At great expense, SpaceX is expanding its Starlink internet service to oceans, rivers, and lakes.
Starlink Maritime is currently accessible, and the company is targeting potential clients that own superyachts, oil rigs, and commerce vessels.
The initial hardware expense for the service is $10,000 for two ‘ruggedized’ Starlink dishes, and the monthly cost will be $5,000.
Comparatively, space-based internet costs $110 per month plus a one-time equipment price of $599 for residential consumers; it is also available for companies and recreational vehicles.
Currently, Starlink Maritime is only available in the waterways surrounding North America, Europe, and Australia.
By the fourth quarter of this year, the business expects to extend coverage to a significantly larger portion of the oceans in the Northern Hemisphere, and by the first quarter of 2023, to the remainder of the world’s oceans.
On its website, the corporation anticipates maritime performance speeds of 100-350Mbps down and 20-40Mbps up.
Twitter user Whole Mars Catalog stated that the maritime service is “the same as residential Starlink, except on a boat, but priced 50 times higher, brilliant vertical pricing” and tagged SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.
Musk responded, “No, it’s two, high-performance terminals, which are essential for sustaining the connection in rough seas and intense storms.”
Still clearly premium pricing, but significantly cheaper and quicker than competitors.
SpaceX was paying $150,000 per month for a far inferior connection to its ships!
In a side-by-side comparison of live video footage captured on a SpaceX drone ship, there is a discernible difference between footage captured over Starlink Maritime and the unnamed service on the left, which reportedly cost Musk’s company $150,000 (the case study sheet they released lists the cost as $150,000).
The company argues that before Starlink Maritime, the 1-2 second latency of VSAT caused lag and delayed input from gigabytes of telemetry, closed-circuit television (CCTV), and navigation data pouring from the Drones.
A very small aperture terminal is a type of satellite communications technology known as VSAT.
With a latency of 50 milliseconds, Starlink empowers operators to make the most informed judgments possible.
In addition to latency issues, the paucity of bandwidth and the severe vibrations from the rocket engines frequently caused video and data outages with VSAT.
Musk stated on Twitter: ‘Also, getting ruggedized for persistent salt spray, strong winds, and storms in the deep ocean is not easy.’
SpaceX has deployed over 2,700 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit, and its global subscriber base exceeds 400 thousand.
However, the technology company anticipates having up to 42,000 satellites.
The technology company also says that as SpaceX conducts more launches, its launch teams are spending more time at sea, allowing team members to make video calls to their loved ones, play online games, and stream movies without interruption.
