Satellite-based internet is nothing new, but the idea of getting satellite internet on your phone is something that has eluded us for a while. A number of smartphones now offer satellite connectivity of some kind, but that's mostly reserved for emergency situations, but the real question is, when will we be able to ditch cellular service and beam our mobile data from space?

Big tech has already been mulling over this idea for a while now. Elon Musk has talked about making Starlink a direct-to-cell service. And just this week Semafor reported that SpaceX (the parent company of Starlink) may be looking to acquire spectrum at government auction to compete directly with AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile. Or it may decide to acquire another wireless carrier altogether.

Meanwhile, Amazon has filed an application to launch its own satellite-based internet service. Fortunately, we don't have to wait for the to get their act together, because carriers around the world have started offering satellite services to their customers.

Being the curious type, I decided to give one a go and see whether it was actually worth signing up for full time.

How satellite 4G works

Those reading this from the U.S. may be aware that T-Mobile offers a satellite service powered by Starlink. I live in the U.K., and naturally don't have access to T-Mobile, but the carrier O2 offers a similar service as an optional extra. This extra is also powered by Starlink, costs £3/$4 a month, and gives you access to satellite-based 4G should you find yourself without a cell signal or Wi-Fi connection.

That lack of additional connectivity is crucial to the whole process, because of the way modern smartphones connect to satellites. If there is another form of data connection, be it cellular or Wi-Fi, then the phone will refuse to look for a satellite. The satellite is essentially a last port of call to get your device connected.

This has led to some amusing instances of my phone looking for a satellite when there's zero chance of making a connection — such as when I was traveling several feet underground on the London Underground's Central Line. That's because I disconnected from cell service for more than a few seconds.

Finding the right spot

Surprisingly, the connectivity aspect actually caused a problem for me, because O2's outdoor 4G coverage is surprisingly good in my part of the country. There are plenty of areas in the U.K. that don't get any 4G cell signal, let alone 5G, but the official coverage map shows they're mainly in very rural areas — notably mountainous regions of Wales, Scotland and Northern England.

I live in the South East, roughly around 40 miles from central London. Anyone from different parts of England will be well aware that this is the region where most of the money goes. So, even though I live in a village in a fairly rural area, the cell signal is remarkably robust when you're using an O2 SIM card.

That's not to say 4G connectivity is universally available. There are various dead spots scattered around the place, according to both O2's own coverage checked and the independent map from mobile regulator Ofcom.

I just had to find one that intersected with a road, ideally one that had ample space to pull over and let me play on my phone. If you've had any experience with British country roads, you'll know that they're often too narrow to do this safely.

Thankfully, I found a spot roughly 30 minutes away by car. Not only is it a good-size deadspot, it also contains a pub with a sizable parking lot. There are certainly worse places to stop and test some new phone features.

The actual connection is easy and automatic

It took a couple of minutes to drive through the deadspot and park my car, by which point my Galaxy S26 Ultra had already connected to Starlink's satellites. That was rather surprising, considering that satellite connectivity typically needs a direct view of the sky to actually make the connection.

And no, before anyone asks, my car does not have a sun roof. It's totally solid, though I'm unsure of what materials were actually involved in its construction.

Admittedly, the signal wasn't particularly strong inside the car, illustrated as one bar out of three in the S26 Ultra's status bar. This doesn't change the fact that my phone was connected to the satellite through the car roof, and was receiving data from some Starlink satellite in space.

My next move was to stick the phone out of my window and raise it up towards the sky. It took about a minute for the S26 Ultra to register that circumstances had changed, and there were no obstacles in the way — at which point the signal jumped up to two bars.

It never hit three bars, though, despite the fact I was in an open area with relatively clear skies. I should also note that moving inside the pub, a 350-year old building with a thatched roof, cut off all access to the satellite. So while the signal may be able to penetrate my car, it isn't magic.

Accessing Google Maps from inside my car was a slightly drawn out affair. The app warned me that it was connected to the satellite, with lower loading times, and it took between 30 and 60 seconds for the actual map interface to load up fully. Shifting things outside and the load times were significantly reduced, though nowhere near as quick as they are with a 4G connection, let alone 5G.

So you're not going to be tapping your feet staring at your phone waiting for an all-important app to load over the course of several minutes. But your speeds aren't going to be as instantaneous as they might be with full bars of cell signal.

This isn't unrestricted 4G like you're used to

It was a surprisingly effective system, though the main drawback is that there are limitations on the apps you're able to use. These limitations seem to have been coded in at a system level by your phone rather than by the carrier. My personal guess is that this is due to modern phones treating satellite connectivity as an emergency feature, rather than a stable source of data.

This means that you will only be able to use the bare minimum of apps you need to communicate, navigate and potentially allow yourself to be found in an emergency. We're talking about things like Google Maps, Google Find Hub, Messages and the weather.

The latter may seem like an odd choice, but if you're out in the sticks by yourself with no vehicle or shelter, being able to keep tabs on the weather is essential. It could be the difference between you being stuck in a freak storm and finding somewhere to hunker down and ride it out in relative safety.

Your more frivolous apps, like social media and web browsers, are all disconnected and behave as though you don't have any active data connection. So don't expect to be sitting on a mountain somewhere catching up on your favorite Netflix series. That's not what this system is for, and the app straight up won't work if you try it.

Likewise, any third-party apps that could prove useful in precarious situations, such as mapping apps, still behave as though they are offline. The good news for wilderness-enthusiasts is that you can still get GPS with no data, but if assets haven't loaded, or are hilariously out of date, then the lack of data to update could end up being a problem.

A fantastic backup tool, but it's not replacing cell service yet

If you live out in a deadspot, or regularly find yourself in one, then gaining satellite access through your carrier is not going to make up for the fact there's no cell signal. The limitations in what the satellite connection can or can't do means that it's not a true replacement for cell service in the way a full Starlink setup would be for home internet.

But this sure as heck beats being stuck with zero access to the internet. Carrier-supplied 4G may not be able to give you access to web browsers and streaming, but it keeps you hooked into the apps that you might actually need in a pinch. In short, it means that you will always be able to reach the outside world in the event that you desperately need to.

Some may not like the fact that it's getting harder and harder to disconnect, but this means that you won't be stuck in the middle of nowhere without support. The fact that satellite access still worked in my car, and loaded up Google Maps, will easily be a major boon for navigating areas with little to no cell service. Which isn't a bad deal for $4 a month (or $10 a month with T-Mobile).

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Flying feels weird these days. There’s this underlying tension every time you board, whether it's questions about delays, concerns about safety or anxiety about rising travel costs. So when I stepped onto a United Airlines 737 to test Starlink Wi-Fi, collecting speed data wasn’t necessarily my top priority. I wanted to know if this internet upgrade could actually make flying my go-to airline feel better.

On this flight, I was surrounded by other press and creators, all running speed tests and comparing numbers. And sure, those benchmarks matter. For the record: I clocked 155 Mbps downloads and 4.46 Mbps uploads, ironically faster than the Verizon 5G I had at the gate.

But I don’t care about the megabits as much as I care about what they enable.

Could I scroll through 300 TikToks without interruption? Could I text friends like I wasn’t 32,000 feet in the air? Could I stream March Madness without buffering? I’m happy to report that the answer to all of these is yes, and with ease.

Wi-Fi on planes has always felt like a gamble, so I usually skip it entirely. It’s not worth the cost and frustration, especially when you’re trying to be productive or just pass the time. But this was free (for MileagePlus users,) fast and, most importantly, reliable.

That reliability hit me hard. I’ve been traveling for nearly two weeks, and in that time I missed most of the March Madness energy I usually share with friends. There’s a real kind of FOMO that comes with feeling out of sync with your life. But somewhere over the California coastline, I streamed the second-round USC vs. South Carolina women’s game via YouTube TV, texted reactions in real time, and felt connected again.

The experience itself was surprisingly seamless. Once I logged in on my phone, I used a QR code to connect my laptop instantly, because yes you can connect unlimited devices. I even uploaded a 40-second TikTok, something I’ve never attempted mid-flight because it usually requires leaving the app open and hoping it doesn’t fail. With Starlink, it took about five minutes and worked on the first try.

Video and voice calls aren’t allowed under Federal Aviation Administration regulations, though with rare permission I briefly tested a FaceTime call to show my mom the views of the Pacific, and I swear it was better than the connection I sometimes get in my own apartment.

Don’t get me wrong, travel is probably always going to be stressful. But for many people, it’s not optional. So if you’re going to spend hours in the air, being able to stay connected makes a meaningful difference. And I can guarantee I’ll notice the difference the next time I fly without Wi-Fi like I experienced on this flight.

Starlink is rolling out across United’s entire fleet by the end of 2027, and with what flying feels like these days, it couldn’t be coming at a better time.

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Satellite connectivity on the iPhone is the kind of feature that you don't pay any attention to until you really need it. Apple's been slowly improving the ability to stay connected when there's no cell signal, and according to a new report from The Information this could culminate in the iPhone 18 Pro being able to connect to satellite 5G services.

That's notable for a number of reasons. The first is that satellite support on iPhone is currently limited to the emergency SOS feature and limited iMessage support. There's no option for anything more substantial, meaning you currently can't use a satellite signal to video call, access the internet, or make phone calls. Adding 5G satellite support could change that.

What's the plan?

The Information's report adds that this could see a deal struck between Apple and SpaceX, to bring Starlink connectivity to the iPhone in the future. It's noted that Starlink has started supporting the same spectrum utilized by Globalstar, the company that powers satellite connectivity on iPhone and Apple Watch Ultra 3.

It's possible that this change could see Starlink internet come to the iPhone without Apple having to make serious, if any, changes to the iPhone 18 Pro's satellite transceiver hardware.

Starlink is technically available on iPhones within the U.S. already. SpaceX signed a deal with T-Mobile to bring satellite support to Android and iPhone users earlier this year — though it was limited to text and picture messaging at the time. T-Mobile did promise that certain apps would be able to connect to satellite data connections, such as WhatsApp, Elon Musk-owned X, AccuWeather and more.

But together it's still a far cry from full internet access, and it was reported that SpaceX had previously attempted to pitch the idea of full Starlink connectivity on iPhones. However, it's claimed that Apple rejected the offer. But who knows, things may change if the iPhone 18 Pro is heading to receive this particular satellite upgrade.

5G internet from satellite — the good and the bad

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The world of commercial flight has seen so much change since its inception, and I’ve now had the chance to experience what will perhaps be one of the next shifts — in-flight satellite internet.

This figures to usher in quite a change from flights of 20 years ago when you boarded a plane, turned off your phone, and spent the next several hours unconnected. You could sit and think, try to sleep, listen to music on your iPod, or maybe — if you were lucky — watch whatever movies the airline was playing on a few screens around the cabin.

In the intervening years, though, the ever-advancing tech we bring on board — from laptops and smartphones all the way up to AR glasses with mobile controllers — gives us a lot more to do from gate to gate. And airlines are adding their own ways to pass the time and stay connected during flights. We’ve gone from strict phones-off policies to now allowing Wi-Fi and Bluetooth through flights.

And now, we’ve reached the next step in keeping travelers as connected up in the air as they are on the ground — airlines are integrating satellite internet connectivity by way of SpaceX’s Starlink.

Flying the connected skies

Instead of turning to Wi-Fi to just allow for a link to content on the airplane’s local network or sporadic connections to network towers on the ground — which are sorely lacking on overseas flights — planes can link up to satellites for a connection back to on-the-ground networks regardless of whether they’re flying over civil infrastructure, untouched wilderness, or the open ocean.

It’s been a few years in the making, but the systems are starting to come on line. A couple of weeks ago, I happened to be on a Hawaiian Airlines flight to Japan that was running the Starlink service onboard, and while I didn’t pay much attention since I pre-loaded a week’s worth of content onto my phone, I couldn’t help noticing the Whatsapp messages continuing to trickle in even while I was over the middle of the Pacific.

United Airlines is now preparing to bring the service further into the mainstream with a broad deployment. The airline has been integrating Starlink equipment into regional jets since May, and has since fitted more than half of its regional fleet. Now the airline is rolling it out to mainline planes. This week, the company invited staff and media onboard its first Starlink-equipped mainline flight, and I hopped onboard to put it to the test.

While recent onboard Wi-Fi systems have provided some access to the outside world and a cache of locally stored media, it has generally been limited to use while in the air, leaving plenty of time offline while taxiing and waiting at the gate. For its new Starlink Wi-Fi, United notes that it would be up from the time I got onto the plane until the time I disembarked.

United's test flight

United’s setup did not disappoint, with its Starlink Wi-Fi even showing up on the list of available networks as I moseyed in line on the jetbridge.

Getting connected does require a MileagePlus account with United, though not any paid or premium status. United will be offering this service on its airplanes free for all customers. And after a quick login to my MileagePlus account, I was connected before we’d even backed away from the gate.

Of course, the quality of the connection is one of the biggest questions, and it was more than a little surprising. First, I decided to get a little entertainment during taxiing and takeoff, so I fired up Netflix and downloaded the first season of “Splinter Cell: Deathwatch.” That took just 3 minutes and 30 seconds to complete.

A quick run of Speedtest showed the connection giving me 379Mbps while we were still on the ground — not quite as fast as T-Mobile gave me in the airport, but not bad.

When we got up into the air, cruising at altitude and high speeds, it continued to show its stuff. I ran several more tests with results ranging between 150 and 297Mbps. I’d call that good for free Wi-Fi just about anywhere, let alone on a plane cruising 30,000 feet in the air.

What you can do with satellite Wi-Fi

It wasn’t just the bandwidth either. The latency of my connection was also impressive. I made sure my installation of Delta Force on Android was updated before the flight — something I now realize I didn’t need to do — and fired it up for a match onboard. Throughout a 10-minute session, latency sat stably around 30-45 milliseconds, a very serviceable range for online gaming. I didn’t notice one hiccup in the gameplay while I watched the battle unfold from afar, helping my team capture 0 objectives, and lobbing enough sniper rounds into the fray to lead my team in eliminations.

Loading up other content on Netflix, viewing a Twitch livestream at 1080p, firing up a podcast at 2x speed, browsing Tom’s Guide — all these typical internet activities worked just like they should. You are prohibited from making voice and video calls, though, as a splash screen reminds you when you connect to the network.

Over the course of the roughly two hours onboard United's plane, there were a couple of delays in establishing a connection, but they were never substantial and are hardly an oddity where internet connections are concerned.

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Satellite connectivity is arguably one of the most important features Apple and other phone makers have added in recent years. As good as cell signal is, it isn't possible to cover every square inch of the planet — so if you're in trouble out in the sticks, the satellite means you can call for help.

But Apple may be facing some problems in this department, according to a new report from The Information. Not only is its satellite connectivity business much smaller than originally envisioned, but it may also be facing issues from various internal and outside parties.

That includes SpaceX and Starlink, the companies controlled by Elon Musk. Even Apple executives have reportedly turned against the project. Here's what we know.

SpaceX wanted in on Apple's satellite ambitions

According to the report, back in 2022 SpaceX CEO Elon Musk approached Apple with an offer. Rather than partnering with Globalstar, which allowed iPhones to send emergency messages and calls via satellite, Musk instead wanted Starlink's internet service to take that role.

