Scivillage.com Casual Discussion Science Forum

SpaceX has a new mini-Starlink terminal, about the same size as a typical laptop. Elon says:

"I just set it up right now and am writing this post through space. Took less than 5 mins. Easily carried in a backpack. This product will change the world."

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1802567759835844838

"About half the price of the standard dish to buy and monthly subscription, but you can still watch multiple 4k video streams simultaneously!"

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1802570997398127086

"Rolls out to select areas in a few months. Also, Mini can be a great low-cost option for a good backup Internet connection if your landline goes out."

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1802573459848929781

And it has built-in wifi! Unclear how it will be powered, whether it runs off batteries or requires an electrical outlet.







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Comcast announced today that it has signed a deal with SpaceX's Starlink to bring satellite based internet connectivity to business customers in parts of the US with poor high-speed internet access.

https://x.com/SawyerMerritt/status/1804220425305526716

Elon says

"We will probably IPO Starlink, but only several years in the future when revenue growth is smooth & predictable. Public market does *not* like erratic cash flow haha. I’m a huge fan of small retail investors. Will make sure they get top priority. You can hold me to it."

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1310672832783884290

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Eric Berger (who lives in Houston) says:

"Hurricane Beryl knocked out power and internet to large chunks of Houston. Nasty storm. Xfinity internet out, T-Mobile down to text and voice. So I ran to Best Buy last night and picked up a Starlink dish. Lots of trees so had to get creative. Amazing results."

https://x.com/SciGuySpace/status/1810692518121451957

Elon says:

"Starlink now serving about (Canadian pronunciation) 3% of homes in Canada!"

(Aboot!)

About one out of 30 homes... probably a lot more than that in remote areas where Starlink might be the only high-speed internet available.

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1813704394980180449

New South Wales is spending $69 million Australian dollars to equip more than 5,000 fire-fighting vehicles belonging to the Rural Fire Service with Starlink. They call it the "Vehicle-as-a-node" (VaaN) project.

"The government said that “Starlink satellite technology will enable the use of radios, mobile phones, and other handheld devices anywhere and at any time - even in remote areas or if communication infrastructure has been damaged during a disaster...”

“It will also give crews the capability to live stream video of fires from anywhere in the state, providing command centres with the latest intelligence about an incident."

https://www.itnews.com.au/news/nsw-gov-t...ink-610373

Sky News Australia is reporting:

NEWS: Elon Musk's @Starlink is providing better internet service to those in rural Australia, and as a result, competitor NBN has seen their subscriber count plummet.

Communications Minister: "The NBN is getting smashed by Elon Musk, and it's creating embarrassing headlines for the NBN; Its satellite business is collapsing; it's also lost 80,000 customers from traditional homes, what they call brownfields business, and so what the NBN has now done is stop publishing a report that has existed for a decade.

NBN=National Broadband Network, which includes a Satellite service is paid for by the Australian Federal Government.

https://x.com/SawyerMerritt/status/1823399184302846419

The handwriting has been on the wall for some time. See here:

https://www.scivillage.com/thread-12180-...l#pid58148

More than 10% of all households in Alaska now have Starlink.

United Airlines has just announced that they will be adding high capacity mobile Starlink to all of their more than 1,000 planes. This should give passengers anywhere in the world access to high-speed internet capable of streaming video, video games and other bandwidth intensive applications. Passengers can access it by onboard wifi direct to their devices and on seatback screens. They say that they won't be charging additional for it.

I can imagine this would be a godsend if I was trapped on a zillion hour San Francisco to Sydney transpacific flight.

Commercial aviation watchers are speculating that this will put great pressure on United's competitors to do the same.

https://x.com/united/status/1834562645598302700

https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/un...r-AA1qwLNk

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/uni...r-AA1qvTwy