Elon Musk, Head of Space Exploration Technologies Corp.
Patrick T. Fallon Bloomberg | Getty Images
LONDON – Spacelink Starlink’s satellite broadband service is now being tested in the UK after receiving approval from UK telecoms regulator Ofcom.
Starlink was granted a “ground station network license,” in November, an Ofcom spokesman told CNBC on Tuesday. SpaceX did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
The £ 200 ($ 272) per annum license allows Starlink to sell satellite vessels and other communications equipment in the UK so that people can pick up signals transmitted by the Starlink satellite network.
Founded in 2002 by Elon Musk, SpaceX is an aerospace manufacturing and space transportation company. He announced that he was creating a Starlink subsidiary in 2015.
Musk, now the richest man in the world, has said it wants to improve internet accessibility in parts of the world that are not currently served by broadband providers. wide. It plans to do this by sending thousands of small telecoms satellites into orbit on the low Earth that can bring high-speed, low-speed internet to the ground.
In an interview in March last year, Musk said that SpaceX could make up to $ 30 billion a year by providing broadband. He said Starlink will be “helpful to telcos because Starlink is the hardest to serve customers” saying 5G is not good for the country because “you need a range.”
Starlink, which competes with OneWeb UK, is aiming for 1,440 of its 260 kg (570 lb) satellites in orbit by the end of 2021.
The company, which specifically aims to connect rural areas where the internet is unreliable or unavailable, has been inviting people in the U.S. and Canada to join the company. to try their service from October.
It is now inviting people in the UK via email, according to reports and social media users. Starlink is charging UK customers £ 439 for the satellite dish and other communications equipment, plus a monthly fee of £ 89 and a shipping charge of £ 54.
Those who test the service can expect data speeds between 50 megabits per second (Mbps) and 150 Mbps, according to reports. The average broadband speed in the UK is 64 Mbps but those in rural areas often struggle to get close to that. It is unclear how many homes and offices are currently using the Starlink service.
SpaceX set up a UK entity in London called Starlink Internet Services in August last year, according to a document submitted about the registration of UK companies Companies House.
A picture of what appears to be one of the first Starlink deliveries in the UK was shared on Reddit by Philip Hall, who lives in rural Devon, southwest England.
“As an unexpected enthusiast for fiber (broadband) soon, I signed up for the beta very early,” Hall told CNBC via Reddit Thursday.
Hall, who once used air defense networks for the UK military, said: “The technical capability here, at the consumer level, is amazing.”
In terms of performance, Hall said he gets a regular 80 Mbps download speed at home.
He suspects he got a Starlink dish because the company wants data ahead of commercial distribution and is on the right latitude.
Describing the setup, Hall said it’s just like many other devices. He installed an app on his Android phone, checked it to make sure the dish had a clear view of the skies (something that was easy in rural Devon) and installed it. “The app asks you to register a username and password and you’re cooking,” he said.
Greece, Germany and Australia have also accepted Starlink’s offer.