Apparently the pitch was that SpaceX would be the exclusive satellite connectivity provider for 18 months, with Apple paying $5 billion up front. Following that, Musk wanted Apple to pay $1 billion a year to grant Starlink access on iPhones. To top it off, he gave Apple 72 hours to decide, and threatened to launch his own iPhone satellite feature if Apple turned him down.

Apple rejected that offer, at which point Musk announced a Starlink partnership with T-Mobile. It essentially offered the same thing, with emergency texting and calls via Starlink, but revealed a month before the iPhone 14 launch event.

Apple's satellite options could have been a lot better

The Information notes that Apple's original satellite ambitions involved partnering with Boeing to offer full satellite-based internet — not just emergency communications. This would essentially work like Starlink does now, beaming internet to iPhones and separate antennas that people can use at home. The general idea being that if Apple operated its own network, it didn't have to rely on phone carriers.

Apple did eventually back down, with CEO Tim Cook expressing concern it could affect the company's relationship with the telecoms industry. Other people inside Apple were worried that it could push Apple too far in the direction of being a telecoms provider, which would expose it to even more government regulation.

While those plans were briefly resurrected in 2023, following the launch of the Emergency SOS via satellite feature, Apple again backed off. Again this was due to not wanting to upset telecoms partners, but also potentially due to cost concerns.

As for the threat of regulation, advisers recommended Apple pass ownership of all equipment to Globastar to avoid the issue entirely. Though there's no telling what might happen if Apple ever tries to expand those features, especially since SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has such close ties with the Trump administration.

SpaceX could make things harder for Apple (and others)

The report also notes that SpaceX does seem to have been making it harder for Apple's satellite business to operate properly.

Back in 2023 the company filed a grievance with the FCC, objecting Globalstar's application to launch new satellites. In it, SpaceX accused the company of essentially squatting on the spectrum it controls — and locking out potential competition in the process. Apple was namedropped in this filing, reportedly annoying Apple executives who wanted the company to keep its distance from the situation.

Without Globalstar, Apple's satellite communication features would be completely useless until the company can find another partner. Google would also be in the same boat, since the emergency satellite system on Pixel phones also utilizes Globalstar's network.

Apple and SpaceX have also clashed over the issue of supporting Starlink via T-Mobile. Musk has reportedly asked Apple to support the feature on a "broad range of its iPhone models," though Apple was apparently reluctant to do it on anything older than iPhone 13. However it seems to have relented somewhat, since iPhone 13 will be capable of sending satellite messages on T-Mobile after it launches in July.

Plus, since Starlink is offering that service, many voices in Apple have questioned the viability of offering the service if carriers can instead add their own satellite connectivity features. Which, I understand, though considering T-Mobile is the only satellite provider Apple supports right now it's all kind of moot.

It wouldn't be a good look for Apple to remove a potentially-life-saving feature, even if it means people have to start paying for it.

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T-Mobile used the Super Bowl to announce the availability and pricing for its StarLink service, with a surprise announcement regarding who can access the beta.

In the announcement, T-Mobile stated that the Starlink beta will be open until July for compatible Android phones and iPhones. T-Mobile also stated that customers don't have to be part of T-Mobile to sign up for the beta. Any customer with any carrier will be able to access the beta without needing to swap over to T-Mobile. If you want a chance to test out Starlink, then you can sign up here.

After launch, Starlink will be added to the T-Mobile Go5G plan at no extra cost. Users with other T-Mobile plans can get access to the feature for an added $15 a month from March 1st. To access the beta you'll need an eSIM-compatible phone, which includes devices like the iPhone 14, Galaxy S21, Google Pixel 9 and later.

However, at this point, users can add T-Mobile Starlink now and get an Early Adopter discount that will cut $5 from the monthly price. It appears that users without T-Mobile will not have access to the feature after the beta ends.

Originally announced as only for Samsung phones like the Galaxy S25 Ultra and the Galaxy Z Fold 6, Starlink is a feature that wants to capitalize on satellite communication.

Then, back in January, T-Mobile announced that the feature was also coming to iPhones that had downloaded iOS 18.3.

While many devices offer SOS communications over satellite, Starlink separates itself by allowing users to send texts, calls, images and more. In a recent post on social media, Elon Musk also stated that Starlink would soon be able to send videos.

There's been a certain amount of concern about iOS 18.3 forcing the feature onto iPhones without the users' consent. We found several online conspiracies saying that Starlink is being forced upon users, which was seemingly pushed by recent reactions to Elon Musk and DOGE. However, it is worth noting that iOS 18.3 only allows you to use the feature; it doesn't download anything Starlink-related to your device.

The idea of giving more people access to the beta of a feature is an interesting one, and it could work in T-Mobile's favor in the long run. However, adding $15 to an existing monthly bill for a feature that many may never use might be asking for too much.

For the time being, we will have to wait and see what the initial reactions and experiences are like.

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When Apple released iOS 18.3 late last month, it's doubtful the tech giant thought the uneventful update would be a source of conspiracy theories and confusion — and not even because it automatically enabled Apple Intelligence on your iPhone.

Instead, denizens of TikTok and the internet are claiming there's something more insidious in the update. And it all ties back to Elon Musk and the satellite internet company Starlink.

Among the changes to iOS 18.3 is the addition of Starlink satellite connectivity for T-Mobile customers. That addition allows T-Mobile subscribers to sign up for a beta program to test out the satellite connectivity offered by Starlink as part of a partnership between T-Mobile and SpaceX first announced three years ago.

That's created some confusion, with some corners of the internet claiming that Starlink is being forced onto the iPhones of everyone, not just T-Mobile customers. Some are even drawing parallels to Apple's ill-fated attempt to automatically download a new U2 album onto every iPhone a decade ago whether customers wanted it or not.

So what's really going on? Here's what we've been able to find out.

Starlink on T-Mobile iPhones: Why are people concerned?

On a basic level, no one wants things shoved on their devices that they didn't ask for. The iOS 18.3 update is also arriving at a time when SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has taken on a major role in the new Trump administration with his DOGE project. That may have have raised suspicions about this Musk-adjacent product.

As understandable as those reservations may be, it's worth noting that iOS 18.3 does not download or install anything Starlink-related on your phone. T-Mobile subscribers who opt in to the beta are connecting to spectrum on T-Mobile's network through which they can send messages when other connectivity is unavailable.

What is T-Mobile doing?

T-Mobile and SpaceX, which operates Starlink, launched a partnership in August 2022. Dubbed "Coverage Above and Beyond," the team-up aims to give T-Mobile subscribers "a crucial additional layer of connectivity in areas previously unreachable by cell signals from any provider."

SpaceX launched a Falcon9 rocket in January 2024 with the first batch of Starlink satellites that featured "Direct to Cell" service. At the time, those satellites were only capable of SMS messaging with voice support promised by 2025. Since then, T-Mobile claims that 330 satellites have launched.

Basically, the Starlink satellites use T-Mobile's 1900MHz mid-band spectrum to broadcast a new network that is both 4G and 5G capable.

In mid-December of 2024, T-Mobile opened up a beta Starlink messaging program for some Samsung Galaxy users. "T-Mobile Starlink is the first major low-earth orbit constellation in the world paired with terrestrial cellular spectrum," said Mike Katz, T-Mobile's president of marketing, in a press release at the time.

So it's important to note that this beta is open to both iPhone and Android users.

What about AT&T and Verizon connected devices?

Apple and T-Mobile have both stated that this Starlink beta only applies to compatible devices that are specifically on the T-Mobile network.

AT&T and Verizon both have partnerships with other satellite service provides. Last year, both companies teamed up with their partners to launch or enable satellite services for phones on their networks.

AT&T utilizes satellites from a company called AST SpaceMobile, which launched satellites in last September. The plan is to eventually offer data, text, video and voice services via this partnership. It's unclear how far along that process is now. Like T-Mobile, AT&T will likely charge for this service when it's up.

AT&T did get in trouble before that September launch when it ran ads that seemed to depict satellite calling that was not available.

Verizon, meanwhile, is partnered with a company called Skylo. A press release from last August announced that "starting this fall, customers on certain smartphones have access to emergency messaging and location sharing even when a terrestrial cellular network is not available."

Verizon expects to launch texting via satellite this year, with a beta program getting underway at the end of January.

Independent of all that, the Emergency SOS feature that's been a part of iPhones since the iPhone 14 uses Globalstar satellites, which is separate from these different carrier partnerships.

So what does iOS 18.3 actually do?

Simply, with the iOS 18.3 update, Apple is enabling anyone with an iPhone 14 or newer to connect to the T-Mobile beta. You do need to be on a T-Mobile customer to access that feature.

For those who don't want to bother with satellite communication at all, you can turn off satellite connectivity in your iPhone. To do so, open the Settings app go to Cellular and then your carrier or phone number. From there tap Satellite to turn it off. Apple notes on a support page that if your carrier does not support satellite features then the setting won't be available.

What we don't know

While the T-Mobile/Starlink beta is free, T-Mobile's sign-up page reads, "T-Mobile Starlink is free during the beta test. We will provide more details about the commercial service at launch."

It's unclear when how long T-Mobile plans to run the beta program.

T-Mobile will probably charge a fee to access the service when it goes commercial, though we don't know if there will be a data cap.

Will the list of compatible phones expand? Right now, it's only available to some Samsung Galaxy devices, Pixel devices and iPhone 14 or newer models from Apple.

If you try signing up with an older device, you might receive this T-Mobile message: "Thanks for your interest in T-Mobile Starlink beta. To ensure the best possible experience and service reliability, we're optimizing T-Mobile Starlink beta for newer smartphones (majority released in the last two years). More devices will be optimized over time so please stay tuned. Find out more: https://sms.t-mobile.com/z3iPTYsK"."

Once it goes live will you be able to opt out like you currently can via the Settings app? That's all unclear for now.

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Earlier this week we heard news that Starlink satellite support was coming to iPhone as part of iOS 18.3 — but only if you’re a T-Mobile customer.

Starlink support was already confirmed for select Samsung Galaxy phones, and now it’s branching out to more devices — including Google Pixel 9 Pro and Pixel 9 Pro XL.

Pixel 9 owners that have signed up for T-mobile’s Starlink beta program have already started receiving messages that they’re now eligible to take part. This message claims that users can message from “virtually anywhere”, and the only requirement is that you have the correct hardware and up-to-date software.

The correct hardware, of course, being satellite-capable hardware — something that the Pixel 9 does include. It’s unclear what software version is needed to access this feature, though since Android 15 includes satellite support that certainly couldn’t hurt. Not that I imagine there are many Pixel 9 owners that haven’t upgraded to Android 15 already.

So far it isn’t clear what kind of connectivity will be available to Pixel 9 owners. Elon Musk previously tweeted that the “current generation Starlink direct-to-phone constellation” supports medium resolution images, music & audio podcasts. However T-Mobile’s beta page specifies that the service is currently only available for text messaging — with voice and data coverage planned for some point in the future. So don’t expect much more than basic SMS-style texting for now.

T-Mobile doesn’t have a definitive list of devices that are eligible for the beta, though it has confirmed that the beta test is free.

Despite this, spaces are apparently limited and will be available to a “smaller number of T-Mobile postpaid customers” with the appropriate phones. You can register for a chance to join in on T-Mobile’s website, providing your name, email and phone number.

If you don’t want to wait, Google is providing 2 years free access to its Satellite SOS feature. The upside is that it’s not limited to T-Mobile customers, but the downside is that this is an emergency feature — and can’t be used to text your mom when there’s no cell signal. However Apple’s recent Messages via Satellite feature does let you send non-emergency messages, which is worth bearing in mind as well.

Neither of these features utilize Starlink infrastructure either, if that’s something that matters to you.

In any case it is a good thing to see that satellite communication is on the upswing, even if it is restricted to the most basic kinds of messaging. These are features that can (and have) saved lives, and the easier they are to access the better.

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With the release of iOS 18.3 comes a surprise release, as T-Mobile users with access to the Starlink Beta can now connect to Starlink satellites on compatible iPhones.

Originally spotted by Bloomberg, it seems that Apple has secretly worked with SpaceX and T-Mobile U.S. to provide an alternative satellite service. This is quite a surprise, as T-Mobile had previously specified Starlink as an option for Samsung phones, like the Galaxy S25 Ultra and the Galaxy Z Fold 6. Meanwhile, Apple has an in-house Satellite connection service due to a partnership with Globalstar Inc.

However, the Bloomberg report states that a select number of iPhone users have been able to enable the Starlink beta through T-Mobile. While we don't know which models will be compatible as of yet, T-Mobile told Bloomberg that the full release will support the vast majority of iPhones.

We also have an idea of what features it could bring, as Elon Musk posted on X that Starlink currently supports the transfer of images, music and even Audio Podcasts. He also said that the next generation will be able to transfer medium-quality video.

Currently, the T-Mobile Starlink beta is limited, but there are plans to expand the test to additional subscribers. If you want to join the beta then you can sign up on the T-Mobile website. However, it is worth noting that Starlink is only available in the U.S., and while it might be free during the beta, that is likely to change.

iPhone users in the program need to have updated to iOS 18.3, then they will see a new toggle in their iPhone cellular data settings to manage the feature.

There are certain advantages to satellite communication, especially when it comes to emergencies. In the case of Apple devices, it was introduced for iOS 18 and is supported on the iPhone 14, iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 series. The feature is easy enough to use and seamlessly integrates with iMessage. The feature will activate as soon as the phone detects no cellular or Wi-Fi signal and supports both standard SMS and iMessage.

While it is good to see that Apple users will have more options, the real question is how much a Starlink connection will cost. The issue is that, outside of emergencies, the ability to send images and podcasts via the service seems minimal for the average user.

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Several users who signed up for the T-Mobile satellite messaging service beta have reported that the feature has been activated on their devices. The carrier opened registration for a direct-to-cell satellite service beta test with Starlink in December.

The first report of the beta going live came from a user on Reddit, who stated that they were let into the carrier's satellite messaging beta with no notification, text or email that it was available. The service was activated for them on their Magenta Max T-Mobile plan. The User, RoosterIntelligent32, also shared a screenshot of the satellite messaging options.

The image gives us some idea of how the feature will work. It appears that devices will connect to satellites as soon as the phone leaves network range, and will automatically reconnect when back in range. The page also notes that, for the best results, users should keep a clear view of the sky. Once your phone has connected to the satellite you'll be able to send and receive messages. In certain areas, it will also be possible to send text messages to emergency services.

The image also details that connecting to satellite networks is likely to take longer than a stable network connection. The connection can also be interrupted by certain structures and weather. Unfortunately, it is also clear that making phone calls over the satellite connection isn't possible. However, calls to emergency services may go through if you're close enough to a mobile network.

This isn't the first time that we've seen the satellite service on a phone go live with no warning. For instance, back in May, several users for T-Mobile reported that the feature had gone live on their devices after the release of the Android 15 beta 2. Meanwhile, we got a proper look at how satellite communication could work thanks to a recent report that got the feature working in Google Messages.

Satellite messaging will likely not affect many people in their day-to-day lives. However, it could help people in situations where their phone is otherwise useless. For the time being, we will have to see how well the feature works when it finally rolls out.

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Some users in the United States are starting to get offers from SpaceX for a new Starlink kit. The kit, dubbed Starlink Mini, is supposed to be small enough to fit into a backpack. 

At 11-inches tall, 10-inches wide and 1.45inches thick, the device, sans kickstand, is about the size of a really thick Chromebook.

