The UK has given SpaceX approval for beta testing Starlink, with testers already receiving their kits. The Office of Communications in the UK has confirmed that the approval was granted in November. Greece, Germany, and Australia have also reportedly approved the testing.
For beta testing in the UK, SpaceX is charging £439 ($593) for equipment and £89 ($120) per month for service, according to those who have already received their kits.
One UK resident who signed up for the “Better Than Nothing Beta” test told Business Insider that prior to using Starlink, he was getting download speeds of 0.5 Mbps. With Starlink, he says he’s getting around 85 Mbps.
At those speeds and that pricing, Starlink is targeting customers with no other options in their area. Light Reading notes that competitors in the UK where fiber broadband is offered can provide speeds up to 500 Mbps for £62 ($84).
In the US, Starlink has been in beta testing for months. In September, SpaceX confirmed early speed test results, announcing via Twitter “In initial tests of Starlink, the team has been collecting latency data and performing standard speed tests of the system. Results from these tests have shown super low latency and download speeds greater than 100 megabytes per second – fast enough to stream multiple HD movies at once and still have bandwidth to spare.”