- Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite Internet service has been approved by the British regulator Ofcom.
- Starlink, from Musk’s aerospace company SpaceX, will compete with companies like BT Group and OneWeb to provide internet to people across the UK.
- People in the UK have already started receiving the Starlink kit.
- One user told Insider that he received his Starlink device on New Year’s Eve and that his download speed jumped from 0.5 megabits per second to 85 Mbps.
- Visit the Business Insider home page for more stories.
The UK has given the green light to SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service, and users in the country have already received their kit for the company’s public beta test.
Ofcom granted Elon Musk’s aerospace company authorization for Starlink in November, a regulator spokesman told Insider on Monday. SpaceX started running a Starlink beta in the United States in late 2020.
The UK license allows Starlink to compete with terrestrial internet providers like BT Group and traditional satellite companies like OneWeb, which was rescued from bankruptcy by the British government and Indian telecommunications company Bharti Global in November.
People in the UK who signed up for SpaceX’s “Better Than Nothing Beta” test started receiving the Starlink kit, which costs £ 439, or about $ 600 in advance, plus £ 84, or about $ 120, for a monthly signature.
Philip Hall, in rural Devon, southwest England, told Insider on Friday that he received the router and terminal to connect to satellites on New Year’s Eve.
Hall achieved download speeds of just 0.5 megabits per second with BT’s Internet, he said. Now with Starlink, it has an average of 85 Mbps. “In an hour, we ran a questionnaire about Zoom with our grandchildren – it was wonderful,” he said.
SpaceX said in an email to subscribers on October 26 that users participating in the beta test can expect speeds of 50 to 150 Mbps. Some US users have said they are getting download speeds of more than 210 Mbps.
Musk’s goal for Starlink is to provide super fast broadband internet around the world, involving the Earth with up to 42,000 satellites. SpaceX has launched at least 830 working Starlink satellites into orbit.
Read More: See how many millions of users Starlink may need to compensate, even if it loses $ 2,000 for each satellite dish it sells, according to experts
OneWeb planned to launch 650 satellites in orbit by the end of 2020, a mission briefing said in December. The space company wants to provide global Internet coverage with up to 48,000 satellites, 6,000 more than what SpaceX planned for its Starlink constellation.
Starlink began testing its beta service in North America and southern Canada in 2020. The United Kingdom is not the only major market SpaceX is entering – Greece, Germany and Australia have also approved broadband service.