According to emails sent out to potential customers, the Mini will have an upfront cost of $599. The Reddit thread, spotted by Engadget, is a mixture of people shocked at the price and others trying to reassure them that the price will come down "eventually." Par for the course in any Reddit thread really.

The shock isn't without merit though. The $599 price tag is $100 more than a standard Starlink dish kit. Also, users will have to already be subscribed to an existing Residential service plan. On top of that you'll need to add on a new $30 Mini Roam service subscription to the plan. 

All-in, that's $150 a month to run the new internet-from-space router. 

On a Starlink support page, the company says, "Our goal is to reduce the price of Starlink, especially for those around the world where connectivity has been unaffordable or completely unavailable. In regions with high usage, like the US, where Starlink Mini places additional demand on the satellite network, we are offering a limited number of the Starlink Mini Kits to start at a higher price point."

It's unclear from any other messaging when or how long it will take before we see prices come down on the device.

The controversial CEO of SpaceX, Elon Musk, touted the Mini on X saying that it will become a "great low cost option". 

The Starlink Mini is powered by DC and supposedly capable of download speeds up to 100 Mbps. And compared to the normal kit, the Starlink Mini comes with a built-in Wi-Fi router. 

Additional components include a kickstand, pipe adapter, power supply and USB-C cord with a barrel jack. 

The device is currently available in some South American countries and now, limitedly in the US, but on X, Starlink VP of Engineering Michael Nicolls has said the company is ramping up production and wider availability is coming soon.

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Starlink’s highly anticipated satellite cellular service will launch next year according to a new website detailing its features.

Starlink now has a separate site dedicated to Direct-to-Cell which explains that the SpaceX-engineered cellular service will begin rolling out SMS capabilities in 2024.

If you’re considering ditching your current phone carrier for Starlink though, you’ll have to wait until 2025 when voice and data becomes available. Likewise, IoT connectivity will also roll out in 2025.

First announced in August of last year, Starlink is partnering with T-Mobile on the project in the U.S., with Rogers in Canada, with Optus in Australia and with other mobile carriers in Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Switzerland. However, once Direct-to-Cell launches, we’ll likely see similar partnerships with other carriers in even more countries.

Starlink’s collaboration with T-Mobile will see the carrier set aside some of its 5G spectrum to be used with its second-generation satellites. From here, T-Mobile phones will be able to use Starlink’s Direct-to-Cell for SMS initially followed by voice and data in 2025. As a result of this, T-Mobile will be able to offer “near complete coverage” in the U.S. according to a press release from back when the partnership was first announced.

While there isn’t any pricing information available yet, you can head to the website now to fill out a contact form at the bottom of the page if you’re interested. We’ll likely hear more from both Starlink and SpaceX once Direct-to-Cell gets closer to launch.

Outlook: Satellite cell service is having its moment

Back when Apple added Emergency SOS to the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro Max last year, satellite cell service didn’t seem like something you could rely on consistently. Instead, it was mainly designed for emergency situations in places where you couldn’t get a cellular signal.

In the time since, Qualcomm rolled out its own Snapdragon Satellite feature for the best Android phones with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipsets using the Iridium satellite network. Motorola also came up with its own way to add satellite cell service to existing phones using a Bluetooth accessory for $149 called the Defy Satellite Link.

Now though, Starlink is taking things to a whole new level with the promise of offering voice and data over satellite in addition to text messages. Unlike Apple and Qualcomm, however, Starlink has its own constellation of over 5,000 satellites with new ones launched every month. This gives the company a huge advantage over its competitors and could one day lead to Direct-to-Cell being as reliable or at least close to the kind of coverage offered by mobile carriers.

As Starlink is partnering with mobile carriers for Direct-to-Cell though, the service may end up being sold as an add-on with the best cell phone plans as opposed to being sold separately. Starlink’s Direct-to-Cell service could also make its way into the best electric cars from Tesla such as the Model 3 or even the upcoming Cybertruck.

At Tom's Guide we will be following Direct-to-Cell’s launch closely so check back for all the latest on Starlink’s new satellite cell service.

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Starlink’s satellite internet system could be set to offer a new plan that’ll prove useful for anyone that loves travelling the world. According to messages some Starlink users have received (via The Verge), the company is gearing up to offer a “global roaming service” for $200 a month — plus $599 for the Starlink hardware.

According to the message, this service will offer “Starlink’s typical high speed, low-latency service” but will unfortunately have “brief periods of poor connectivity, or none at all”. The message note that “this will improve dramatically over time”, though access will rely on local regulatory approval.

It’s already possible to take Starlink away from home, thanks to the Starlink RV plan. Costing $135 a month, this plan offers Starlink connectivity “at any destination where Starlink has active coverage”.

Since there’s nothing in Starlinks’s terms and conditions that says you can’t take Starlink RV to another country, it’s not exactly clear what the difference will be between the two. However the small print does say that “network resources are always deprioritized for Starlink RVs users”, and it could be that the extra $65 a month gets Starlink Global Roaming users better speeds in comparison.

Starlink may also be offering coverage in countries that have satellite coverage, but where its services wouldn’t normally be available. The company’s coverage map notes that Asia and Africa are hugely underserved, and is only available Japan, Nigeria and Rwanda right now.

According to PCMag, users in countries where Starlink isn’t officially available, like Greenland, have been receiving invites to try the Global Roaming Service. That would suggest that Starlink is either expanding to those areas very soon, or is offering services outside it's current operating range.

But there’s typically a good reason why Starlink isn’t available in those places. Whether it’s because the company is still pending regulatory approval, like India, or because that nation is affected by international sanctions — like Russia or North Korea. 

So right now these invitations are generating far more questions than answers. What’s clear, however, is that Starlink has no intention of stopping is rapid expansion anytime soon. And if you’re gearing up to do some extensive traveling, it might be a convenient (albeit expensive) way to stay online.

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Back at the start of November, SpaceX announced a controversial bit of news for its Starlink satellite internet service: data caps for residential subscribers. However, the company has now quietly delayed this move, though the cap will still be imposed sometime in the near future.

According to SpaceX, the cap would have imposed a 1TB limit on residential customers in the U.S. and Canada between the hours of 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. Going over that limit would see customers paying for additional data by the gigabyte or facing throttled speeds. 

While this change was set to kick off sometime in December, CNET spotted a change on the Starlink fair usage policy. Now the new data won’t be getting implemented until February 2023. It’s not clear why this delay has been imposed, but it does mean customers have a little longer to figure out how they can adapt their internet usage.

Starlink fair usage policy — what’s changing

Starlink’s fair usage policy means all Residential Customers in the U.S. and Canada will be subject to a daytime data cap. According to Starlink each account will get 1TB of Priority Access data each month, to be used between the hours of 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. This will come into force on an unspecified date in February 2023.

Priority Access means that your usage is given favor over Basic Access users, so going over your 1TB limit will see your speeds throttled by an unspecified amount. You are essentially at the back of the line where downloads are concerned. However, Basic Access is unlimited, and means you won’t be cut off from the internet for using too much data. How usable this tier will be has yet to be determined.

Additional Priority Access data can be bought, with each additional gigabyte costing $0.25, but you need to opt into this service. It’s implied that this is done automatically, until a user opts out again, so you should exercise caution lest you end up with a horrendously expensive bill at the end of the month.

Any data used between 11:01 p.m. and 6:59 a.m. will be unrestricted, and won’t be deducted from your monthly allowance.

All Business, Martime and Mobility customers will also be affected by this change, to differing degrees. Businesses will have caps ranging from 500GB to 3TB, depending on their plan, with extra Priority Access data costing $1 per gigabyte. Maritime users will have a 5TB cap, plus $2 for each gigabyte they user beyond it, while Mobility customers won't have any Priority Access data at all.

How Starlink’s new data cap affects you

1TB may not sound like a small amount of data, and it’s not. But as someone from a country where unlimited internet has been standard for a dozen or more years, it’s crazy to think those caps still exist — especially given how data-heavy things have become the past few years. Video games in particular have grown bigger and bigger, and it’s not uncommon to find games that are over 100GB in size. 

And that’s not to mention the updates required for games, consoles, smartphones and all the other connected devices we have in our homes. It all adds up, is what I’m saying, and trying to restrict them all to a seven hour period in the middle of the night is going to be a hassle.

Of course, Starlink is not the only internet provider that has these sorts of data caps in place. There are multiple providers that offer similar (or worse) data caps that limit how much you can do in any given month. Then again there are providers that offer unlimited data on home internet, without any fine print imposing secret caps; assuming they are available in your area, and within your budget, of course.

So it’s not a huge surprise that data caps have come to Starlink, but it doesn’t mean people have to be happy about it. At least now you have a bit of time to figure out how you’re going to make that 1TB limit last as long as possible.

One thing you can do is make sure to turn off automatic updates in Windows, since its notorious for updating when it wants to. It also pays to familiarize yourself with the basics of how to update macOS, and the sorts of update settings available on the Xbox Series X and PS5. That way you can restrict data-heavy downloads to the unrestricted hours — and avoid running out of data without even realizing it.

After raising the price of Starlink earlier this year, SpaceX will soon implement a new data policy for its satellite internet service that will lower the internet speeds of customers who use too much data.

As reported by The Verge, SpaceX will begin throttling the connections of home internet customers that use more than 1 TB of Priority Access data during peak hours beginning in December. This means that you’ll need to carefully monitor how much internet you use each day during peak hours, which run from 7AM to 11PM according to Starlink's Fair Use Policy.

Once you go over Starlink’s new 1 TB data cap, you’ll be moved from “Priority Access” data to “Basic Access” data. You will still be able to connect to the internet and use Starlink but the speed of your connection will be slower.

Home internet customers that exceed Starlink’s new data cap will be able to purchase more Priority Access data but it will cost 25 cents per GB. It’s worth noting that Starlink For RV and Portability customers aren’t able to get Priority Access data at all.

Businesses will have it even worse under Starlink’s new peak-hour data cap policy, with caps ranging from 500 GB to 3TB depending on their plan and will need to pay $1 per gigabyte if they go over the limit. Meanwhile, Premium users will also have a 1 TB data cap while Maritime users will have 5TB caps. If users of Starlink’s more expensive plans go over the cap, they will need to pay $2 for every extra gigabyte of priority data.

Data caps are nothing new and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) like Comcast have them for their home broadband plans as well. As we noted in our Starlink review, actual throughput typically isn't anywhere near the advertised speeds, so if you’re a Starlink customer who relies on its satellite internet service, you should probably wait until the evening for any big downloads in order to avoid going over your data limit. 

SpaceX’s Starlink for RV satellite internet service just got a big upgrade that will let RV owners stay connected even when they're on the move.

As reported by The Verge and announced on Twitter by Elon Musk, Starlink for RV will be available for moving vehicles beginning in December. However, RV owners might want to think twice about this upgrade as it’s significantly more expensive than the company’s standard satellite dish.

With Starlink for RV, RV owners can mount one of SpaceX’s satellite dishes onto the side of their vehicle to get internet access in remote locations where cellular internet may not be available. Up until now, you could only use the company’s satellites to get internet when your RV is stationary like at a campground or cabin.

Standard Starlink versus Flat High Performance Starlink

Starlink for RV uses Space X’s Standard satellite dish which costs $599 and can be placed on the ground near your RV. Unlike with Starlink for your home, though, you won’t have to spend months on a waitlist; if you subscribe to Starlink RV, the company will ship you one right away.

To make its satellite internet service work with moving vehicles, SpaceX has created a brand new satellite dish called a Flat High Performance dish. This new weather-resistant satellite dish doesn’t have any legs as it’s meant to be permanently attached to your vehicle. However, SpaceX’s Flat High Performance dish is also significantly more expensive than its predecessor.

The Flat High Performance dish will set you back $2,500 and there’s also a $50 fee for shipping and handling. The price of SpaceX’s satellite internet service won’t increase, though — it still costs $135 per month. 

It’s worth noting that Starlink de-prioritizes network resources for RV owners which means that residential users will always have a better connection.

Still, if you live in an RV or frequently go on long trips in one, Starlink for RV could be worth the extra $25 a month due to its portability.

How to order the new Flat High Performance Starlink

If you’re interested in getting Starlink for RVs for the first time or upgrading to the new Flat High Performance dish, you can order one now on Starlink’s website. However, you should click on the “Check Coverage” button first to make sure the service is available in the areas you plan to travel to.

From here, you just need to enter your shipping address to begin your order. Here, you’ll have the option to choose the Standard dish for $599 or the new Flat High Performance dish for $2,500. Keep in mind that Starlink’s new dish is expected to begin shipping in December of this year while the standard Starlink dish usually ships within two weeks.

We’ll have to wait for the Flat High Performance dish to ship out to customers before we can see how well it works in real-world testing. 

Elon Musk’s satellite internet company Starlink is already approaching broadband speeds. Actually, Starlink Premium, a new higher-end tier, surpasses some of the best broad speeds available in the U.S., albeit, at an absurdly high price.

While it’s still somewhat early on, Starlink is already having an impact on people living in rural parts of the world. In our Starlink review, we were thoroughly impressed by the new satellite internet service but there are still lots of questions and variables that need to be taken into account.

SpaceX has also launched Starlink RV which is a service meant for users on-the-go or who live in campers. While you can skip the line and get Starlink's RV plan instantly, there is a downside though as network services are de-prioritized for Starlink RV compared to other Starlink products – which means a degraded service and slower speeds.

So far, SpaceX has launched more than 6,900 Starlink satellites with new launches scheduled quite frequently. These satellites will continue to help cover the continental U.S., Canada and the U.K. At the same time, NASA and SpaceX have come to an information-sharing agreement to help avoid orbital collisions.

SpaceX also revealed its next-gen Starlink V2 Mni satellites which now use the E-band for backhaul. This will allow Starlink to provide four times more capacity per satellite compared to its previous iterations.

Starlink is also moving beyond providing satellite internet as SpaceX is also working on a Direct-to-Cell service that will start with text messages first before moving on to actual phone calls. In fact, the company sent out its first text messages at the beginning of 2024.

You can currently order Starlink, which promises to deliver broadband speeds of up to 300 Mbps to anyone in the world regardless of where they are. Whether it be a rural farm in Iowa or a remote village in Canada, customers are reporting greatly improved internet speeds with Starlink.

SpaceX is continuing to launch more satellites and service is already reaching more parts of the continental U.S., Canada and parts of Europe. We now have an even better indication of how rollout is going, thanks to a new coverage map.

But what is Starlink? Below you'll find a rundown of this project that aims to get everyone in the world connected to high speed internet.

Latest Starlink news (updated February 3)

• Starlink is officially compatible with Apple devices, allowing you to connect to its services from anywhere using your phone.
• Starlink now offers a backpack-sized "Starlink Mini" dish that you can carry anywhere to extend your coverage.
• Starlink has introduced a $100 congestion charge to some areas of the United States with overcrowded networks, as well as a $100 credit for users in areas with "abundant network availability."

Starlink release date

Starlink officially exited beta two years ago, but it’s currently only available in select regions and countries. However, the company plans to make its satellite internet service available worldwide soon.

As of right now, Starlink is available in 87 countries, including the United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia, and most of Europe and South America. Recent pushes into Africa and the Middle East have made the service available in a handful more countries, including Zimbabwe and Yemen. Starlink has a full map of availability, including soon-to-be network members and countries with a waitlist, on its site.

