In my home in Asheville, N.C., I currently have 300Mbps internet to my home office. Back in my childhood home in Calhoun County, W. Va., where I still own some family land, I'd be lucky to get DSL speeds in Kbps. That's kilobits per second.
It's no wonder a recent Satellite Internet[1] survey found that 36% of people surveyed said poor internet access was keeping them from moving to the country[2]. As Alexandre Menard, a leader of the McKinsey Center for Advanced Connectivity[3], told CNET's Eric Mack, "You have still 10% to to 20% of the population, even in developed markets … that have an average DSL or bad 3G connection[4], and therefore doing video or doing higher-requirement usage is a challenge." Working from home is only a dream for tens of millions, but the answer to their internet prayers may lie in the skies above them -- with SpaceX[5] Starlink[6] satellites.
Recent Starlink beta tests[7] show that Starlink is living up to its promise of data speeds from 50Mb/s to 150Mb/s[8] and latency from 20ms to 40ms.
To get this, you need to be admitted into the Starlink "Better than Nothing" beta program[9]. If you make it in, your dish and modem/router will cost you $499 with a subscription price of $99 a month.
Is it worth it? Starlink beta testers think so. It's much faster than what they can get from their Earth-bound ISPs. Recently Starlink engineers answered questions from users, critics, and fans on a Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) and revealed more about Starlink's ins and outs[10].
First, for now, if you get a