Tag: Starlink

Categories
Cottage Life

Starlink launches new Maritime plan for internet access at sea

Photo by kravik93/Shutterstock

This article first appeared on MobileSyrup and it has been shared with permission. To see the original article, click here.

Oceanbound Starlink customers can now access a new “Maritime” plan offering 50GB of data at sea.

The plan costs $329 a month in Canada and there is an additional one-time hardware cost of $3,170. According to Starlink’s website, it provides coverage to “boats of all sizes” and offers download speeds of 220Mbps.

The 50GB of data counts as “priority” data and includes access while at sea. Once customers use all the priority data, they can access unlimited data on inland coverage, such as on lakes and rivers, wherever the company’s services are available.

Starlink says customers will be able to purchase additional priority data with ocean access through their account at a later date.

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Starlink launches new Maritime plan for internet access at sea

Oceanbound Starlink customers can now access a new ‘Maritime’ plan offering 50GB of data at sea.

The plan costs $329 a month in Canada and is in addition to a $3,170 one-time hardware cost. According to Starlink’s website, it provides coverage to “boats of all sizes” and offers download speeds of 220Mbps.

The 50GB of data counts as ‘priority’ data and includes access while at sea. Once customers use all the priority data, they can access unlimited data on inland coverage, such as on lakes and rivers, wherever the company’s services are available.

Starlink says customers can purchase additional priority data with ocean access through their account “at a later date.”

Image credit: Starlink

Source: Starlink

Categories
Mobile Syrup

New Starlink satellites are facing unknown problems

Elon Musk says Starlink’s new satellites are “experiencing some issues.”

SpaceX launched 21 V2 minis, the second generation of its popular satellite deemed to be more powerful than the first, on February 27th.

“Some sats [sic] will be deorbited, others will be tested thoroughly before raising altitude above Space Station,” Musk tweeted. Musk’s tweet is in response to industry experts monitoring the satellites with some questioning possible changes in altitude.

Astronomer Jonathan McDowell believes the changes are “significant” and thinks the company is “debugging some issue with the new sats.”

As SpaceNews reports, the 21 satellites stopped rising in orbit just days after launch. They stayed at 380 kilometres high, below the International Space Station, with its orbit between 415 and 420 kilometres.

While he didn’t further specify the problem, Musk said issues with the launch were expected.

Image credit: Shutterstock 

Source: @elonmusk/ Twitter Via: Gizmodo, SpaceNews

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Save over 50 percent on Starlink hardware right now

Image credit: Starlink https://www.starlink.com/

For a limited time, Canadians can get SpaceX’s Starlink hardware for half price.

According to a notice on the Starlink website and in an email from the company, Canadians can save over 50 percent on their Starlink Kit, getting it for $350 instead of the regular $759.

Screenshot of the Starlink discount

Screenshot of Starlink’s hardware discount for Canadians.

The email notes that the offer is valid for both Residential and Roam services but isn’t available for waitlisted areas.

The standard Starlink Kit includes the rectangular antenna and base, as well as cables and a router. You can learn more about the hardware here.

Getting started with Starlink is pretty expensive in Canada, but this offer goes a long way to reduce that cost. Typically, customers need to pay $759 for hardware as well as $140 for the first month of service, a $129 deposit, and shipping, handling, and taxes.

You can learn more on the Starlink website.

Header image credit: Starlink

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Starlink to begin testing satellite-to-cellular service ‘this year’

Elon Musk’s Starlink has been working on its satellite-to-cellular offering, and the company is now reportedly ready to test the service.

Last summer, Musk and T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert had announced “Coverage Above and Beyond,” a joint initiative that aimed to bring Starlink satellite coverage compatible with T-Mobile devices. Now, during a panel at the Satellite Conference and Exhibition 2023, Jonathan Hofeller, the vice president of Starlink enterprise sales said that the company plans to “start getting into testing.”

“We’re going to learn a lot by doing — not necessarily by overanalyzing — and getting out there, working with the telcos,” said Hofeller.

While Hofeller did not mention which carrier service it plans to work with, the timeline does match Musk’s original vision for the T-Mobile partnership. In August last year, Musk announced that Starlink and T-Mobile are joining forces to connect smartphones to satellites and eliminate dead zones “worldwide.”

At the time, T-Mobile said the satellite-to-cell service will be available “everywhere in the continental U.S, Hawaii, parts of Alaska, Puerto Rico and territorial waters” and is expected to launch by the end of next year [2023] in “select areas.” Read more about the partnership here.

Via: Engadget

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Capacity will impact the bills of U.S. Starlink customers. Is Canada next?

Some Starlink customers in the U.S. will see their bills change based on capacity come April 24th.

According to a tweet from Sawyer Merritt, a Tesla investor, customers residing in areas with “excess capacity” will see their bills decrease $20 a month to a final cost of $90/month. Those located where Starlink has “limited capacity” will see their bills increase $10/month to $120 a month. Starlink for RV customers will also see a $15 price hike to $150/month.

Customers have reportedly been notified of their associated price change through email. If responses on Twitter are any indication, customers aren’t happy with the increase.

Merritt points out the change applies to U.S. customers, and it’s unclear if Canadians will also see a price hike. MobileSyrup has reached out to the company and will update this article once a response is available.

Starlink users in Canada last saw a price hike in March 2022. While other countries saw a decrease in the summer, Canada was not on that list.

Image credit: Shutterstock 

Source: @SawyerMerritt/ Twitter 

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Starlink delays Fair Use Policy to February

SpaceX has delayed Starlink’s Fair Use Policy (FUP) rollout.