Back in May of 2022, Starlink completed its first deployment in Asia by launching in the Philippines. After making preorders available in India in October, 2021, the company’s Sanjay Bhargava revealed that the Indian government had halted pre orders until SpaceX received the regulatory approval in the country.

While it’s still difficult to get Starlink satellite internet coverage at the moment, a filing with the FCC in May of 2022 revealed that the service already has over 400,000 subscribers. If you live in an area that’s currently unsupported, you can still order Starlink on the company’s website to hold your place in line. Once the service expands to more areas this year, you’ll receive a notification that your Starlink is ready to ship.

Even if you have no plans to use Starlink as your home internet provider, you will soon be able to use the service’s satellites with your smartphone. However, that service may not become available until the beginning of next year. T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert announced in August 2022 that the mobile carrier would work with SpaceX on a plan to provide its customers in the continental U.S. with universal text coverage. Unfortunately, in a recent interview with CNBC, Sievert said that the testing "could start late this year or early into next year"—a slight adjustment from the timeline SpaceX gave the FCC this May, which said that the program would be live this fall.

Starlink price

Starlink preorders currently cost $120 a month, and the service will require an up-front hardware fee of $499. That includes the small satellite dish that can be set up at a home or business, as well as a router and power supply. There's also a shipping and handling fee of $50.

Starlink's Standard service now costs $120 per month for 24-220 Mbps. Meanwhile, its Business plans are available in three different packages: Priority 40GB for $140 per month, Priority 1TB for $250 per month and Priority 2TB for $500 per month.

If you want to use Starlink on the go, then you're going to need one of the company's Land Mobility packages which offer 40-220 Mbps. Mobile Priority 50GB costs $250 per month, Mobile Priority 1TB costs $1,000 per month and Mobile Priority 5T costs $5,000 per month.

SpaceX has now rebranded Starlink RV as Starlink Roam. It's available in two different versions, one costs $150 per month and is intended to be used regionally while the other can be used for global roaming for $200 per month. Regardless of which option you choose, the dish itself still costs $599. To get top speeds, it's a good idea to pair Starlink with one of the best Wi-Fi routers.

Depending on location, new users will also have to pay a $100 congestion fee. Starlink has not provided a clear outline of which areas will be affected by this extra charge, but new users will be notified that this pricing applies to them prior to checkout.

On the other hand, new U.S. users who live in areas with lower-than-average usage can receive a $100 credit called "Regional Savings." Likewise, new Canadian users can score a credit of $200 CAD if they fit these conditions.

What Starlink users are saying

The response to Starlink's internet service has been overwhelmingly positive from the few customers receiving service. Head on over to the Starlink subreddit, and you'll find users posting images of their new satellites, with accompanying speed tests. In Missouri, users are reporting download speeds of 150 Mbps. Another user in Idaho uploaded 72 hours worth of test results, and found speeds to be an average of 71 Mbps.

A user in the U.K. saw a massive leap in internet speed after installing Starlink. Aaron Wilkes from Kent, went from 1 Mbps to 175 Mbps. While Wilkes is paying more for Starlink, he feels the price is worth it.

"The ability to be able to download content so quickly compared to our standard BT line is amazing,” said Wilkes in an interview with the PA news agency.

Mega popular YouTube channel Linus Tech Tips was also able to procure a Starlink satellite system. They were able to stream four 4K videos at once and successfully played through a game of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive with little issue.

And director Jesse Senko, who lives in a rural Ontario, Canada, detailed how Starlink massively upgraded his workflow in the video below.

Starlink specs and IPO

Unlike other satellite internet providers, Starlink's LEO satellites promise to offer low-latency broadband speeds regardless of where you are. While Starlink was first boasting speeds of 1 Gbps, it's since upped that target to 10 Gbps. To put that into context, users would be able to download a 4K movie in less than 30 seconds. Starlink would be a major boon for people living in rural parts of the world.

Speed test analysis by Ookla shows Starlink seeing major gains in speed in the past few months. Median download speed has jumped from 65.72 Mbps to 97 Mbps. Actually, Starlink is creeping up on average median broadband speeds of 115.22 Mbps. The second leg of the Starlink network should see even faster speeds,

Latency on Starlink is surprisingly low considering its satellite internet. Early beta tests show that Starlink averages 34 milliseconds. While that may not be as fast as fiber, which can get as low as 17ms, any latency under 40ms is solid for most applications. Certain types of online games, most notably shooters and fighting games, benefit most from low latency. But sports games or MOBAs will work well on Starlink. Musk has admitted as such, aiming to bring pings down below 20ms.

It goes without saying, Starlink absolutely destroys other satellite internet companies like HughesNet and Viasat. Both offer download speeds at a fifth of Starlink with latency that's ten times higher.

Because of this, it's no surprise that OneWeb (half-owned by the UK government), Amazon's Project Kuiper, Boeing, Telesat, and the Russian and Chinese governments are all planning satellite internet constellations.

Still, getting a project of this magnitude literally off the ground and into profitability is a monumental task. While the Russian and Chinese governments can bear the brunt of the cost, companies like Starlink and Amazon take on significant risk. Past satellite internet constellations have gone bankrupt.

There's also a lot of interest in when a Starlink IPO would go live. In a tweet, Musk replied that an IPO is planned, but it would come after SpaceX has a more predictable cashflow. For Musk and Starlink, the goal right now is not to go bankrupt.

Starlink from your iPhone?

A perk included in the newest iOS update, iOS 18.3, introduced Starlink satellite access to iPhones without the need to point your phone at the sky for a connection.

This part of the latest update was included somewhat as a surprise, but it's one of the most significant tech collaborations in the past year, and it represents a major stride forward for SpaceX's budding technology. This is also a major step for Apple users, because Starlink cellular access was originally a Samsung exclusive.

At the moment, this new connection will only enable Starlink users to text from anywhere, and it's still only in beta testing for select users, but SpaceX intends to develop its call and data coverage to eventually supplement its text-from-anywhere capabilities.

Starlink in your Tesla?

It seems that SpaceX has made a request with the Federal Communications Commission to bring Starlink satellite internet service to jets and ships. In a letter to the FCC by SpaceX director of satellite policy, as acquired by CNBC, David Goldman states, "This application would serve the public interest by authorizing a new class of ground-based components for SpaceX’s satellite system that will expand the range of broadband capabilities available to moving vehicles throughout the United States and to moving vessels and aircraft worldwide."

The company would handle vehicle installation through "qualified installers" and cited the need for quality internet "while on the move."

SpaceX has also made a second filing with the FCC regarding a more rugged satellite dish, one that can handle moving conditions or more extreme climates. Already, Starlink satellites are shutting down in extreme heat, forcing users to water their "Dishys" like they would flowers.

There is the issue of internet access varying between countries. Some countries, like China, have a strictly controlled internet infrastructure. Sites that might be okay to view in the U.S. likely would not be in China. But this is satellite internet, meaning it can be accessed from anywhere. It seems that Starlink will default to the rules of the country you're in, "whichever is more constraining."

This is all academic right now, though. Because of the size of the Starlink satellite terminal, at the moment it will not be possible on cars. Elon Musk stated so in a tweet.

Starlink on your back?

Starlink has officially released a backpack mount for its Starlink Mini dish, known as Starlink Roam. It allows you to carry the dish anywhere and maintain coverage.

The up-front cost for this service is $599, and you can opt for two data packages depending on your needs. For light and infrequent travel, you can opt for a limited 50GB plan for $50 a month; alternatively, if you want to work remotely on the regular, you can choose an unlimited plan for $165 a month.

Starlink outlook

Given that broadband companies lack rivals in many cases, Starlink and other satellite internet constellations are a welcome injection of competition. More important, the service enables regions to get connected at broadband speeds where there were no options previously.

For example, the Hoh Tribe, a Native American tribe located in Western Washington state along the Pacific coast, said Starlink was like being "catapulted into the 21st century." Per the Newsweek article, the Hoh Tribe tweeted that faster internet speeds helped with remote learning and access to healthcare.

Starlink's wireless nature allows it to enter any part of the world, subverting the need for cables. By doing so, rural areas that remain neglected can now be connected at broadband speeds. The standard cost of $120 is still too high for many parts of the globe, but given that Starlink will see competition from other companies, prices will likely drop over time.

Elon Musk’s satellite internet service Starlink is now available in even more countries and regions, but both download and upload speeds have taken a hit as a result.

According to a new report from Ookla, which is known for having one of the best speed testing apps, Starlink’s median download speeds fell across the U.S., the UK, Canada, France, Germany and New Zealand during the second quarter of 2022. 

While the satellite internet provider has continued to expand, an influx of new users has led to speeds dropping from nine to 54 percent from Q2 2021 to Q2 2022. Still, Starlink reached a median download speed of at least 60 Mbps in North America during the second quarter of this year, which is more than enough for at least one connected device to access the best streaming services, play games online and video chat with friends and family.

Starlink upload speeds have also seen a decrease in all of the countries Ookla has tracked over the past year. Latency was a bit better and remained relatively flat in most countries with New Zealand being the outlier with a 23 ms drop in latency.

T-Mobile partnership

Ahead of the launch of Apple’s iPhone 14 which features Emergency SOS via satellite, T-Mobile and Starlink announced back in August that the two companies would work together to create a new network.

This new network will broadcast from Starlink’s satellites using T-Mobile’s mid-band spectrum across the U.S., with the end goal of providing nearly complete coverage nationwide “almost anywhere a customer can see the sky” according to a press release.

As a first step in its new partnership with Starlink, T-Mobile plans to extend text message coverage practically everywhere in the continental U.S., Hawaii, parts of Alaska, Puerto Rico and territorial waters even outside of its network.

Starlink is also working to bring its satellite internet service to airplanes, cruise ships and cars as part of its continued expansion.

Other satellite providers are also expanding

Starlink isn’t the only satellite internet provider, and others including Viasat, OneWeb and even Amazon are also working on expanding their respective services.

For instance, Viasat’s new ViaSat-3 satellite is now in the mechanical build process in which solar arrays, reflectors and other items will be attached to the satellite ahead of its launch. The company’s first two new satellites are planned to focus on North and South America as well as Europe, the Middle East and Africa. However, the third ViaSat-3 satellite will be deployed to provide coverage in the Asia Pacific region.

Meanwhile, satellite companies OneWeb and Eutelsat have announced a provisional agreement to combine their businesses and are planning to develop a platform that will offer internet connectivity from low Earth orbit and geostationary satellites.

Not to be outdone by Elon Musk, Amazon is deploying 3,236 satellites in low Earth orbit as part of a program called Project Kuiper. Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin is one of three companies, along with Arianespace and ULA, that is helping launch satellites for Amazon.

If you live in a rural area or even in an RV it’s never been easier to get online, and increased competition in the satellite internet market will only help improve these services while hopefully bringing down their monthly costs.

After launching in public beta back in November 2020, SpaceX has continued to expand the number of low-earth orbit satellites that make up its Starlink satellite internet service in an effort to provide high-speed internet to users worldwide.

Ookla, the company behind the popular speed testing app, recently reexamined Starlink’s download and upload speeds to see how they’ve improved over the past year in the U.S., Canada and other countries around the world.

According to a new blog post from the network intelligence firm, median download speeds for Starlink have dramatically increased between the first quarter of 2021 and 2022 in the U.S. and Canada. While the service’s speeds saw a 38 percent increase in the U.S., speeds in Canada have gone up by nearly 58 percent in the same time period. Starlink users in the U.S. can expect to get speeds of around 90.55 Mbps while Canadian users should see speeds close to 97.40 Mbps.

While Starlink’s download speeds have increased, Ookla’s Speedtest Intelligence shows that upload speeds decreased by almost 33 percent from 16.29 Mbps during the first quarter of last year to 9.33 Mbps in Q1 2022. At the same time, Starlink’s median latency increased from 40 ms to 43 ms in the U.S. and from 51 ms to 55ms in Canada though these changes are likely negligible for most users.

Starlink speeds around the world

The U.S. and Canada aren’t the only places Starlink adoption has increased while the service’s speeds have improved as Ookla highlights in its report.

In Mexico, Starlink had the fastest satellite internet in North America during the first quarter of this year with a median download speed of 105.91 Mbps followed by Starlink in Canada and the U.S. However, in Puerto Rico, HughesNet took the top spot with download speeds of 20.54 Mbps.

In Europe though, Starlink was the fastest satellite internet provider in the continent with 100+ Mbps median download speeds in every country where it was commercially available. In Lithuania, Starlink reached download speeds of 160.08 Mbps but Starlink in the UK had the worst download speeds in the region at 102.21 Mbps which is still really good.

The same holds true in South America where Starlink was the fastest satellite internet provider in Chile with a median download speed of 110.49 Mbps. In Oceania, Starlink reached download speeds of 124.31 Mbps in Australia and 118.70 Mbps in New Zealand. 

The sky is about to get a bit more crowded 

Getting high-speed internet in rural areas was quite difficult before satellite internet became widely available. Now though with Starlink , HughesNet, Viasat and other options, you can still get decent internet even if the place where you live lacks the necessary infrastructure.

As a result of Starlink’s recent success, Ookla notes that other companies are looking to compete with SpaceX in the space. For instance, Amazon’s Project Kuiper recently received permission from the FCC to test its own satellite internet service which is set to launch later this year. Meanwhile, Inmarsat and Viasat are set to merge and begin launching new satellite constellations by 2023.

Now that competition is beginning to heat up in the satellite internet space, consumers can expect better speeds, improved coverage and possibly even discounted prices as newcomers like Amazon could aim to undercut Starlink to bolster their own market share.

On February 24, 2022, Russian launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, following military build-up on the nation's border. 

Dubbed a "special military operating" by President Vladimir Putin, and slammed by the international community with blanket condemnation, the invasion of Ukraine has had a devastating effect on both the country and its people as well as wider ramifications on a socio-economic basis. 

As such, a whole host of organizations have mobilized to help out Ukrainians who have been displaced or affected by the ongoing war, which has seen street-to-street fighting.  

If you wish to help out the Ukrainian people, then there are numerous way you can lend aid.

You can donate to various charitable organizations that work in warzone and conflict areas. These include UNICEF, which works on providing health and nutritional care, as well as access to clean water; the latter has reportedly been disrupted due to heavy weapons fire hitting critical water infrastructure.

Médecins Sans Frontieres, aka Doctors Without Borders, has several teams in Ukraine, where it aims to provide medical care in the warzone.

Voices of Children is a Ukrainian organization that provides psychological and psychosocial support to children affected by the armed conflict that's been taking place in the nation and surrounding areas since 2014.

Charity site Care has a Ukraine emergency fund for the nation, and aims to provide food, water and other emergency aid.

And Washington D.C. chef José Andrés has his World Central Kitchen team in Europe, where it’s providing “thousands of meals in Poland, Romania and even inside Ukraine,” and you can donate to the organization. 

The International Committee of The Red Cross is also working with the Red Cross in Ukraine and you can donate to the medical aid organization as well. 

In the tech world, companies are offering enticements to donate to Ukraine relief efforts. For instance, donate at least $40 (with 100% of that money going to relief programs), and $40, Humble will give you 123 games, ebooks and other pieces of software worth $2,572. That bundle is available through March 25.

Those are to name but a few, as there are also a myriad of other charities and emergency aid organizations that have sprung into action to help Ukrainians who’ve had their lives disrupted by the Russian invasion. 

