Since the rollout of Starlinks high speed satellite internet service commonly known as Starlink began in October of 2020, access has expanded to thousands of people globally in over 30 countries. Starlink is operated by SpaceX, a spacecraft manufacturing company founded by billionaire Elon Musk. An even broader rollout is more than expected, as the firm actively seeks approval to operate in more than a dozen additional countries, and the trajectory doesn’t seem to revert. Also Read: Elon Musk’s Starlink to launch high-speed internet in Rwanda Beyond consumer services, Starlink has the ability to create an entirely new market of enterprise services, including high-speed connectivity for airlines, ships, remote facilities, corporate networks and broadcast services. In Rwanda, the company is finalizing the process of onboarding a local partner through whom registration for Starlink services will be made, a move that could see the latter launching services on February 22. But what is Starlink and how do its services work? If you live in a city or a big suburb, you probably enjoy fast internet speeds, maybe at 50mbps or beyond, particularly in the local context. But imagine enduring internet speeds at 2Mbps, or even as low as 0.8Mbps, every day. What’s worse, your home only has one or two internet service providers to choose from, leaving you stranded with crummy service. Unfortunately, people around the globe, Rwanda inclusive, are stuck in this very situation. Installing fiber in a city, and bringing Gigabit broadband to millions of customers is potentially lucrative, but not so much in a rural area home to only a few hundred people. With Starlink, a client is capable of delivering 150Mbps internet speeds to theoretically any place on the planet. All the customer needs is a clear view of the sky, happy are those living in Rwanda. How do you register? Ordinarily, clients register through the company’s website. The site will take your address, and it will let you know if the satellite internet service is available in your area. If not, the company will tell you the approximate date when Starlink will arrive. Starlink is currently serving over 400,000 users across the globe, but “hundreds of thousands” of people have signed up in the hopes of trying it out, according to a February 2021 filing SpaceX submitted to the FCC. Requests are also being handled on a first-come, first-served basis for each coverage area. Information from RSA indicates that Starlink’s services are expected to increase the level of broadband competitiveness in the country as the end-user services will cost Rwf48,000 for a bandwidth of up to 150 Mbps, while for the enterprises the bandwidth can go up to 350 Mbps. Starlink costs around $110 a month in countries like the US where clients also have to pay a one-time $599 fee for the Starlink satellite dish and Wi-Fi router, which the company normally ships to your home. This implies Rwf48,000 for a bandwidth of up to 150 Mbps is affordable. The technology Satellite internet technology has been around for decades, and according to TechTarget. It involves beaming internet data, not through cables, but via radio signals through the vacuum of space. Ground stations on the planet broadcast the signals to satellites in orbit, which can then relay the data back to users on Earth. Compared to existing players, its technology improves on the technology in two notable ways including using low-Earth orbiting satellites that circle the planet at only around 300 miles above the surface. The shortened distance can drastically improve the internet speeds while also reducing latency. Equally important is the ambition to launch as many as 40,000 satellites in the coming years to power the system, ensuring global coverage without service dropouts. Starlink is currently delivering 50Mbps to 200Mbps in download speeds and about 30Mbps in upload speeds, according to users. Meanwhile, latency comes in at around 20 milliseconds, which is on par with ground-based internet. According to experts, it does seem that Starlink's massive growth can drag down speeds, depending on where you live. While some users have previously reported congestion issues, the company recently promised to alleviate the congestion problems by launching more Starlink satellites in orbit.
