Over the years, we’ve seen multitudes of Internet providers offering services of various different types come and go. We’ve had broadband, satellite internet and fiber-to-the-home and now we’re slowly but surely working our way towards making 5G mainstream. However, in spite of all this, Starlink, which is engineered by SpaceX, is something that still manages to stand out from the crowd.

Although this is still technically satellite internet, Starlink is far different from most traditional satellite-based ISPs and the key reason for this is the fact that it utilizes satellites in low earth orbit whereas traditional ISPs of this sort rely on satellites that are in a much higher orbit which, in turn, leads to slower speeds and higher ping.

The innovative low earth orbit fundamentals of Starlink are no doubt it’s defining aspect as these enable this service to provide users with not only a fast-paced connection but, for the gamers out there, it means that they can actually get some incredibly low pings while playing on a satellite connection and this, of course, is something that was relatively unheard of in the past.

Thousands of Starlink satellites

Ultimately, the objective of Starlink is to launch thousands of its small satellites across the globe in an effort to provide literally every single person on the planet with effective and fast internet that they can utilize no matter where they are. It’s been reported that Starlink informed beta testers to expect speeds of 50Mb/s to 150MB/s with latency ranging from 20 to 40ms and these are certainly solid numbers that completely eclipse other satellite connections.

Of course, it’ll certainly be a while before the grand scheme behind Starlink is fully realized but it’s truly a groundbreaking vision that, once executed, may just change the way we look at the internet as a whole.

As far as the pricing is concerned, according to reports it’s a $499 one-time charge for the hardware required to operate Starlink with a $99/month subscription to use the service itself. This is certainly a bit pricey at this moment but there’s no doubting that these prices will come down the more Starlink is utilized across the globe so, overall, we’re certainly excited to see what the future holds for it.