Starlink reveals satellite internet plan details ahead of launch in India

Starlink, a subsidiary of Elon Musk-owned SpaceX earlier this year received the license to offer satellite-based internet service for up to five years in India. Now, the company has revealed the tariff details ahead of the launch.

For personal internet services, Starlink's internet service will be offered for Rs 8,600 per month. And, the customer has to pay a one-time fee of Rs 34,000 for hardware.

For now, the company has revealed the details for just residential purposes. It is expected to announce a corporate service plan separate from enterprises.

Starlink: Five key aspects you should know about the upcoming satellite-based internet service

• There won't be any limit on data consumption.

• It will offer up to 500Mbps internet speed (for business), and for residential plans, it can deliver anywhere between 25Mbps and 220 Mbps download speed.

• The hardware package includes a compact weather-resilient dish antenna, cable to connect with a third-gen home Wi-Fi router, and a power cable.

• The company offers a 30-day trial offer.

Starlink logo and Elon Musk (founder of SpaceX).

How Starlink service works:

Unlike earlier, Starlink offers internet connectivity via a network of satellites from space directly to the devices.

Subscribing to a Starlink internet dish is similar to a Direct-To-Home (DTH) cable service in India. The company offers a portable satellite dish kit. It can be fixed to the stable structure at the top of the house, permanently. There are several types of kits in different sizes that can be subscribed to as per needs.

The dish needs an electricity source and a wired connection to the base Wi-Fi router inside the home. The latter will connect wirelessly with any compatible devices such as smartphones, tablets, computers and other Internet-of-Things (IoT) gadgets at home. Once these are taken care of, the user can use the Starlink mobile application to turn on the Starlink dish to establish connectivity with the LEO (Low Earth Orbit) satellites to get internet service.

Starlink router placed on the roof.

The request for access to the internet from the customer's device goes to the satellite via the Starlink router, and it connects to the nearest Starlink ground station to provide a link to the internet. The data gets retrieved to the ground station and to the satellite, which relays it to the customer's device. All this process happens within a fraction of a second.

The Starlink ground stations, which have been set up across the world, act as an intermediary between satellites and the internet.

As per the company, the latency of Starlink's systems is just 25ms. It is more than good enough to support live HD video streaming, gaming and consume buffer-free multimedia content on the OTT apps on phones and smart TVs.

It can deliver anywhere between 25Mbps and 220 Mbps download speed. And, for uploads, it can support anywhere between 5Mbps and 20Mbps.

To deliver stable, continuous internet service, Starlink satellites are lined very close to each other in the form of constellations. They remain in a particular position for a few minutes and move on. These spots get filled by another group of Starlink satellites as they circle the Earth's sky.

To make the Starlink internet connection glitch-free, the company plans to have more than 42,000 satellites in the sky. Starlink has plans to bring 1Gbps internet in the future.

Besides Starlink, Airtel and Reliance Jio have also received approval from the Department of Telecommunications to offer satellite-based internet services in India. It remains to be seen whether the Indian brands will offer more affordable plans to counter the Elon Musk company.

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