Just make sure you're not taken in by one of the many Ukrainian charity scams that have sprung up in the wake of the crisis.

Elon Musk steps up with Starlink internet 

Tech luminary and active Twitter user Elon Musk has also jumped to the aid of Ukraine. 

In response to internet disruption in Ukraine caused by the Russian invasion, Musk has activated the Starlink satellite internet service in the country. 

The move comes in response to Mykhailo Fedorov, the vice prime minister of Ukraine and minister of digital transformation, tweeting at Musk about the situation in the invaded country in comparison to Musk’s space ambitions. 

"While you try to colonize Mars — Russia try [sic] to occupy Ukraine! While your rockets successfully land from space — Russian rockets attack Ukrainian civil people! We ask you to provide Ukraine with Starlink stations and to address sane Russians to stand," tweeted Fedorov. We are guessing the “stand” bit is Fedorov wanting the Russian public to condemn the actions of the country’s government. 

In response, Musk succinctly replied: “Starlink service is now active in Ukraine. More terminals en route.” 

Other tech-related firms have been affected by the war, with Netflix looking set to refuse to host propaganda channels on its platform. And Goggle is pushing out air raid alerts to Ukrainian Android users. 

Internet connectivity is arguably more critical to the flow of information and communion in a war than it even is in peacetime. Aggressors will likely seek to cut connectivity in order to prevent the spread of enemy information and to somewhat control the narrative of their invasion, while defenders will want to use the internet to communicate what's going on in their nation to the wider world.

So Musk stepping in to help restore connectivity in Ukraine will hopefully allow the invaded country to keep its communications up and running and prevent Russia from controlling the perception of the war.

SpaceX is preparing for its next launch, with the deployment of 50 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit scheduled for today (Friday, February 25). 

This is obviously not a manned mission, but it will still be well worth watching. SpaceX launches are pretty much always an impressive spectacle, and this one is unlikely to be any different. 

The mission is the company’s second of the month, and comes in the wake of SpaceX losing roughly 40 satellites due to a geomagnetic storm disrupting their deployment at the start of the month. Fingers crossed there are no such hitches here. 

Below you’ll find all the information you need about SpaceX’s latest Starlink satellite launch including where you can watch it and when it will take place from. 

SpaceX Starlink satellite launch: How to watch 

Watching today’s SpaceX Starlink launch will be pretty straightforward as the company will directly stream the event for free on YouTube. The embedded video player above is everything you need to watch, or you can head over to SpaceX’s YouTube channel to watch from there.  

SpaceX is hoping to launch at around 12:12 p.m. ET / 9:12 a.m. PT, 5:12 p.m. GMT, but the launch time will be highly weather depended and the company won’t take any chances if the conditions aren’t optimal. The latest information on the launch can be found via the SpaceX Twitter account. 

SpaceX Starlink satellite launch: What to expect

This launch will be a little different than most Starlink missions. Typically a mission like this would launch from Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, but this one will instead come from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. This won’t dramatically change the launch, but it’s a nice change of scenery. 

For this mission, SpaceX’s two-stage Falcon 9 rocket will be deployed. Once launch is initiated the rocket will shoot up above the Pacific Coast and high into the Earth's altitude in order to deploy the satellite. 

There will be cameras on the ground as well as cameras fixed to the Falcon 9 rocket, so expect to see some incredible views of both the launch and the Earth from up high. This SpaceX Starlink satellite launch could be the perfect watch on your lunch break.  

Starlink, the satellite internet service offered by Elon Musk's company SpaceX, is gunning after cable internet with a new Starlink Premium tier. SpaceX is touting speeds of up to 500 Mbps, which is far greater than Starlink's current median download speed of 97.23 Mbps. But to gain this tremendous performance boost will cost customers in rural areas a lot.

SpaceX also just launched Starlink RV — meant for on-the-go use. In fact, you can skip the line and get Starlink's new RV plan without any delay in shipping.

As reported by The Verge, the Premium service will cost $500 a month. It will also require a new antenna, which too has an upfront $2,500 cost. Customers must place a $500 deposit now, as orders are expected to ship in Q2 of 2022.

Per the Starlink Premium website, this service is designed for "high demand users." By this, SpaceX is referring to "small offices, storefronts, and super users across the globe." Premium users can expect download speeds of 150-500 Mbps, per the website, with latency of 20-40ms. Upload speeds are also expected to be between 20 to 40 Mbps, which is double the expected upload speeds of base Starlink service.

The Starlink Premium Kit comes with the antenna, Wi-Fi router, cables and a base. SpaceX also claims that Starlink Premium can handle improved performance in "extreme weather." Premium users will also get prioritized 24/7 customer support. Of course, customers can order multiple Starlink Premiums to help serve whatever necessary bandwidth needs. 

For the uninitiated, Starlink is a low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite internet constellation that plans on sending 12,000 satellites above the Earth's surface to serve users around the world. Because of the high number of satellites at a lower orbit, SpaceX, which designs the Starlink satellites and flies them up into space, can promise much higher speeds than other competing satellite internet services. HughesNet and Viasat offer speeds at a fraction of Starlink's, but that's because those services have fewer satellites at higher orbits. 

Scientists are worried that a flurry of satellite internet services from OneWeb , Amazon's Project Kuiper, Boeing, and Telesat will cover the night sky with junk, making research with highly sensitive telescopes difficult.

Be sure to follow our Starlink updates page for the latest news, speed test results and coverage maps.

Starlink, Elon Musk's satellite internet company, seems to be hitting a speed plateau, according to data collected by one of the biggest speed test websites on the internet. 

Ookla, known for running SpeedTest.net, says that Starlink speeds didn't increase during the third quarter of this year. In some areas, speeds began to wane. 

According to Ookla, median speeds between Q2 to Q3 2021 saw a decrease from 97.23 to 87.25 Mbps. Ookla speculates that this could be a symptom of Starlink adding new customers to its satellite network, which may eat away at available bandwidth. 

At the very least, median upload speed largely stayed flat between Q2 to Q3 of 2021, going from 13.89 to 13.54. (Update: Starlink speeds dramatically increased between the Q1 2021 and Q1 2022)

Ookla's data did find that Starlink speeds still vary greatly, county by county. In Santa Fe County, New Mexico, the fastest median download speed was 146.58 Mbps whereas the slowest median download speed was in Drummond Township, Michigan at 46.63 Mpbs. 

Although, those with cash to burn might want to consider Starlink Premium, a $500 monthly service that requires a $2,500 dish. At least these users can expect speeds of up to 500 Mbps. 

Still, any dips in Starlink's performance should be viewed in context with the overall satellite internet market. Competitors HughesNet and Viasat had median download speeds of 19.30 and 18.75 Mbps respectively. That means Starlink's slowest speed is still more than double HughesNet and Viasat's median. For rural communities, to get speeds that touch 100 Mbps is a great relief. 

Moving away from the U.S., in Australia, a country with middling internet infrastructure, Starlink greatly outperformed fixed internet. Starlink had a median download speed of 138.12 Mbps, far greater than the 51.17 on offer from traditional internet service providers. 

For Starlink customers that are seeing slower speeds, don't worry. SpaceX recently launched 52 satellites from its California base. Currently, the low-Earth orbit satellite internet constellation accounts for a little more than 1,600 satellites. While that is a lot, it's still far shy of the 12,000 SpaceX has planned. As more satellites go into orbit, the better the internet should be.

It's taken Jeff Bezos and Amazon a while, but he's set to launch his first two Project Kuiper satellites in the fourth quarter of 2022. 

As reported by the New York Times, Project Kuiper's 2022 launch will put it head-to-head with Elon Musk's Starlink satellite internet service. It will be the first test of its new orbiting units before it plans to launch thousands more in a bid to control the low-Earth orbit satellite internet market.

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Amazon has been behind in its launch of Project Kuiper satellites. At first, the company had planned to launch 3,236 low-Earth orbit satellites in 2019. Two years later, and the company has launched none. By comparison, SpaceX has been able to put nearly 2,000 satellites into orbit, offering near-global satellite internet to its users. Right now SpaceX plans to launch 12,000 satellites by 2030 and wants to eventually bring that number to 42,000. Although, Starlink speeds have started to wane slightly. 

SpaceX and Amazon aren't the only companies trying to get satellite internet constellations quite literally off the ground. So is OneWeb, Boeing, Telesat, as well as programs by the Russian and Chinese governments. 

Amazon plans to spend $10 billion, and will launch its first two satellites, KuiperSat-1 and KuiperSat- 2, via ABL Space Systems, a company that aims to launch smaller objects into space for a more affordable price.

For Amazon, the goal is to make satellite internet as affordable as possible. With Starlink, users have to pay $500 for the satellite dish. Each dish costs SpaceX $1,500 to produce. In Amazon's case, there's consideration being made in giving the antennae away to customers for free. 

SpaceX is also angling after the higher-end market with Starlink Premium. This $500 monthly service will offer speeds of up to 500 Mbps.  

Unfortunately, the rush to get satellites into low-Earth orbit is causing concern among astronomers. Not only could a collision in space lead to thousands of pieces of space debris flying around at high speed, the high reflectivity of Starlink's satellites is causing issues for telescopes on Earth.

To be able to stargaze effectively, it takes massive telescopes on Earth to observe areas of deep space in a long exposure setting. Having a reflective satellite float in the middle of a long exposure shot could completely ruin the ability to capture distant galaxies. It's something SpaceX has tried to address by making its satellites less reflective, although it's not a perfect solution.

Either way, private satellite companies, space agencies and scientists will need to work together to find a solution to both providing fast internet access to everyone around the world while also not inhibiting critical research. But given how quickly companies are moving to catch up to Starlink, that conversation might be pushed out of focus. 

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Originally touted as the savior of rural broadband Internet access — and now making headlines supporting Ukrainian communications against the Russian invasion — Elon Musk's Starlink satellite Internet service is the only game in town for many remote users. But that lack of competition may have made the service provider complacent, our tests show, with lagging download speeds and continuing glitches.

We originally tested Starlink in early 2021, when it was still in beta. Since it has long been out of beta and now touts increased coverage, we decided to retest Starlink to see if we needed to revise our initial impressions. With more than  3,000 satellites in low earth orbit, Starlink has been in full service for roughly a year — plenty of time to sort out groundstation software issues and squash any bugs. Unfortunately, in spite of Starlink's potential, we found the service still wanting.

Starlink review: Price and availability

The initial outlay for the required hardware is now $599 — $100 more than the original $499 price (plus shipping and taxes). And the basic monthly Internet service now costs $110 versus the original $99 a month. For our testing and review, we used the basic $110 service and original round satellite dish.

Also new are several additional tiered services. For those who travel or have multiple homes and want to take their Starlink dish with them, there's a $135 a month "active" service that covers you for any area Starlink currently services (that's much of North America, Europe, Australia, and parts of South America). It's aimed at peripatetic RV owners on the road. There's also a business service with a higher gain antenna and speeds of up to 350 Mbps; the hardware for businesses costs $2,500 and the monthly service is a whopping $500 a month.

Starlink is also looking to increase revenues by offering commercial maritime and aviation service. The maritime version is $5,000 a month with a one-time hardware cost of $10,000. Royal Caribbean announced last summer that it plans to add this Starlink Internet access on some of its cruise ships. The aviation version is also aimed at commercial carriers starting in 2023 with a "if you have to ask, you can't afford it" starting price of $12,500 a month.

In November 2022, Starlink announced that it will bring a 1 TB data cap during peak hours (7AM - 11PM); customers who go over this limit will have their satellite internet service throttled or have to pay extra for Priority Access. 

Starlink's promise was to deliver broadband Internet service to underserved areas. In many parts of the United States — let alone parts of the developing world or those under attack by Russia — there is either no or very poor Internet access. In our bucolic Vermont testing spot, for example, there is no cell service and no optical fiber (and until recently no cable service). And 5G doesn't help. The towers have to be too numerous to bounce signals around the mountains, and the lower frequency version of 5G that gives you more distance simply isn't fast enough. Hence the appeal of Starlink's service.

Starlink uses a network of satellites in low earth orbit to bring the signal down to you. As of September 2022, there were more than 3,200 tiny Starlink satellites aloft, but the company wants to send thousands more into orbit to blanket more of the globe.

Unlike Dish or DirecTV birds, these are not geosynchronous or geostationary satellites that sit at a fixed point above the earth. So the Starlink dish for residential customers has to be able to move automatically should it need to realign itself to pick up a new satellite. But the big advantage Starlink has is that by using low-earth orbit satellites, which are about 340 miles above the earth, it substantially reduces the signal delay or latency, especially when compared to DirecTV satellites, which sit over 22,000 miles above the planet.

Starlink initially promised that it would expand to "near global coverage of the populated world in 2021" but according to its online coverage map service is confined to North America, Europe, most of Australia, Chile, and parts of Brazil. Our tests were once again conducted in southern Vermont.

We should note that Starlink continues to launch satellites into low-earth orbit. So coverage could expand. Indeed, there have been reports that some government officials have inquired about delivering Starlink internet access to places like Iran where access is restricted by the local government.

Starlink review: What’s included

Everything you need to get Starlink up and running comes in a single package: the flat, large rectangular, pizza box-sized dish, a temporary stand for the dish, a 75-foot connecting cable, and a Wi-Fi router/controller that connects to the dish. Installation and instructions are assisted via a requisite smartphone app. Simplicity is one of Starlink's strengths.

The dish is motorized to automatically adjust its aim, and it is heated to keep it clear of snow and ice. To perform these tricks it uses a special cable that carries not only the signal to the router but also power to the dish.

Unlike installing and aiming a TV satellite dish—which usually requires a professional installer—getting the Starlink system up and running is a relative breeze. Just place the dish on its tripod stand on the lawn outside where there's an unobstructed view of the sky. Plug in the Wi-Fi router inside and then you simply run the Starlink app to get online. (Note: If you have no internet connection where you live, remember to go into town first so you can download the Starlink app.) 

If you're quick, it can all be accomplished in 10 minutes — with a couple of caveats.

The first issue is the supplied cable's length. The early version of the package came with a power over Ethernet cable that was only 100 feet long; we felt this was inadequate for a large home, a roof installation, or for places where some distance was required to get a tree-free look at the sky. Now the package has an even shorter 75-foot cable—however, the new design allows for it to be replaced with an optional $93 150-foot cable, which uses a proprietary connection. So buyers should consider their location, and many will have to budget for the additional expense.

In addition, despite the fact that Starlink has reportedly launched hundreds of additional satellites since our early review, finding an obstruction-free view is just as difficult as it was over a year ago. We placed the dish in an open area but found the dish aiming almost due north at particular times of day (versus south, where satellite TV dishes need to be aimed). So not surprisingly, we received "obstructed view" warnings at certain times of day. The culprit: trees that are hundreds of feet away but still manage to occlude the view when the dish is pointing directly north rather than directly skyward.

The Starlink smartphone app has an option for checking for obstructions as you move it around using the phone's camera. But placing the phone exactly in the proposed position of the dish and following the on-screen instructions for aiming the camera up or down is tricky, if not impossible because the camera needs to be at knee height. We tried lying on the ground to get a better look.

Once you have found the ideal position for the Starlink dish, the idea is to then permanently install it, which requires additional components. Starlink offers several permanent mounting solutions ranging in price from $69 for a pole mount to $24 for a roof mount. Another expense to plan for.

