SpaceX's Starlink internet network 'speed will double' later in 2021, says Elon Musk

According to Elon Musk, the Starlink satellite internet service will be substantially upgrading both its speed and latency capabilities later in 2021.

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As SpaceX continues to pioneer technology for commercial space travel, so too does it continue to launch expanded internet coverage through its satellite-driven internet service, Starlink. SpaceX has already launched numerous satellites with the purpose of offering high-speed internet to consumers the world around, but Elon Musk claims the service will be substantially upgraded through this year. Not only did Musk promise expanded regional coverage, but he also claimed “speed will double” on the service later in 2021.

Elon Musk made the claim about Starlink’s internet service speeds via his personal Twitter in response to comments regarding Starlink speeds and testing. Though previous comments showed testing reaching as high a speed as 130mbps (megabytes per second), Musk himself chimed in to share that upgrades are in the works and claimed that Starlink’s capabilities will double over the course of 2021.

“Speed will double to 300mbps and latency will drop to around 20ms (milliseconds) later this year,” Musk claimed.

SpaceX has been continuing to expand and upgrade Starlink since the project first began launch and satellite distribution back in 2018. Since then, there have been private and public betas in 2020 alongside discussion of use for online gaming and the overall cost of the service. SpaceX further augmented Starlink’s capabilities by partnering with Microsoft to make use of the latter’s cloud-based Azure data system. Despite the fact that the service won’t be the cheapest around, the increase in capabilities could make Starlink a very enticing option. Musk further claimed that Starlink should be able to reach most customers around the earth and should have complete global coverage by 2022.

Though the first results are looking promising, it will be interesting to see how Starlink improves throughout the year. Stay tuned to Shacknews as more details and updates become available regarding the Starlink network system.

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.

From The Chatty
    • reply
      February 22, 2021 11:13 AM

      I was at my parents’ house helping with their StarLink setup this past weekend. They are out in rural Ontario with a dirt road and the only Internet access is 900 MHz fixed wireless, which runs at 3 mbps on a good day. The wireless radio is on top of a 70ft tower to clear the tree line. That kind of thing.

      The StarLink install ridiculously simple. You basically just plug it in. 90% of the work was drilling a hole for the cable to run inside and clearing snow to find something to put the dish on.

      It is as they advertise. 100 mbps connection out in the middle of no where. It is a revolution for that area.

      • reply
        February 22, 2021 11:18 AM

        I have a place 1/2 a mile from 300 Mbps cable offerings from Windstream, ~a mile from symmetric gigabit fiber also from Windstream, and the best I can get is 10/1.5 ADSL (with the upstream QoS limited to ~750kbps for decent connectivity on videoconferencing). I'll be ditching them for Starlink as soon as I can.

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