As reported by Tesla North, the policy will now begin in February 2023. Starlink previously stated the policy would be implemented in December 2022.

“To ensure our customer base is not negatively impacted by a small number of users consuming unusually high amounts of data, the Starlink team is implementing a Fair Use policy for Residential customers in the US and Canada and all Business/Maritime customers beginning February 2023,” Starlink’s FAQ page states.

Starlink’s policy puts a data cap on customers using more than 1TB of Priority Access during peak hours (7am to 11pm). The data category provides faster speeds and improved performance compared to Basic Access.

Customers who go over their eligible amount of Priority Access data will be moved to Basic Access for the remaining billing period. Customers can add more Priority Access to their accounts.

Image credit: Shutterstock

Source: Starlink Via: Tesla North

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Musk’s SpaceX buys ads from Musk’s Twitter amid bankruptcy fears

Amid Twitter’s ongoing struggles to drum up profit as advertisers bail, SpaceX has ordered one of the social media platform’s larger advertising packages.

While a company buying advertising from another company wouldn’t typically be a big deal, it’s worth noting that Elon Musk is CEO for both SpaceX and Twitter. Moreover, Twitter has faced increasing pressure to make money after Musk’s acquisition saddled the company with significant debt. Musk previously said Twitter saw a “massive drop in revenue” and that the company faced bankruptcy, and under Musk, Twitter laid off a significant portion of its workforce to save money.

CNBC reported on the SpaceX ad buy, citing internal records viewed by the publication as well as information shared by a Twitter employee who asked not to be identified. SpaceX reportedly purchased what’s called a Twitter ‘takeover’ to promote Starlink, the company’s satellite internet service. The campaign will target Australia and Spain and was reportedly purchased last week.

According to CNBC, when a company buys a takeover, it typically costs $250,000 USD (about $332,036 CAD) per day and will put the brand at the top of the main Twitter timeline for a full day. Users reportedly will see Starlink brand messaging for the first three times they open Twitter on the day (or days) of the takeover campaign. SpaceX’s campaign is slated to run in the coming days.

Moreover, CNBC notes that SpaceX doesn’t typically purchase large advertising campaigns from Twitter.

This all makes for a relatively suspicious transaction, given Musk’s very public discussions of Twitter’s financial problems and dropping ad revenue. It also comes after Musk headed the failed rollout of a revamped Twitter Blue subscription service. Musk pushed Twitter to launch a new, more expensive version of Blue that provided paying subscribers with a blue verified checkmark, which was previously reserved for authenticating high-profile accounts. Within hours of the subscription going live, a variety of fake accounts with paid verification badges flooded Twitter with posts, some of which had significant impacts on companies — namely, a fake tweet about insulin that caused Eli Lilly to lose billions after the company’s stock took a dive.

The chaos prompted Twitter to pause the new Blue subscription within days of it going live, and Musk seems to be reconsidering the idea, saying in a tweet that Twitter would allow organizations to identify which other accounts are actually associated with them.

For the latest on the turmoil at Twitter, check out all of MobileSyrup’s coverage here.

Source: CNBC

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Starlink to implement data cap on residential customers

Image credit: Starlink https://www.starlink.com/

Starlink’s users will be limited to a data cap under the satellite internet company’s new rules.

Effective next month, home internet customers who use 1TB of Priority Access per month during peak hours (7am to 11pm) will find themselves on Basic Access under its ‘Fair Use Policy.’

Each service plan offered by Starlink will include 1TB of Priority Access data, which provides faster speeds and improved performance compared to Basic Access. The category offers slower speeds and impacts bandwidth-intensive apps like video streaming.

Starlink revealed the news to its customers in Canada and the U.S in an email.

While the company said less than 10 percent of its users exceed 1TB each month, anyone needing more priority data can purchase it for 25 cents/ per GB and keep track of usage on Starlink’s app or customer portal.

“Starlink is a finite resource that will continue to grow as we launch additional satellites,” the company says on its website. “To serve the greatest number of people with high-speed internet, we must manage the network to balance Starlink supply with user demand.”

Priority Access isn’t available for RV and Portability satellite customers. Different rules apply to business customers.

The rules come as Starlink continues to expand its presence in Canada. The company recently made its services available in Yukon, Nunavut, and the Northwest Territories. 

Image credit: Starlink 

Source: Starlink

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Starlink now available in Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut

Starlink is now available to some residents in Northern Canada.

A map outlining service availability on Starlink’s website shows the service is available to half of Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut.

The availability of the satellite internet service, under Elon Musk’s SpaceX, appears to come after Musk’s September promise that the service will be available to more Canadians before the year ends.

A map outlining Starlink’s availability. Image credit: Starlink

Starlink offers some of the fastest internet speeds in the country, but the actual speeds can vary. For example, Ookla found Starlink’s download speeds in Canada were 97.40Mbps during the first quarter of 2022.

However, Nunavut resident Marcus Pine told Nunatsiaq News he can access speeds over 170Mbps. “As soon as I heard about it, I was on it instantly,” Pine told the publication.

The service is new for many residents in the area who have been unable to access high-speed internet. According to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), only 44 percent of households in the North in 2020 had access to internet speeds of 50Mbps for download and 10Mbps for upload, the minimum internet speeds the government has outlined.

Access isn’t the only barrier Northern residents face; cost is another issue, and Starlink comes with a hefty price tag. Hardware costs more than $700, and the service costs $140 each month. However, given the rising cost of internet services, and the lack of availability in the North, Starlink is likely a pleasant option for many.

Image credit: Shutterstock