Starlink Review: Performance

Once again, we tested Starlink for several weeks in all kinds of weather and subjected it to typical Internet tasks, from streaming 4K movies and participating in Zoom conference calls to uploading and downloading voluminous videos.

In general, we witnessed some respectable speeds but found Starlink is still very much short of the touted goal of 300 Mbps service — very short indeed. Using Starlink's own speed test app, we obtained average download speeds of up to 87 Mbps and as low as 76 Mbps. (Compare this to cable services that are generally more than double such speeds.) Upload speeds for those working at home were typically 15 Mbps to 10 Mbps with latency ranging from 27 ms to 41 ms.

These are not terrible results — if you've been struggling with rural download speeds of 10 Mbps. But these are very disappointing results if you're planning on working from a remote rural location with sundry services such as streaming 4K content while others at home participate in Zoom meetings.

Furthermore, while initial connections for video conferencing looked crisp and clear, dropouts continued to thwart services like Skype and Zoom. Apologizing to business colleagues for the frequent disconnects gets old, fast. Whether these problems are the result of a much larger subscriber base overwhelming Starlink in our test area, we cannot say. But other subscribers in other areas have consistently reported declining service speeds over the past year.

The apparent declining Starlink performance was also apparent when streaming video from services like Hulu, TCM, and ESPN. Unlike our experience during the beta test period, the buffering icon was not an unfamiliar sight appearing every 15 minutes or so during evening hours. Such hiccups won't endear Starlink to gamers, either.

And as before we had some issues with VoIP calls, which would drop out without warning. The overall experience did not instill confidence in Starlink.

Yes, it's still true that Starlink is far better than the DSL service available in the same location. The best the fixed DSL line could do on Fast.com was 1.2 Mbps downloads, 320 Kbps uploads, with a slow-as-molasses latency of 182 ms.

It's also true that Starlink does better than other satellite Internet services from the likes of Hughes, which tend to be more vulnerable to snow and rain. Starlink thwarts snow by actually heating the dish and melting the flakes as they land. During several heavy snow storms this worked well, especially compared to a TV satellite dish that we had to occasionally sweep clean. However, we did experience a reduction in bandwidth during heavy downpours. Bandwidth would typically be cut in half during these periods to around 20 Mbps download speeds.

Starlink review: Verdict

Anyone who has lived for any length of time in an area that does not have fast Internet access will find Starlink worth it—even at its inflated price. It is the only game in town until Amazon and others launch competing services (whenever that will be). However, we are less sanguine about the chances Starlink service will improve. It's been more than a year with hundreds of more birds in the sky, and it still suffers from the shortcomings we saw on our first outing.

We also compared Starlink against a recent installation of Comcast's Xfinity cable Internet service at the same location. Xfinity consistently delivered download speeds of over 400 Mbps and even average speeds of 140 Mbps during peak usage times. So if you have the option, cable is the superior choice vs. Starlink—but we appreciate the fact that many people still don't have such options.

An expansion of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet network could be coming in the near-future, as the company is seemingly working on a "ruggedized" version of its satellite dish that could be mounted on a variety of vehicles. 

That's going by a new filing with the FCC, which hints at a new dish designed to be attached on cars, boats, planes, and for use in harsh environments.

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The application was filed on Tuesday (via PCMag), and mentions a "high performance" version of the Starlink dish. While it still relies on SpaceX’s array of Starlink satellites to operate, these new dishes are designed for use in more extreme conditions. 

SpaceX filed an application to be able to add Starlink to moving vehicles back in March. The idea was that the service could bring high speed internet to trucks, freighters, and international aircraft. 

However, that application relied on “electrically identical” Starlink dishes, albeit with a new mount to connect it to something that moves around a lot more than your home's roof. Further FCC applications have indicated that Starlink is working on a new, smaller version of its standard dish as well.

But this new application is all about upgrading the dishes to continue operating in conditions outside those vehicles. Extreme heat and cold are mentioned, with SpaceX’s application noting the dishes will have “improved snow/ice melt capabilities, and will withstand a greater number of thermal cycles.”

We have heard reports of Starlink dishes shutting down in extreme heat, so this upgrade could be a big benefit to the hardware. 

Apparently, that will also include the need for the new dishes to utilize radio frequencies between 12.2GHz and 12.7GHz. Evidently that will let SpaceX offer a high speed, low latency connection to the hardware. And speeds should be solid, even if there's been a slight flattening in recent months.

While a rugged Starlink dish would prove useful for anyone living in any particularly hot or cold regions, it’s the vehicle aspect that is going to be the most interesting part of this. After all planes and boats generally operate out of range of cell phone masts, and their current internet offerings are pretty weak to say the very least.

In fact, Starlink has already confirmed it’s been in talks with airlines to try and install their systems on commercial aircraft. However such a deal would be reliant on FCC approval, which is where these applications all come into play.

If nothing else, work on a rugged dish designed for mobile use will at least mean people don’t need to do some DIY electrical work to hook up their current Starlink dish to their cars.

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When it comes to satellite internet, new speed test data shows that Elon Musk's Starlink is so far ahead of the competition it's not even fair.

Speed test numbers come by way of Ookla. Its analysis shows that Starlink's average download speed is five times faster than HughesNet, a long-standing satellite internet company. Starlink also bests Viasat by a similar margin, another satellite internet company that's been around since the 1980s. While Starlink speeds are slowly creeping up to traditional broadband, the service still lags in latency. 

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Starlink on average saw download speeds of 97 Mbps. That's leaps over both HughesNet and Viasat at 19.73 and 18.13 Mbps respectively. Upload speeds via Starlink were also good, averaging at around 14 Mbps, much greater than the 2-4 Mbps found with HughesNet and Viasat. While Starlink's latency of 45ms might seem slow, it was miles ahead of HughesNet and Viasat at 724 and 630ms respectively. At more than half a second, both HughesNet and Viasat are far too slow to be good for online gaming. There's simply too much lag. 

Unfortunately for Elon Musk fans, Starlink still can't quite match the speeds being put out by traditional fixed broadband. On average, fixed broadband sees download speeds of 115 Mbps, upload of 17.18 Mbps and latency of 35ms. 

Still, Starlink owners should feel pleased with the latest results. Current download speeds are a major step up from the Q1 2021 average of 65.72. It seems that as SpaceX continues to launch more satellites in to low-Earth orbit (LEO), the network is only getting stronger. 

Because LEO satellites are closer to the planet, there's physically less distance needed to beam signals back and forth. Starlink's internet constellation floats between 550-1200km above. HughesNet and Viasat use "geosynchronous" orbits, which sit much higher at 35,000km. While this allows both companies to service greater areas with fewer satellites, it does so at the cost of speed. 

For U.S. customers, the difference between the fastest and slowest counties is somewhat high. In Morgan County, Alabama, median download speeds were 168.30 Mbps. While in Madison County, Indiana, median speeds were 64.51 Mbps. Even at a 100 Mbps discrepancy, residents in Madison County still have speeds far greater than the FCC's baseline performance metric of 25 Mbps. 

Interestingly, Starlink's median download speeds were much faster than fixed broadband in the U.K. At 108.30 Mbps, it absolutely destroyed the 50.14 Mbps currently being offered to British residents. Although, Starlink did lag behind in latency at 37ms as opposed to 15ms. For those that live in rural villages and towns, Starlink, even with its up-front $500 equipment cost, might be worth it as there may not be a better alternative. 

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To cap off the Tom’s Guide Awards for 2021, we bring you our first annual Hero awards, which recognize the very best innovations, brands and products of the year. We’re also celebrating those companies that are going the extra mile with diversity at a time when it’s more important than ever that everyone has access to the latest technological advances and more opportunities to learn and thrive. 

From a chip that is changing the world of computing and a console so hot that it feels like you win the lottery when you snag one, to a fierce chipmaker that is changing the game (literally and figuratively), here are the Hero award winners for this year.

Breakthrough Award: Apple M1 chip

The Apple M1 chip is the kind of breakthrough that redefines what a computer can do. And this piece of Apple Silicon — which delivers stellar performance along with record-breaking battery life —  was years in the making. 

After creating the A Series for the iPhone and scaling it up for the iPad, Apple’s team of engineers set its sights on the Mac, but the M1 chip couldn’t just match what Intel had to offer. It had to handily beat it.

“If somebody else could build a chip that was actually going to deliver better performance inside that enclosure, what's the point? Why would we switch?,” said Tim Milet, vice president of platform architecture at Apple. “And so for my chip architects, that was the target.”

But to get the M1 to truly sing, Apple couldn’t merely take an A Series Bionic chip from an iPhone and stuff it inside a Mac. It required a dramatic increase in performance while delivering class-leading endurance, as well as an intense collaboration between the engineers and Apple’s software team.

The M1 chip, which powers the MacBook Pro M1, MacBook Air M1, Mac mini, iPad Pro 2021 and the new iMac 24-inch, is a 5-nanometer chip that packs in 16 billion transistors and offers the best performance per watt we’ve ever seen. 

The most striking thing about the M1 is its battery life. For example, the MacBook Pro lasted an astounding 16 hours and 25 minutes in our web-surfing test. The previous Intel model lasted 10:21. That’s a huge difference, and this increase caused more than one double take within Apple. 

“When we saw that first system and then you sat there and played with it for a few hours and the battery didn't move, we thought ‘Oh man, that's a bug, the battery indicator is broken,’” said Bob Borchers, VP of worldwide product marketing for Apple. “And then Tim's laughing in the background, ‘Nope, that's the way it's supposed to be’ and it was pretty phenomenal.”

Meanwhile, the M1 also blows away most Windows laptops on performance, both in so-called Universal apps that take full advantage of Apple Silicon and older programs that run on Apple’s Rosetta 2 software to make them compatible. That was a key ingredient to making Apple Silicon viable on Macs.

“We started a small project years before we started transitioning to Silicon to try to make sure that we could actually deliver the second generation of Rosetta in a way that allowed us to do this seamlessly,” said Milet. “And we believe that was a huge part of the transition story…everything worked out of the box as expected.”

As rumors swirl around a future M1X chip for the MacBook Pro 2021 and a possible M2 chip for the 2022 MacBook Air, Apple sees big things ahead for Apple Silicon, both in terms of achieving new designs and perhaps appealing to the most demanding audience of all — gamers. After all, many of the engineers building Apple’s chips are gamers themselves. 

“Of course, you can imagine the pride of some of the GPU folks and imagining, ‘Hey, wouldn't it be great if it hits a broader set of those really intense gamers,’” said Milet. “It's a natural place for us to be looking, to be working closely with our Metal team and our Developer team. We love the challenge.”

Finalist: Starlink
Elon Musk’s Starlink leverages a network of over 1,800 low-Earth-orbit satellites to deliver internet to those in places that generally can’t access reliable broadband or 5G. For $99 per month, you get very good speeds ranging up to 200 Mbps via the included dish, which is fairly easy to install. That’s good enough for streaming Netflix, Zoom calls and more.

SpaceX’s CEO says Starlink is currently operating in 11 countries above certain latitudes, and that it plans to provide global coverage as soon as September.
— Mark Spoonauer

Diversity in Tech Award: Samsung Solve for Tomorrow

Samsung’s Solve for Tomorrow contest is designed to encourage students to solve real-world problems through STEM, and this year the winners tackled subjects that mirror the challenging times.

Northwest Pennsylvania Collegiate Academy in Erie, Pennsylvania took a top prize in the contest for developing a “We’ve Got Your Back” app following the death of George Floyd. The app allows users to record their interactions with authorities, ostensibly turning their phones into body cameras and dash cams.

Another winning school, Porter High School in Texas, addressed isolation and depression in senior citizens. The students created an app and a website, Gen-Bridge, which connects seniors to student volunteers through video chat, and raised funds to purchase tablets for their senior care facility with the app pre-loaded.

For Ann Woo, senior director of corporate citizenship at Samsung Electronics America, it’s not just about getting kids interested in STEM, it’s about applying critical thinking to improve communities.

“Solve for Tomorrow allows students to look up from their textbooks and really think about what’s going on in the world around them and respond to issues and look for ways for to apply STEM towards that,” said Woo.

Diversity and outreach to those in need has been a big theme for Solve for Tomorrow, which is now in its eleventh year and takes place in more than 20 countries around the world. The momentum doesn’t end when the contest winners are announced.

“One school in Michigan was working on using artificial intelligence to help autistic kids learn facial cues, and they’ve been working with Autism Speaks and other local companies to really bring that to market now,” said Woo.

Solve for Tomorrow isn’t just about helping the communities that surround participating schools and rewarding those schools for their efforts. It’s also about establishing a more diverse pool of talent for solving the big problems the world faces.

“We’ve seen more girls in the teams that compete in the program, both in the design and the actual execution of the project," said Woo. "So not only are they more present, they’re more engaged in the actual STEM idea.”

This diversity push also extends to Samsung’s outreach to rural communities, which speaks to a spirit of inclusion that permeates the program. Going forward, Solve for Tomorrow’s focus will continue to be about empowering a new generation with the critical thinking skills required to meet the challenges that face us all.

Finalist: HP PATH
HP recently announced the launch of HP PATH (Partnership and Technology for Humanity), an accelerator program that will invest in local initiatives and partnerships to address challenges in underserved communities around the world. The goal is to accelerate digital equity for 150 million people by 2030, focusing on women and girls, those with disabilities, communities of color and educators. 

Finalist: Apple Human Interface Guidelines
Apple’s active install base of iPhone users is now more than 1 billion, and it’s taking that responsibility seriously, creating updated Human Interface Guidelines for use by its developers. The guidelines focus on inclusive language as well as design. For example, a fitness app could feature exercise moves demonstrated by people with different racial backgrounds, body types, ages, and physical capabilities. — Mark Spoonauer

Best Brand: AMD

AMD’s comeback has been well documented, but this year the brand has been absolutely on fire. 

Thanks to the continuing momentum of its Zen architecture-based Ryzen processors, AMD has arguably become the one to beat in CPU performance and its Radeon RX 6000-series is a solid contender for the crown in the graphics-card arena. 

The past 12 months have been huge for AMD. It released the Zen 3-based Ryzen 5000-series processors for desktops and laptops, both of which can outperform their Intel counterparts. Plus, AMD powers the two most popular gaming consoles in the world in the PS5 and Xbox Series X. 

Now PC makers are turning to AMD first for their designs. The Razer Blade 14 has opted for AMD over Intel CPUs, a first for Razer. Meanwhile, HP’s thinnest consumer laptop ever has been released as an AMD exclusive. These design wins did not come easy.

“It's hard-earned and we're incredibly appreciative of partnerships like that,” said John Taylor, CMO for AMD. “With HP, Lenovo Acer, Asus, MSI, and others, we had to earn that with leadership CPU performance but also battery life. I think you're seeing the overall quality of the experience, the power efficiency of the experience and just the performance.”

On the graphics side, AMD released its RDNA 2 GPU architecture in the form of the Radeon RX 6000-series. While these graphics cards can’t quite beat Nvidia’s latest Geforce RTX 30-series cards, they still offer a lot of performance for the money. 

Meanwhile, AMD chips that power the PS5 and Xbox Series X have helped make 4K gaming and ray tracing accessible for $500 or less — if you can find one of the consoles. 

