SpaceX has quietly rolled out a new, more powerful “premium” tier of its Starlink satellite internet service that’s targeted at businesses and enterprise customers.
The new product, which was added to the company’s website Tuesday night, comes at five times the cost of the consumer-focused standard service. Starlink Premium requires a $500 refundable deposit, a $2,500 fee for the antenna and router, and the service costs $500 per month.
The standard Starlink service, which launched in October 2020, has a $99 refundable deposit, a $499 hardware fee and the service costs $99 per month.
Elon Musk’s company is touting improved hardware, faster service speeds and priority support in its pitch to prospective premium customers.
“Starlink Premium has more than double the antenna capability of Starlink, delivering faster internet speeds and higher throughput for the highest demand users, including businesses,” the SpaceX website said.
The first premium deliveries will begin in the second quarter, the Starlink website notice added.
Starlink Premium also offers “unlimited service locations” flexibility. Unlike the standard product, which only guarantees service at a specific service address, SpaceX says Starlink Premium is capable of connecting from anywhere.
“Order as many Starlinks as needed and manage all of your service locations, no matter how remote, from a single account,” SpaceX said.
Starlink Premium users can expect download speeds of 150 megabits per second to 500 megabits per second, with latency between 20 milliseconds to 40 milliseconds, the company said. For comparison purposes, the standard service advertises speeds between 100 megabits per second to 200 megabits per second, as well as a tighter latency range.
Additionally, SpaceX said the Premium satellite antenna “is designed for improved performance in extreme weather conditions,” although the website offered no further details. The standard Starlink product features a “snow melt functionality” to remove snow and ice.
SpaceX continues to advertise unlimited service usage, saying that “at this time there are no data caps.”
The company’s standard product has more than 145,000 users in 25 countries worldwide as of January, with nearly 1,900 satellites in orbit.
Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/02/spacex-starlink-premium-satellite-internet-tier-at-500-per-month.html