This exciting new service can now be pre-ordered in South-Africa.
What is Starlink I hear you ask .
Starlink is a satellite Internet Constellation constructed by SpaceX, that provides satellite Internet Access. The constellation will eventually consist of thousands of Mass-produced small satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), which will work with ground receivers.
The whole project was estimated in 2018 to cost at least $ 10 billion U.S.
This is essentially a service that aims to provide powerful internet to the world through many low-earth orbit satellites. This could do away with unreliable ISPs and shoddy connections. The internet provider is now available in South-Africa as a pre-order for a refundable deposit of R1,460 or 99 USD.
The news that Pre-orders are now open came subtly as there was no big announcement from Starlink themselves. If you plug in your South African address with pre-ordering the service though you’ll be taken to a payment page that will ask you to plug in your details and pay the deposit. Payment is to be made within 15 minutes before the user is required to resubmit their details to see if there are available orders.
Places are reportedly limited so if you are interested then you should probably act sooner rather than later.
The Starlink website does note that it only expects to roll out connectivity in South-Africa by 2022, so you will have to wait a year for your innovative new internet.
Upon Sign-up they will require your e-mail address as well as a physical address (which is apparently very important).
This is how Starlink explains it in their FAQ section.
“Starlink satellites are scheduled to send internet down to all users within a designated area on the ground. this designated area is referred to as a cell. our Starlink is assigned to a single cell. If you move your Starlink outside of its assigned cell, a satellite will not be scheduled to serve your Starlink and you will not receive internet. This is constrained by geometry and is not arbitrary geofencing,”
The speed of Starlinkis reported to be between 50Mbps and 150Mbps with a latency of 20 milliseconds. The website explains the purpose of your deposit in detail saying:
“Your deposit payment is exclusive of any VAT or other taxes and will be applied towards a future purchase of Starlink equipment offered by SpaceX as part of its two-way satellite-based internet service. By placing your deposit payment, you have established priority within your region for purchasing the Starlink Kit when available.”
The kit you will receive will consist of everything you need to connect to the internet including your Starlink, wifi router, power supply, cables, and mounting tripod. Apparantly you will also need a clear view of the sky. It is also important to note that you will end up paying for the hardware and also a monthly fee for your connection.
So now that you have more information you can make your own informed decision but you had better hurry as I said above space is limited.