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As SpaceX prepares beta testing for its Starlink broadband service, users looked at Starlink’s online page and discovered new key points about upcoming beta testing and photographs of user terminals to be installed outdoors in customers’ homes.
Yesterday, Reddit users reported that they had been exploring knowledge on starlink’s online page and on the main site, finding frequently asked questions about beta tests, terms of service, and satellite symbol symbols from other angles.
Here are the images:
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wrote on Twitter last night that the most recent edition of the antenna (also known as a user terminal) was different from what you notice in the photos. “Small note: the padlock on the pole near the base is gone and the Ethernet-powered cable is less annoying in the production edition,” Musk wrote.
Musk described the terminal in the past as a “UFO on a stick”. SpaceX has obtained approval from the Federal Communications Commission to deploy 1 million. The terminal is 0.48 meters (almost 19 inches), according to an FCC file.
SpaceX recently updated the Starlink online page with a form you can complete to ‘get updates on Starlink news and the availability of services in your area’. Public beta testing is expected to begin in the fall.
Starlink’s REDlink FAQs state that “Starlink Beta will begin in the northern United States and northern [i.e., southern Canada], and those living in rural and/or remote communities in the Washington state area. Access to the Starlink Beta program will have the user’s location as well as the number of users in nearby areas.
Describing the existing satellite network and the desire of beta testers to have a transparent view of the sky from their homes, the FAQs say: “The Starlink formula currently consists of about six hundred satellites orbiting the Earth that can provide Internet service in a very fast range: between 44 and 52 degrees north latitude. Your Starlink antenna requires a transparent view of the northern sky with Starlink satellites. Without the clear view, the Starlink antenna cannot identify a smart connection and its service will be incredibly poor.”
In another tweet yesterday, Musk noted that “the Starlink terminal has automatic steering motors for an optimal viewing angle”, eliminating the need for an expert installer. The terminal can be placed “in the garden, on the ceiling, on a table, almost anywhere, as long as you have a wide view of the sky,” Musk wrote. He also wrote that once the service becomes available, “order in Starlink.com will take less than a minute.”
Beta testers are encouraged to “dedicate an average of 30 minutes to 1 hour according to daily testing of Starlink facilities and offering consistent periodic feedback,” in accordance with the terms of use. “SpaceX requests for comments will take the form of investigations, phone calls, emails and other means. Not participating would possibly result in the termination of your participation in the beta program and you will need to return your Starlink kit.” Beta testers may not be publicly consistent with a percentage of their use of the service.
In addition to user terminals that get area signals, Starlink consumers will want a router to deliver Wi-Fi at home. SpaceX this week won FCC approval for its Starlink router, but the router images are still public due to a privacy request.
An FCC repository indicates that the router is dual-band and supports 2.4 GHz and five GHz transmissions. It supports 802.11ac Wi-Fi with knowledge movement speeds of up to 866.7 Mbps, plus older email systems like 802.11b, 802.11a/gy 802.11n.
List symbol via SpaceX
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