Elon Musk, CEO at Space Exploration Technologies Corp.
Patrick T. Fallon | Bloomberg | Getty Images
LONDON – SpaceX Starlink’s satellite broadband service is now being tested in the UK after it was licensed by UK telecoms regulator Ofcom.
Starlink received a “license for the terrestrial station network” in November, an Ofcom spokesman told CNBC on Tuesday. SpaceX did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
The £ 200 ($ 272) per year license allows Starlink to sell satellite dishes and other communications equipment in the UK so that people can take signals from the Starlink satellite network.
Founded in 2002 by Elon Musk, SpaceX is an aerospace manufacturer and space transportation company. He announced that he would create the Starlink subdivision in 2015.
Musk, who is now the richest person in the world, said he wants to improve internet access in parts of the world that are not currently served by broadband providers. He intends to do this by placing thousands of small telecommunications satellites in low Earth orbit, which can transmit high-speed, low-latency Internet to the ground.
In a March interview last year, Musk said SpaceX could earn up to $ 30 billion a year by providing broadband. He said Starlink would be “useful for telecommunications because Starlink will be the hardest to serve customers”, adding that 5G is not great for the countryside because “you need autonomy”.
Starlink, which will compete with OneWeb in the UK, aims to have 1,440 of its 260 kg (570 lb) satellites in orbit by the end of 2021.
The company, which focuses mainly on connecting rural areas where the internet is unreliable or unavailable, invited people from the US and Canada to try its service in October.
He is now inviting people in the UK via email, according to reports and social media users. Starlink charges UK customers 439 GBP for satellite dish and other communications equipment, as well as a monthly fee of GBP 89 and a shipping fee of GBP 54.
Those testing the service can expect data rates 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 it. It is not clear how many homes and offices are currently using the Starlink service.
SpaceX set up a British entity in London called Starlink Internet Services in August last year, according to a document filed with the UK Companies House.
A photo of what appears to be one of the first Starlink deliveries in the UK was shared on Reddit by Philip Hall, who lives in Devon, in the south-west of England.
“As an enthusiast with no short-term fiber (broadband) prospects, I signed up for the beta fairly early,” Hall told CNBC on Reddit on Thursday.
Hall, who once deployed air defense networks for the British military, said: “The technological capacity in this regard, at the consumer level, is amazing.”
In terms of performance, Hall said it can consistently get download speeds of 80 Mbps at home.
He suspects that he received a Starlink preparation, because the company wants data before the commercial launch and is at the right latitude.
Describing the setting, Hall said it is just like many other devices. He installed an app on his Android phone, checked to make sure the antenna had a clear view of the sky (something that was easy in rural Devon) and connected it. “The application asks you to register a name and password and you are cooking,” he said.
Greece, Germany and Australia have also approved the Starlink offer.