 per month. There's also an upfront $499 charge for a starter kit that includes the equipment necessary to connect — a terminal, tripod, and WiFi router. We reached out to SpaceX for confirmation on pricing, but didn't hear back.
A Starlink app from SpaceX available on iOS (see screenshots below) and Android is now up; it gives more info about early access and how to connect to the internet system.
The initial program is called "Better Than Nothing Beta." The U.S. and Canada are listed as service areas by the end of the year. Global coverage is coming next year.
In the past few weeks, SpaceX has started rolling out coverage to beta testers in parts of the U.S. and helped out with high-speed internet access during wildfire outages.
As for the service provided, CNBC reports that the emails lay out expected broadband data speeds from 50 megabits per second to 150 Mb/s with 20 milliseconds to 40 ms latency as the system is established and improved.
Topics SpaceX
Sasha is a news writer at Mashable's San Francisco office. She's an SF native who went to UC Davis and later received her master's from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She's been reporting out of her hometown over the years at Bay City News (news wire), SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle website), and even made it out of California to write for the Chicago Tribune. She's been described as a bookworm and a gym rat.
