SpaceX's Starlink internet public beta – dubbed the 'Better Than Nothing Beta' test – kicked off last week and the first results are starting to roll in.
The Starlink service currently costs $99 a month with a $499 startup fee for the user terminal, a tripod and Wi-Fi router.
Starlink told its early internet beta testers[1] "expect to see data speeds vary from 50Mbps to 150Mbps and latency from 20ms to 40ms [milliseconds] over the next several months as we enhance the Starlink system. There will also be brief periods of no connectivity at all".
SEE: Hiring Kit: 5G Wireless System Engineer[2] (TechRepublic Premium)
The service is possible in a range between 44º and 52º degrees north latitude, while the beta is initially targeting rural residents in select regions of northern US and southern Canada.
Reddit user FourthEchelon19[3], who posted a screenshot of his or her Starlink beta invite last week[4], over the weekend shared a picture of the user terminal dish and tripod, and detailed some of their early experiences with SpaceX's low-Earth orbit satellite broadband service, delivered from nearly 800 satellites[5].
The account of the experience does line up with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk's claims about it. That is, that Starlink will offer a low-latency service with higher broadband speeds than that offered by many ISPs in rural US areas.
FourthEchelon19 posted an image showing what he or she said is a typical result on Speedtest.net of a 134Mbps download speeds and 14.8Mbps upload speeds with a latency of 34ms.
Another test it shared on Speedtest.net[6] had a latency of 41ms, 97.14Mbps download and 18.6Mbps upload speeds. Speedtest says[7] a good latency for playing online games is from