For decades, people living in rural communities or hard to reach places have had almost no options when it comes to internet connectivity. They could use painfully slow and obsolete dial-up, or expensive, and nearly-as-slow satellite internet, which was spotty and unreliable.

Starlink, by Spacex, promises a leapfrog in technology, thanks to thousands of small satellites, forming a constellation in low earth orbit.

Their advanced satellites, combined with next generation ground receivers, allow users to access true high speed internet, 100 Mb/s to 200 Mb/s and latency as low as 20ms.  That’s up to 90x faster than traditional satellite internet.  Their services promise to increase in speed as their constellation of satellites grows to over 45,000 units.

Their service costs $99/month, with equipment costs of $500 up front. In addition to providing internet to well-off, rural areas of the globe, we look forward to the technology being deployed in developing nations, where access to internet is sometimes impossible to find.


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Ben VanderVeen is the founder and editor of Moss & Fog, one of the web’s longest-running visual culture destinations. Since 2009, he’s been finding and framing the most beautiful, surprising, and thought-provoking work in art, architecture, design, and nature — reaching over 325,000 readers each month. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

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