The CEO of SpaceX, Elon Musk, has announced that the Starlink service, which delivers ultrafast low latency broadband across the world via a mega constellation of satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), will finally leave its long-running beta phase and get a full commercial launch in October 2021. But don’t expect too many changes, yet.
At present Starlink has already launched around 1,800 LEOs into space (over 1,600 are active) and their initial plan is to deploy a total of 4,425 by 2024, which could then be followed by as many as 12,000 at a later date (possibly late 2026). The service has already gone live in the USA, Canada, the UK and is now extending into other parts of the world, but until now it was still a beta product (albeit a beta taken by c.100,000 customers).
Beta customers in the UK typically pay a hefty £89 a month for the service, plus £54 for shipping and £439 ($499) for the kit (dish, router etc.). But for that the operator…
