Starlink is making work very remote

The Future. Only two and a half years after Elon Musk’s Starlink launched its satellite internet service, it has launched thousands of satellites that provide fast, reliable service across the globe. That quick success seems to have made Starlink the de facto industry leader. But some users are worried that Musk’s patented move-fast-and-break-things ethos could also ground Starlink. In five years, will Starlink look more like Tesla or SpaceX? That may be up to Musk.

All the service areas
Starlink is flying high.

• It currently has over 3,500 satellites and hopes to ultimately put up 12,000 (there are only 10,000 satellites total in space right now).
• It’s available almost everywhere (except in banned countries like China and Russia).
• It can be accessed on land, sea, and soon, air — even while moving.

And when you have internet speeds of 150 megabits per second for as low as $90 per month (and a $599 hardware setup), that blows competition like HughesNet and Viasat out of the sky.

Outdoor office
So, do people actually like Starlink?

• The overall sentiment that The Information collected was that the service was not only a great option with consistent performance, but it felt like the only option available.
• It had excellent connectivity in places as far as Waipū, New Zealand; the frontier of northern Montana; and the Mogollon Rim of Arizona.

That’s not to say that Starlink is without complaint — customer service is light, having a lot of satellites up in space does kind of mess up the whole out-in-the-middle-of-nowhere stargazing experience, and many don’t love that they have to rely on a Musk-run company.