Starlink will be open to everyone in August — not that you'll want it
SpaceX’s satellite internet experiment, Starlink, will be available for almost anyone around the world (except the North and South Poles) starting as soon as August, according to Tesla Technoking Elon Musk. The service expects to bring in more than 500,000 customers within a year.
Musk spoke at length about Starlink’s latest plans at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2021 Tuesday. He says Starlink has already attracted more than 69,000 customers since it first launched in beta mode last October.
Starlink has been the subject of much speculation from both Musk superfans and the public writ large. Satellite internet has been touted as a savior of broadband, a way in which the United States and other countries around the world will be able to mend the still-much-too-wide gap in access to high-speed internet.
If anything, though, Musk’s virtual MWC interview reinforced the fact that Starlink — at least at this early phase — will absolutely not be the be-all-end-all solution to broadband access that Musk and his army have purported.
