SpaceX Will Soon Beam Starlink Internet To Customers Living In Greece Who Pre-ordered The Service

SpaceX will soon beam Starlink internet to customers living in Greece who pre-ordered the service through the company’s official website Starlink.com. According to a Greek City Times  news report, SpaceX plans to initiate Starlink service in the country before this year ends. Initially, SpaceX will provide internet to a limited amount of customers who already placed an order. They will send Starlink Kits, which include the necessary hardware to connect to the network, starting in November to December 2021. The report states that in order to provide Starlink internet to Greece, the company will use Starlink Gateway ground stations that are operational neighboring countries. SpaceX does have plans to build a ground station in Greek territory next year.

However, long-term, data ground stations will not be required for the Starlink satellite constellation. Next year, all the satellites the company will launch are equipped with inter-satellite communication laser links that will enable satellites to beam data to each other without the need to directly connect to a terrestrial station. The laser-link feature will enable SpaceX to transmit data at a much faster rate because light travels faster in the vacuum of space than through fiber-optic cables used by traditional internet infrastructures.

The Greek news comes after SpaceX founder Elon Musk announced that they target to exit Beta mode to rollout Starlink internet service “nationwide” across the United States by the end of October. –“… Note, still limited by peak number of users in same area. This will improve as more satellites are launched,” he stated.

The Starlink constellation is currently comprised of approximately 1,797 satellites operating in Low Earth Orbit. Overall, the constellation could have up to 20,000. The satellites are already beaming internet connection across over a dozen countries, including: United States, Canada, Chile, United Kingdom, France, Austria, Netherlands, Ireland, Belgium, Switzerland, Denmark, Portugal, New Zealand, Australia, and Germany.

So far, Starlink Beta customers have been satisfied with the internet service. Many have shared that the internet speeds the network generates are way faster than their previous internet service provider. SpaceX’s goal is for Starlink to beam download speeds of 300Mbps (megabits per second) with low-latency of 20ms (milliseconds). These speeds will be achieved until they deploy more satellites to outer space to enable a robust network. For now, the company’s website states they are capable of download speeds starting at 50 to 150Mbps. Some Starlink users have shared speeds exceeding 200Mbps.

Featured Image Source: European Space Agency