Besides its association with Elon Musk and SpaceX, what Starlink benefits should you know about? What makes it such an attractive proposition?
Satellite internet has existed for decades and hasn’t garnered notable commercial interest.
It has a reputation for being unreliable, producing low connection speeds and high latency.
Yet, Starlink has somehow managed to amass over 2 million global subscribers in its relatively short existence.
But what makes it so special? Starlink’s success has more to do with its availability or trendiness.
The following guide will investigate the benefits of using Starlink for individuals and businesses.
What is Starlink
Starlink is a bit polysemic as it refers to a telecommunications division/company, service, satellite constellation and technology.
This guide will mostly look at it as an internet service provider.
Starlink is operated and provided to you by the spacecraft manufacturing and exploration company SpaceX. It was partially introduced to help fund its other projects.
The vision behind Starlink is to limit our dependency on cable internet.
It hopes to achieve this by using a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Satellite constellation.
As of 2023, Starlink’s constellation consisted of over 4500 operational satellites, mainly used to provide internet connectivity.
To access Starlink’s internet services, you’ll need a router, base and an account (at minimum). Starlink offers fixed-site, land mobility, maritime and aviation packages.
Each package typically comes with a required set of hardware, which can be quite expensive.
Starlink’s subscriptions and hardware costs are generally more expensive than most options that offer the same speeds and coverage.
But why does Starlink have so many customers if there are seemingly better alternatives?
Man Installing Starlink Dish
The Pros Of Starlink
While Starlink still has a few weaknesses, it has few benefits. Elon Musk hopes to have a constellation of more than 48000 miniature satellites.
While this is still far from reality, Starlink continues to increase its coverage – which brings us to our first benefit….
Coverage
Cable’s biggest disadvantage is that it isn’t available in most remote and rural areas.
People living there don’t have many options for high-speed internet access. Starlink is globally available.
It is supported in over 60 countries. While performance may not always be consistent everywhere you use it, it’s nice to know that connection is still possible.
This makes it ideal for small businesses and professionals operating from remote areas.
Satellite Constellation Orbiting The Earth
Flexibility
This advantage slightly overlaps with coverage. Cable-based internet is fixed.
You can add a Wi-Fi router and switches to extend your connection points, but you can’t take it anywhere with you.
As such, Cable and Fiber-based ISPs typically offer 4G/5G mobile broadband services to incentivize contracts.
Starlink has a single mode of connection (LEO Satellite internet) that it provides to you through both fixed and mobile packages.
Additionally, it offers equipment and services for large cars, RVs, planes and boats.
Even if your country does not officially support Starlink, there are ways to overcome this.
You can still sign up for it, purchase and import the necessary hardware and then use its roaming functionality.
Starlink Base Positioned in a Garden
High-Performance Satellite Internet
Satellite internet isn’t a new technology. Starlink has had to compete with more established satellite-based ISPs such as Hughesnet and ViaSat.
The Starlink has begun to grow the satellite internet market and dominate it.
Starlink can offer fast speeds with low latency thanks to the constellation of miniature LEO satellites.
Its most affordable fixed package (Standard) can attain speeds as much as 100Mbps with ping times as low as 25 milliseconds.
While these aren’t the gigabit speeds you can get with fiber, you can still stream high-definition video and music.
Furthermore, they’re perfect for gaming, general browsing and social media.
The fixed Priority package is even faster. While Starlink has intended it for businesses, nothing stops individual users from signing up for it.
It can reach up to 220 Mbps with latency as low as 25ms.
Starlink simply outperforms traditional satellite-based internet.
This is large because many services still rely on geostationary (GEO), medium orbit (MEO) and other satellite orbit types that can’t compete with LEO.
Satellite Orbit Types
Cutting Edge Technology
Starlink uses evolving technology. While this increases the risk of running into faults and errors, it also means that Starlink will continue to improve over the next few years.
Elon Musk has spoken about how Starlink plans to diversify its options and packages so Starlink can be more affordable to low-income households.
Most have to settle for the Standard plan as it is the least expensive.
Starlink encourages a DIY spirit as the Standard plan kit is easy to self-install and configure.
You can use a web portal or the Starlink mobile app to manage your accounts, pay bills, and purchase additional accessories.
You’ll never need to contact Starlink directly if you’re technologically savvy enough.
Connecting to Starlink
Conclusion
In the above guide, we discussed the key Starlink Benefits. It’s important to note that not everything is Rosie.
The service does have a few disadvantages. For instance, network performance may be impacted by bad weather, a relatively long waiting list for new signees, terrible customer support, and expensive costs.
Moreover, there are still a few countries where Starlink is completely inaccessible. However, the pros outweigh the cons – by far.
Thus, testing the service for a few weeks may be a good idea. You don’t have to be an early adopter, though.
You can wait another year to see if Starlink’s services and technology have improved.
Regardless, we hope that you’ve found this guide to be helpful. As always, thank you for reading.