Starlink Just Launched in Canada, or How Elon Musks Plans to Take Over the World
By: Joanna Henderson
Tags: Information Technology, Internet, Digital Transformation, Elon Musk, Starlink

What is Starlink, and How Did It Become a Reality?

Starlink is an Internet company to offer high-speed Internet without structural limitations, such as a house, an apartment, or another limited space. The main difference between the currently available Internet service and Starlink is the availability from any point of the planet, including rural areas, where the Internet is usually limited, unreliable, or unavailable altogether.

In simple words, all you’ll need to access the Internet would be a movable Starlink’s device, which you can take with you wherever you go. Once you point the decision in the sky, you get the Internet connection — and voila! Enjoy the World Web from your car, in the mountains, or anywhere else.

The Star reports that SpaceX, another company incepted by Elon, has already launched 960 low-altitude Starlink satellites. The ultimate goal is to have 12,000 of them in orbit. The reusable Falcon 9 rockets are utilized to create a wide network of these satellites to provide Internet access potentially to everyone on the planet.

Where Is It Available and How Can I Get It?

For now, Starlink isn’t fully available around the globe. It was launched this month, in December 2020, as an experiment, in Northern US and Canada. Carefully selected individuals in specific communities were chosen to test this service.

Is Starlink available where you are? You can check! Fill out the form on the official website indicating your email and address — and you will get notified if your area is eligible for the beta test. As time goes on, more and more people will sign up and gain access to this know-how. But for now, we’re in the beginning stage of the Starlink launch.

How Much Is It?

One thing to consider is that Starlink is not free — in fact, it comes with a somewhat steep price tag. There are no official numbers on the company’s website, but the most recent CBC article has a testimony of a gentleman, Greg Rekounas, who was selected to test this service. He paid $649 CAD ($499 USD) in fees, and the monthly service cost is $129 in Canadian dollars (around $99 in USD).

Is it expensive? Compared to many other Internet providers, it probably isn’t cheap. Having that said, some of us are willing to pay for the accessibility, Internet speed and convenience. If you consider taking time off and travelling, having a movable Internet device that catches connection anywhere might be an excellent tool to have. Keep in mind that residents of the rural towns don’t have much choice when getting connected to the outside world — Starlink might be their only choice.

But at this point, we don’t know the official price. The costs may vary depending on certain factors. We are also unaware if the price will remain the same or change in the years to come.

Why is the Starlink Initiative so Important?

Many people reap the benefits of Internet access worldwide, but we are far away from seeing the entire humanity “connected.” Only 4.66 billion people out of the 7.8 world population currently have a digital presence. This figure constitutes success because over half of our planet can freely access the World Web. However, it’s far away from ideal.

Despite the technological progress, it estimates that approximately 1 in 15 Americans still lacks access to the Web. About 25% of rural area inhabitants report the Internet speed to be a major problem in their everyday lives. Recently, Starlink secured almost a $900-million subsidy from the Federal Communications Commission to extend the Internet connection to the United States’ rural communities. It means that not only many Americans will solve the connection issues, but every resident will get a chance to make a daily appearance online.

The USA is not the only country that has a significant number of people residing in rural areas. According to the United Nations, the current rural population represents around 3.4 billion people. This number is expected to decline to 3.1 by 2050, but certain countries and continents are outliers:

“Africa and Asia are home to nearly 90% of the world’s rural population in 2018. India has the largest rural population (893 million), followed by China (578 million),” — UN.

Starlink has the potential of solving this problem once and for all. It may seem like an overly ambitious project, but the company is in the beginning stages of the service launch. The time will show if Elon Musk’s efforts are paying off.