Published , by TJ Denzer
Published , by TJ Denzer
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.