How fast is the Internet ‘in the sky’ of Elon Musk: The speed of real tests gives amazing results

Starlink is SpaceX’s ambitious plan to bring the ability to deliver high-speed Internet to anywhere in the world through a system of tens of thousands of satellites operating in low orbit. In the context that SpaceX is still launching the Starlink satellite into orbit as planned, many people have asked the question: Is this satellite Internet service really as fast as Elon Musk advertises?

To answer this question, some Reddit users who are entering Starlink’s pre-beta stage tested the actual speed of this Internet service with tools like SpeedTest.

Test results show that Starlink can achieve average download speeds of about 42.8 Mbps. Whereas the upload speeds range from 4.5 Mbps to 17.7 Mbps. Most of these tests are conducted in Los Angeles, California, while others are in Seattle, Washington. Besides, tests by Speed ​​Test also showed that the network latency of Starlink ranged from 20ms to 94ms seconds.

Synthesize the results of measuring the download / upload speed of Starlink.

It can be seen that the actual Internet speed of Starlink is still far behind SpaceX’s goal of providing Internet access speed of 1Gbps. However, many users on Reddit still assert that Starlink’s download speed of 15 Mbps itself is still significantly faster than the speed of the Internet packet they are using. In the US, Internet infrastructure in rural areas is often inferior to that of big cities, due to geographical characteristics. The average speed of Internet access in this area is only 7 Mbps or much lower.

It is also worth noting that Starlink’s satellite network is still under construction, so speed and latency will likely improve over time.

SpaceX is expected to launch into orbit 12 thousand Starlink satellites

To date, SpaceX has launched more than 600 satellites, which are designed to operate in low orbit at an altitude of 550km. However, this figure is still only a small fraction of the 12,000 Starlink satellite beams expected to be launched into space by SpaceX in the near future. SpaceX plans to invest $ 10 billion in this project. However, if Starlink is successful, the satellite Internet market could reach $ 1 trillion

Currently, SpaceX is starting to conduct pre-beta testing of Starlink service this summer. CEO Elon Musk affirmed that Starlink will start providing satellite Internet services in the north of the United States and southern Canada by the end of this year and will rapidly expand around the world by 2021.

Notably, Starlink has now also invited users to join Starlink’s beta service, which is expected to be deployed in the near future. Currently, it is not clear how much money users have to spend to use the service.

Refer to PCMag