There’s good news for users waiting to try out SpaceX’s satellite internet service. The company plans on inviting more people to the public beta test.
“Several thousand more Starlink beta participation invitations going out this week," SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted today. In a follow-up tweet, Musk also estimated the public beta will expand to the southern US, such as Florida, likely by January when the company has more satellites up in orbit to power the broadband network.
Currently, the public beta is targeting the northern US, where SpaceX has better satellite coverage. This past weekend, the first crop of early test users gained access to the service, and have confirmed Starlink can indeed supply broadband speeds at over 100Mbps with the latency hitting around 30 milliseconds.
But the real selling point is how the system can deliver fast broadband to remote areas that have little or no access to steady internet. As SpaceX launches more Starlink satellites into orbit, the company expects it’ll be able to deliver 1Gbps download speeds to almost anywhere on Earth.
To receive an invite for the public beta, interested users can go to Starlink.com and sign up for the email newsletter, which can notify you about upcoming availability. However, the beta isn’t free. The company is charging test users $9.99 a month for the service, and another $499 for the satellite dish and router.
According to test users, the Starlink public beta is covering certain parts of the following US states: Idaho, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wisconsin. SpaceX is also aiming to bring the public beta to southern Canada too.