AP
- Elon Musk said SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service should be "fully mobile" this year.
- This would let Starlink customers use it at different addresses and in moving vehicles.
- Musk also said Friday that Starlink could exit its beta as early as this summer.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
Elon Musk said on Friday that SpaceX's satellite internet service, Starlink, should be "fully mobile" by the end of the year, meaning customers could use it in moving vehicles or at different addresses.
Musk also tweeted that Starlink would "probably" exit its beta "this summer." More than 10,000 people have signed up to Starlink since its "Better Than Nothing Beta" launched in October 2020.
During beta, customers cannot move their hardware from address to address – they can only use it where they registered it.
-Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 15, 2021
In March, Musk filed a request to the Federal Communications Commission for Starlink to go mobile, which would allow customers to operate the internet service in ships, planes, RVs, and trucks – but not Tesla cars, which aren't big enough to carry the Starlink terminal.
In the request, David Goldman, SpaceX's director of satellite policy, said the expansion "would serve the public interest" and "allow operators and passengers to access services that enable increased productivity."
Musk also tweeted Friday that Starlink's "service uptime, bandwidth & latency are improving rapidly." In February, Musk promised that Starlink internet speeds would double and latency would drop by the end of 2021. Insider previously reported that Starlink subscribers were getting faster internet than SpaceX said they should expect.
Even in freezing temperatures, high winds, and snow, Starlink has hit speeds of 175 Mbps, users told Insider.
SpaceX has already launched 1,300 Starlink satellites into orbit, and eventually wants up to 42,000 enveloping the Earth.