“The console wins of the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S were born out of a very deep partnership and collaborative spirit,” said Taylor. “And we’re in a unique position to offer the IP, the Zen CPU cores and the new generation of graphics cores, and then do custom things with it. We put it all together into something that we don't think any other company in the world can do.”

Looking ahead, AMD is forging into mobile with a partnership with Samsung, which plans to bring RDNA 2 graphics to an Exynos mobile system-on-chip. This could be found inside the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S22 and perhaps even overtake the iPhone 13. 

“By the fact that they're using our RDNA2 graphics, it will include things like variable-rate shading and ray-tracing technology as part of their future phones,” added Taylor. “Now, I can't comment on performance, but I can say we're pleased to be partnering with Samsung.”

So AMD is not only the worthy winner of the Tom’s Guide Award for the top brand of 2021, it’s also one of the companies to watch heading into 2022. Everyone from PC and console buyers — to phone shoppers — should be very excited for AMD’s next innovations. 

Finalist: Apple
In a year in which companies struggled to get consumers excited about their products — with many lukewarm virtual launch events — Apple showed the rest of the industry how it’s done with introductions that were polished and generally exciting. More importantly, the products themselves impressed when we got them in our hands and tested them, from the Apple Watch 6 and iPhone 12 series to the M1-powered MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. 

Apple also introduced Apple Fitness+ for helping to get us off the couch and the ultra-premium but well-received AirPods Max. While we expect to see even bigger things from Apple in the coming year, including a possible mixed-reality headset, the past 12 months have reinforced that Apple remains at the top of its game. — Mark Spoonauer

Best of the Best Product: PS5

You don’t need us to tell you that Sony’s PS5 is the best of the best — just try and buy one from any major retailer before the next PS5 restock sells out. 

Sure, there are a number of reasons Sony’s latest console is hard to find right now (the ongoing chip shortage is probably the biggest offender), but one of the biggest factors in the PS5 selling so well is a significant truth: People are eager to play new games that take advantage of the latest console features, and right now many of those features are available only on PlayStation 5.

That will likely change in time, as more games are released and Microsoft fills out its own stable of Xbox Series X|S exclusives. But Sony has done a better job of impressing us out of the gate with a powerful, feature-rich console that feels like a significant step forward from the previous generation, and then following it up with a steady trickle of games — including Astro’s Playroom, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart — that take advantage of those features and show us why we spent so much money on new hardware.

Specifically, the PS5’s remarkably expressive DualSense controller feels like the next big thing in gamepad technology. Once you feel how nuanced the DualSense’s haptic feedback can be, and how much of a difference the controller’s adaptive triggers make, it’s hard to go back to the more staid controllers that ship with the Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch. 

If you’ve never felt a controller replicate the subtle grinding of sand crunching beneath your feet, or the shifting tension of pulling a rubber band tight before loosing it upon an unsuspecting foe, even the bundled Astro’s Playroom game will be a revelation.

Sure, we also love the fast loading times provided by the PS5’s SSD, and the way games shine when they’re built to support its ray-tracing capabilities. But those technologies are already incorporated into some competing consoles, as well as most gaming PCs, so you don’t need a new PlayStation to enjoy them. 

What makes the PlayStation 5 stand out from the rest is its winning combination of power, speed and controller innovation, coupled with a strong lineup of first-party exclusives that do a bang-up job of showcasing the strengths of Sony’s latest console. — Alex Wawro

Finalist: iPhone 12 Pro Max
The iPhone 12 Pro max isn’t just the best iPhone, it’s the best phone of the year, period. This flagship beat all comers — including the Pixel 5 and Galaxy S21 Ultra — in our face-offs and photo shoot-outs to earn the top spot. 

You get the best image and video quality we’ve ever seen in a phone, and a chip that blows away the Android competition in terms of sheer performance. Plus, Apple added Ceramic Shield to the vibrant OLED display, making this premium phone more durable and less prone to damage when dropped. The iPhone 13 has big shoes to fill. — Mark Spoonauer

Best Innovation: Xbox Game Pass

Xbox Game Pass has been around since 2017, but over the last year, the service has gone from “interesting” to “indispensable.” 

Xbox Game Pass started life as a subscription service that let you download more than 100 games to your Xbox One in exchange for a monthly fee. That part of the service still exists, although the library has grown to include almost 400 titles. Naturally, you can now also download games to Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S as well, and they run just as well as any game you’d buy à la carte.

However, Xbox Game Pass is now more than just a way to play games; it’s an entry point into a whole ecosystem. If you have an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription ($15 per month), you can download games for Xbox or PC, or stream them to Android, iOS and Windows 10 web browsers. Save data carries over between titles, and the same controller works with every platform. 

Essentially, Xbox Game Pass turns every screen in your home (or on the go) into a platform for Xbox games, whether you’re lounging on the couch, taking a break from work at your computer, or tackling one last level on your smartphone before bed.

While the Xbox Cloud Gaming component of Game Pass is still in beta, the service already works beautifully, and we predict that Microsoft will work out the remaining kinks over the next year or two. 

That means that console-quality gaming will not be confined to consoles much longer. Hit Microsoft series, such as Gears and Halo, already launch on Game Pass the day they debut. Third-party developers are starting to follow, with big companies like Square Enix releasing the well-received Outriders on Game Pass and every other platform simultaneously. At this year’s E3 showing, Microsoft committed to similar practices in the future.

Furthermore, Microsoft is working on its own Xbox-adjacent streaming devices, which means that prospective players will soon be able to get the full Xbox experience for a fraction of its traditional price. While cloud gaming and downloaded software may never achieve perfect parity, Microsoft seems to believe they can be close enough for everyday play. If this works, it could introduce a whole new audience to the wonderful world of gaming. — Marshall Honorof

Finalist: Samsung Solar Cell Remote
In many ways, Samsung's biggest innovation of the year is a small thing, based on simple ideas: Combine the common TV remote control with the longevity of a rechargeable battery and the simplicity of solar power to make a TV remote that goes years between battery changes. 

The results are significant, even if the concept sounds like a no-brainer. Just by switching to long-lasting rechargeable batteries, Samsung will keep an estimated 99 million AAA batteries from being used and discarded. 

A side benefit of the new design is improved convenience, with the solar cell capable of keeping the remote battery topped up from indoor ambient light alone. All you have to do to keep the remote powered up is to turn on the lights in your living room. 

Keeping the world a little cleaner and making my TV watching a little easier? That's exactly what I want technological innovation to do. — Brian Westover

For the 1,000 to 5,000 seasonal workers on Antarctica, Netflix streaming is about to get a whole lot better thanks to Starlink. 

SpaceX CEO Gwynne Shotwel has announced that the company hopes Starlink will achieve global coverage by September. 

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Via Reuters, Shotwel said, "We've successfully deployed 1,800 or so satellites and once all those satellites reach their operational orbit, we will have continuous global coverage, so that should be like September timeframe," She made her comments during a tech conference webcast for Macquarie Group Limited, an Australian investment bank and financial services company.

Even then, there are other challenges ahead for Starlink beyond launching satellites into space. 

"We have regulatory work to go into every country and get approved to provide telecoms services," said Shotwel. 

At the moment, Starlink is aiming to launch 12,000 satellites into orbit. At the current rate, it's expected that SpaceX will achieve that goal by 2030. But that's really only the first part of Elon Musk's satellite mega constellation plans. Ultimately, SpaceX wants to have 42,000 low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites in orbit, which will take a few decades to accomplish. 

At the moment, Starlink is operating in 11 countries and above certain latitudes. But as more satellites go into orbit, it increases the load and range the network can handle. Even if by September Starlink is able to achieve global coverage, it likely will not be the same consistency that cable internet users are accustomed to. But for those in rural parts of the world, having access to quality internet some of the day is better than dealing with subpar dial-up or DSL.

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It seems that Starlink users in warmer areas are running into overheating issues. 

That was the case for one Reddit user, as reported by ArsTechnica. The user, who lives in Arizona, lost internet service for several hours with his Starlink app showing an "Offline: Thermal shutdown" error message. His "Dishy McFlatface" had overheated. 

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Upon calling Starlink support, the user, who goes by SocietyTomorrow on Reddit, was told, "Dishy will go into thermal shutdown at 122F and will restart when it reaches 104F."

SocietyTomorrow had to do something out of the ordinary to get Dishy working.

"In July the low temperature is 108. I'm gonna have to spray it with a garden hose to reboot my internet... That just feels so wrong."

Well, watering a Starlink dish seemed to work. After pointing a sprinkler at Dishy, SocietyTomorrow immediately heard YouTube playback resume.

In an interview with ArsTechnica, SocietyTomorrow, whose first name is Martin, said "When I stopped the sprinkler, [the dish] heated back up and would cycle back on for a few minutes and go back down for thermal shutdown. The overheating started that day about 11:30 am and came back for good about 7 pm... I'm currently headed to a hardware store to get materials to build a solar shade/sail around the dish to see if it doesn't impact connection and speed."

The reason Dishy is affected by extreme heat is because it's not a regular satellite dish. A standard satellite dish is, for all intents and purposes, a surface for radio waves to bounce off of. There aren't electronics inside the plate itself. Starlink's Dishy uses phased array antennas, and has components inside that are tracking overhead satellites. In the case of Dishy, it has motors that move to help it track satellite's passing overhead. 

But electronic components have thermal limits. In the case of Dishy, it ranges from 22° below zero up to 104° Fahrenheit.

In an interview with Vice's Motherboard, engineer and YouTuber Ken Keiter said, "at some point, the rate at which the combined thermal energy being absorbed by Dishy's face and being dumped by the components into the backplate, the air surrounding it, and the enclosure exceeds the rate at which that that energy can be dissipated to the outside environment."

So, it seems that in future revisions of Dishy, SpaceX will need to figure out a different thermal solution. This, according to Keiter, might be possible with software fixes. But it's likely that the design will need to see major changes to account for extreme weather. 

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SpaceX’s satellite internet system, Starlink, may soon be providing faster broadband to airlines it has announced. During a conference call, the vice president of commercial sales confirmed that Elon Musk's satellite internet company was in talks with airlines to bring the service to aircrafts and that a specific aviation product was in the works.  

The Verge reports that Jonathan Hofeller said “We’re in talks with several of the airlines, we have our own aviation product in development… we’ve already done some demonstrations to date, and looking to get that product finalized to be put on aircraft in the very near future.”

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For airlines, this is big news. The current systems in place use either ground-to-plane towers, that require a plane to be over a landmass or traditional geostationary satellites which have worse latency, are costly and can’t offer the same bandwidth. Air-to-ground, or ATG, systems are capped at around 10mbps while traditional satellites can only offer 100mbps. Starlink could double that data rate, potentially offering far faster speeds than are currently available.  

SpaceX has some hurdles to leap before it can officially launch a product. Firstly, it needs FCC approval to use the system in moving vehicles, but there are some technological problems to solve too. For one, when a plane is out of range of ground stations, the satellite network would need to be able to pass signals in space. This functionality is coming via a laser-link between Starlink satellites as the company puts more hardware in space. The first satellites supporting the laser link launched at the start of this year. 

SpaceX plans to use 4,100 satellites in its finished constellation, which will allow it to provide service nearly anywhere on Earth. It’s currently got just under 2,000 satellites orbiting, with each launch putting around 60 more in a low Earth orbit. The company is currently offering its beta service in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. 

Starlink has drawn some criticism from astronomers who are concerned about the enormous number of LEO satellites being launched. Starlink’s 4,000 satellites could be joined by another 3,000 from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ venture and 640 designed to service the U.K.’s OneWeb, which aims to support locations north of the 50th parallel this year, and the whole world by the end of 2022. That’s 7,500 boxes flying around and making stargazing more challenging. 

Other companies, like long-running Viasat, are also looking at beefing up its own networks, and planning a launch of an additional 300 LEO satellites too. It has done a deal with Delta that will see it launch on as many as 300 of the company’s aircraft. 

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Starlink has certainly proved to be one of the most exciting developments in broadband technology in recent years. While the early launch has focused on the U.S., there are a number of people in the U.K. also testing the system, which costs $500 initially and $99 per month. At the moment, Starlink remains a home-only affair. But would it be possible to connect a Starlink satellite on to a movie vehicle?

U.K.-based YouTuber Alex Brooks, who creates content under the name MarzBar, ordered his own Starlink system to test a few aspects of the service. Most conventionally he ran speed tests and checked the latency of the system. He has some concerns over latency, but nothing too bothersome. After all, not only is this a beta, but for most applications latency isn’t a huge problem. 

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Most interesting though was Brooks’ decision to strap the whole affair to his Land Rover Defender (10:58 in the video). Using little more than a set of cable ties he affixed the Starlink dish to the roof of his car and went off on a slow journey around town. Perhaps unsurprisingly he didn’t keep a connection to the satellite network while driving. 

However out of the town, with clear skies, moving the car at an ultra-slow 5 mph seemed to provide a bit more stability. It wasn’t without some hiccups, but this isn’t the use-case for this hardware at all, so it’s pretty remarkable the whole thing carried on working at all. 

Elon Musk has previously mentioned using Starlink in fast-moving vehicles and has suggested that it is indeed possible. His Tweet on the subject said “everything is slow to a phased array antenna.” Put simply, from a satellite’s viewpoint, a fast-moving car or train doesn’t present much of an issue for this kind of thing. 

However, the current hardware isn’t designed for this use and it’s likely new antennas will be required to actually operate Starlink on the move. Perhaps an approach like satellite radio, with a different antenna design will deliver some form of internet to cars — we’re guessing Tesla is working on this — at some point in the near future. 

However Musk clearly has all sorts of plans for Starlink as the service builds and gathers more subscribers. Lower latency should come with time, and there are plans to link the satellites together. It would mean fewer ground stations and, presumably, routing more directly through the Starlink constellation. 

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Starlink, Elon Musk's satellite internet company, has reached a major milestone. As of yesterday (May 4), the company says it's amassed 500,000 $99 pre-orders. Along with the pre-order cost, the service also requires customers to buy a $500 kit, which Starlink is still losing money on. 

On the heel of this positive news for Starlink, Ookla Speedtest has also put out a report on what coverage and speed is looking like across the United States for the satellite internet network. 

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"To date, over half a million people have placed an order or put down a deposit for Starlink," said SpaceX operations engineer Siva Bharadvaj during yesterday's launch webcast, as reported by CNBC.

During a Twitter exchange with CNBC reporter Michael Sheetz, Musk confirmed that serving 500,000 users would not be an issue. It's when the service moves past the multi-million mark that greater challenges will arise.

As for the Starlink service itself, it's still in beta, and service continues to improve as SpaceX launches more satellites into low-Earth (LEO) orbit. While some users have reported major increases in speeds, others have not seen the same gains. 

Testing firm Ookla found that users utilizing its Speedtest website have seen varied results based on geolocality. The median download speed ranges from 40.36 Mbps (Columbia County, Oregon) to 93.09 Mbps (Shasta County, California).

Generally, areas North of Seattle are seeing strong download speeds, exceeding 90 Mbps. There are pockets that swing a bit slower, around the 50 Mbps mark. Interestingly, areas in California show strong connections, as indicated in green on the map below. 

Not all counties are seeing massive improvements to performance. While Tehama County in California saw speeds increase 545.6% over broadband providers, users in Clay County, Missouri saw 67.9% slower speeds.

