A report from Calhoun County in West Virginia said that the average internet speed was only 27Kbps and this is a problem that Elon Musk wants to address with his SpaceX Starlink satellites.
SpaceX has already applied for the known Federal Communication Commission's up-to about $16 billion of the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund otherwise known as RDOF. The plan is to bring good broadband with at least 25 Mbps download speed to the different six million businesses and homes which still do not have broadband.
SpaceX Starlink internet speed
Part of the presentation includes SpaceX's Starlink's internet test results showing download speeds between 102 Mbps and 103 Mbps. The upload speeds were in between 40.5 Mbps and 42 Mbps while the latency was only 18 to 19 milliseconds. This is much better in comparison to the conventional satellite internet and actually comparable to certain low-end cable internet, but still resulting in much better than what a number of rural internet users are getting.
The Linux-powered satellites are currently still in bata. With about 775 Starlink satellites circulating, the Starlink plan is short 12,000 satellites. SpaceX initially applied to launch 30,000 Starlink satellites to the FCC. Elon Musk has stated that in order to get "moderate" coverage, at least 800 satellites are needed. There are currently about 700,000 US residents that have signed up to receive updates about Starlink's availability.
The number does not just include certain broadband-hungry individuals but also Rural governments just like the Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities otherwise known as FONOM.
Why hasn't SpaceX ramped up on production yet?
If this is the case, why isn't the world seeing much more beta testers or even an earlier release of this program? The answer is that there are actually not enough terminals existing in the production pipeline. An even closer reading of the known SpaceX FCC request in order to modify the known Starlink satellite constellation orbits have revealed that SpaceX is already on track to be producing thousands of different consumer user terminals every single month. This means that the company would then have to be able to produce about hundreds of terminals every single month.
The theory is noted by ZDnet and justified by the searching of SpaceX Starlink job openings. A LinkedIn search will reveal that the company has actually actively been looking for certain talented production associates in order to help them be able to establish a much newer manufacturing as well as testing process. This is also a way for them to eventually improve their production for the user terminal.
The opening says that the company is indeed searching for skilled and also well-rounded maintenance technicians in order to help them ensure both high productivity as well as reliability for their high volume Starlink User Terminal's very own manufacturing facility.
This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by Urian Buenconsejo