A major challenge for satellite internet is latency. Because a signal has to travel wirelessly from space, pings are often higher when compared to cable or fiber networks. Starlink aims to remedy this by orbiting its satellite internet megaconstellation as low as the FCC will allow. Actually, the company is likely to get FCC approval to lower its existing satellites to 550 kilometers above the Earth's surface. 

Regardless, while plenty of users have posted speedtest results with ping as low as 32ms, that hasn't been the case across the board, according to Ookla.

Starlink latency is 486% higher in the U.S. and 369% higher in Canada. Mariposa Country in California saw latency that was 17.4% lower than other providers, median values were between 31ms to 88ms. 

While these numbers don't match the 8ms latency that can be found with fiber and cable connections, a 31ms ping isn't awful. Plus, even hardwired internet can see high pings, such as is the case for Daviess Country in Kentucy, which averages 47ms. 

In Canada, latency is higher with Starlink when compared to competitors. Pings in British Columbia were 34ms and a significantly higher 61ms in Saskatchewan. 

This all means that Starlink has a ways to go before it can provide true global satellite internet coverage at reliable speeds. While the megaconstellation now has 1,500 satellites orbiting above the Earth's surface, it's still a long while away before reaching its initial 12,000 goal. And even then, Starlink plans to put as many as 42,000 satellites into orbit over the next few decades. But for people who live in rural communities, Starlink continues to offer the best hope for 4K Netflix streaming.

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Elon Musk has confirmed via Twitter that Starlink is aiming to exit beta this summer, bringing along with it better service, improved bandwidth and latency. 

The tweets come in reply to an article posted by CNBC's space reporter Michael Sheetz. He recently did a survey of 50 Starlink users and found that most users had generally positive things to say about Elon Musk's satellite internet constellation. 

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If Starlink's rollout goes according to plan, then in the next three-to-five months, users from most of the globe should be able to buy a $500 Starlink starter kit and get connected.

Musk also confirmed that it will be possible to move Starlink Dishy McFlatface satellite dishes while on the go. This is especially good for people who live in RVs or mobile tiny homes. It will even be possible to stay connected while in motion.

At the moment, when setting up a Dishy McFlatface, it has to be positioned in what Starlink calls "cells." According to the Starlink FAQ, these are designated areas on the ground. "If you move your Starlink outside of its assigned cell, a satellite will not be scheduled to serve your Starlink and you will not receive internet. This is constrained by geometry and is not arbitrary geofencing."

Clearly then, engineers at Starlink are working on a system to allow people to move dishes with greater flexibility. 

But just because Starlink may exit beta sometime this summer does not mean its satellite constellation will be complete. At the moment, Starlink has sent up 1,443 satellites into orbit, launching on average 60 new satellites every two weeks. 

SpaceX is planning on sending a total of 12,000 satellites into low-Earth orbit (LEO) by 2030. That many satellites would greatly improve global coverage. While 12,000 satellites seems like an ambitious target, SpaceX has even loftier plans. It's already petitioned the FEC to approve 30,000 additional satellites, bringing the future total to 42,000. Although, as was evidenced on April 9, it could greatly increase the chance of potential collisions. 

Even then, by this summer, Starlink wouldn't have true global coverage. It would likely cover latitudes between the 55th parallel north and 55th parallel south. This is where most of the inhabited global population resides. It would include a range encompassing the northern border of Germany to the southern border of Argentina. This range does not include the Nordic countries, much of northern rural Russia, Greenland, Iceland and Antarctica. 

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Starlink, Elon Musk's satellite internet company, has sent 60 new satellites into orbit bringing the total to 300 this month. SpaceX has now launched 1,443 satellites so far, but is still far off from reaching it's initial target of 12,000.

The latest launch, which occurred on April 7, went successfully. The Falcon 9 booster touched down successfully on SpaceX's floating landing back in the Atlantic Ocean. 

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For Starlink customers, the latest launch should mean better overall internet connections. Given that there are so few satellites in orbit, Starlink customers have noted that speeds can fluctuate throughout the day. The overall strength remains to be seen, but we'll have a better idea in the upcoming weeks. 

While Starlink is still in beta, users in latitudes from Seattle and above are reporting impressive speeds, far faster than what they had previously. Starlink will become fully operational, at its current pace, by sometime in 2030 when the megaconstellation reaches its 12,000 satellite goal. 

At the moment, it's projected that by 2025, Starlink will have launched 6,000 satellites into orbit, reaching the halfway point. Of course, as SpaceX continues to improve in satellite launches, it's possible for Elon Musk's spacefaring company to reach 12,000 sooner than 2030. 

But 12,000 is not the end-all. SpaceX has made a request with the FCC to launch up to 30,000 satellites over the next few decades, bringing the total to 42,000. It's actually so many satellites that some worry it might make space exploration and research more difficult. 

SpaceX posted a video clip on Twitter showing the stack of Starlink satellites going into orbit and separating.

For those interested, a video of the full launch is also linked below. It shows the liftoff, the rocket reaching max velocity, stage separation and finally reaching orbit. And if you fast-forward to 27 minutes, you can see the rocket landing on SpaceX's floating landing pad in the Atlantic Ocean.

A final fast-forward to the 1:23 mark will let you see the Starlink satellites drifting off into space with an explanation by SpaceX's hosts. Using the on-board ion thrusters, the satellites will distance from one another over the next few days and weeks until reaching operational orbit.

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Starlink, Elon Musk's satellite internet company, has seen speeds dip in the past two months, but recently, performance has began to climb up. 

These results come via a report from PCMag in collaboration with speed test website Ookla. Recent data shows that the median download speeds for Starlink saw a decline from 80 Mbps to 50 Mbps between February and early March. The reason for the drop isn't entirely clear, but speeds have begun to normalize. 

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Using Ookla isn't an exact science — not all Starlink users may check their internet speed with the service — but it can still be a decent indicator as to where things are. Ookla did not reveal to PCMag how many users it was pulling speed test data from, but "the sample count here well exceeds our brightline for statistical significance," a company spokesperson said.

Looking the graph below, we can see that in January, at launch, Starlink was giving solid performance, with speeds then slowly trailing off, only for performance to normalize at the end of March. 

It should be noted, that while we've reported on users with 200 Mbps of download speed or more, those might be more fringe scenarios and may not be indicative of overall performance. The Starlink megaconstellation is still young, with more satellites being launched every month. PCMag did reach out to a few Starlink users to get their take.

"The only thing consistent with Starlink service is the inconsistent speeds," said Tabitha from Idaho via an email to the publication. She preferred to keep her last name private. "I ran a speed test first thing this morning and saw 213Mbps down 9.72 up. A little over an hour later, I was at 94Mbps down/18 up. An hour after that I was at 36 down/6.8 up." 

Load could be the reason why there was a dip in performance. With more people signing up for the service, the larger customer base could have been straining systems. But it seems that a bug in the system might be to blame. 

SpaceX sent out an email to users explaining the current situation.

"Recently some beta users saw short but more frequent outages, particularly in the evening hours," SpaceX said. "This was caused by two main issues — preventive maintenance on various ground gateways, coupled with a network logic bug that intermittently caused some packet processing services to hang until they were reset. The good news is fixes were implemented and users should no longer see this particular issue."

After the firmware update, it does seem that Tabitha's internet speeds had improved.

Other users have also reported connection inconsistencies. Sometimes connection might drop for a few seconds all the way up to a few hours. 

The Starlink FAQ states "During beta, users can expect to see data speeds vary from 50Mb/s to 150Mb/s and latency from 20ms to 40ms in most locations over the next several months as we enhance the Starlink system. There will also be brief periods of no connectivity at all."

In layman's terms, expect some growing pains. 

To remedy this, Starlink will issue an update that will more quickly ping to another satellite if connection drops. Users should expect this update later in the month.

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SpaceX continues its rapid expansion launching another round of Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit (LEO). That brings the the total number to more than 1,300. 

The 25th Starlink satellite mission thus far launched occurred earlier today (March 24) from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The Falcon 9 rocket also successfully landed at sea on SpaceX's floating platform. 

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The latest launch makes it SpaceX's ninth of 2021, bring this year's total to 430 satellites. That's a rapid clip, as between 2018 and 2020 Elon Musk's rocket company had only thrown up 895 satellites into orbit. 

"This is the sixth landing for this booster and the 78th landing overall," said Andy Tran, a production supervisor at SpaceX via the online launch stream. "What a way to start the day."

The latest launch gives Starlink a total of 1,325 satellites. The first Starlink satellite internet constellation is set to be 1,440, meaning that Elon Musk is a few launches away from reaching his initial goal.

"With more than 100 successful flights of Falcon 9 and 78  recoveries of our first stage to date, we've made a lot of progress since then," said Tran.

As for how this affects current coverage, those in Northern latitudes — the areas above Seattle and into Canada — should see more consistent coverage. This also extends to users in the U.K. While the current Starlink coverage map data shows that users below Seattle can access the service, the best reception current favors higher latitudes at the moment.

While 1,325 is an impressive number of satellites, it's still far off from Starlink's ultimate goal of launching 12,000 satellites into space. 

It should be noted, that Starlink has put in a request with the Federal Communications Commission in May of 2020 to launch a total of 30,000 satellites. This could be for a second-generation rollout aimed at improving service.

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NASA and SpaceX have signed a special information-sharing agreement to ensure Stalink satellites do not collide with other objects floating around Earth's orbit. 

The 13-page agreement takes the standard Conjunction Assessment (CA) process and allows deeper cooperation between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and SpaceX. It's a non-reimbursable agreement, meaning that it's designed to be mutually beneficial and not for-profit. 

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The agreement is structured around NASA maintaining its planned trajectory with Starlink satellites set to automatically maneuver around NASA objects. In rare instances in which Starlink cannot maneuver, then NASA will do what it can to avoid collision. 

"The veracity and timeliness of the communications between both parties is critical to maintain safe on-orbit operations," as stated in the agreement. 

Because Elon Musk plans on sending 12,000 satellites into space to create this massive low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellation, ensuring various trajectories don't cross paths will be critical towards its survival. At the moment, SpaceX has sent 1,325 Starlink satellites into orbit. 

NASA will also provide technical support to Starlink, especially in regards to limiting photometric brightness, which is the reflectivity of a flat or uniform surface. 

SpaceX must inform NASA if Starlink satellites are within five kilometers below or above the International Space Station, or ISS. This, of course, is to prevent collision with the ISS, which would be dangerous as humans could be on board.

NASA is placing much burden on SpaceX to ensure collisions do not occur. And considering every single LEO satellite constellation company has gone bankrupt, safety and profitability is on the forefront of Elon Musk's mind. 

At the moment, Starlink only gives acceptable coverage to those in upper latitudes in North America, specifically between 44 and 52 degrees north, which includes all of the states of Washington, Montana and North Dakota, most of South Dakota and Minnesota, and large parts of Canada. But Starlink is hoping to cover most of the world by the end of 2021. SpaceX expects completion of the Starlink internet constellation by sometime next year.

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Starlink is a fledgling satellite-based internet service, headed by Tesla founder Elon Musk. It plans to shirk the rather poor reputation of satellite internet and provide meaningful service.

While it doesn't stand to make too much of a difference for urban and suburban areas, Starlink could be a huge boon for rural communities. It's currently in beta with no data cap. And now we have an indication of where coverage is during this initial rollout.

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PCMag received exclusive speed test data from Ookla, detailing where exactly Starlink users are at the moment. The company located US counties with at least 30 Starlink users in them, counting from December. It then compared Starlink speeds to the other more traditional ISPs in those areas.

With satellite internet, there's a fixed amount of satellites and therefore a set number of people who can access them. Although rural communities stand to gain the most from the service, Ookla found a surprising amount of Starlink beta testers in Seattle, Chicago, and Minneapolis (where there are faster ISPs available).

"I'm not surprised to see a massive demand for Starlink Internet," said Shrihari Pandit, president and CEO of Stealth Communications, a New York City-based fiber gigabit internet services company, in an email interview with Tom's Guide. "Users experience with telco/cable company's speeds and reliability leave something to be desired, even in NYC!"

Elon Musk said that Starklink will target the more northern parts of the country along the Canada border. Washington state has the most users according to Ookla, but there are quite a few in the Santa Clara and Los Angeles counties in California (where the SpaceX and Tesla headquarters are). A smaller number of users reside in Canyon County, Idaho, Cook County, Illinois, and Berrien County, Michigan.

“Based on Starlink's current satellite and ground-station deployment,  their highest link-availability (uptime) is limited to the Northern portion of the United States in this initial phase," said Pandit. "As additional satellites and orbital planes come online, we will see southern locations open up to beta later this year. It will result in improved performance, link availability, and most importantly, the ability for Starlink to handle larger amount of  concurrent users for a geographical area."

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Nubia has released a slew of new details about its upcoming Red Magic 6 gaming phone. A company executive took to Chinese social media network Weibo to post news of an official reveal on March 4. 

The post, according to GSM Arena, came alongside an illustrated poster featuring a race car and four icons. The icons, in addition to information that's been disseminated online, indicate the "four fastest" features the Nubia Red Magic 6 will include. Looking at Nubia's track record with gaming phones, the Red Magic 6 should deliver in terms of performance and premium options. 

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We particularly enjoyed one of its previous offerings, the affordable Red Magic Mars, with a number of design decisions to keep the smartphone primed and ready for gaming. It also featured an LED RGB strip on the back as well as buttons that delivered haptic feedback. The Red Magic 6 seems to be aiming for some more impressive stats, however. Here’s what it allegedly has in store.

Nubia Red Magic 6 display refresh rate

According to GizmoChina, through a "reliable tipster," the Red Magic 6 will include a refresh rate of 144Hz. Most recently, the Asus ROG Phone 3 and ROG Phone Strix topped out at 144Hz as well, so the Red Magic 6 won't be the "fastest" on the market, but it will certainly be another option to offer a high refresh rate. 

Nubia Red Magic 6 fast touch response 

The Nubia Red Magic 6 will reportedly feature a lightning-fast touch response rate of 480Hz. Devices like the Xiaomi Black Shark 2 only go up to 240Hz, so if these specs are correct, the Red Magic 6 will be unmatched in terms of what’s already available. Touch response is different from refresh rate in that it measures the time it takes for users to receive feedback from a device after making an input. The Red Magic 6 is meant as a mobile gaming platform, which means rapid input response is necessary. 

Nubia Red Magic 6 fast battery charging

Nubia previously teased a hearty 4,500 mAh battery for its Red Magic 6 phone, with 120W Gallium Nitride fast-charging support. Only the Pro model will include this speedy charging option. The standard edition will include 66W fast charging instead. 

Nubia Red Magic 6 cooling features

The last feature the Nubia Red Magic 6 could feature is an integrated cooling fan. This would help bolster high performance sessions for extended periods of time without the danger of overheating. The Red Magic Mars' featured dual liquid and air cooling options with a copper tube to direct heat away from the CPU and GPU. The back of the phone also featured multiple vents to help keep the unit cool. It’s unclear if the Red Magic 6 will include any other additional cooling systems. 

Because of the vets, just like the Nubia Red Magic 5, it’s likely the phone will not be water resistant. 

In addition to these four features, the Red Magic 6 could follow in its predecessors' footsteps and include a back LED strip or additional augments. And like the Red Magic 5, the phone will likely retail in the $650 range. ZTE hasn't confirmed anything yet beyond a March 4 reveal. After that, we'll have a better idea of what to expect from the new phone.

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