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- Elon Musk’s SpaceX on Monday opened up $99 preorders for Starlink in different parts of the world.
- This included Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, and areas of the US where Starlink isn’t yet live.
- Musk said: “It’s meant to be the same price in all countries. Only difference should be taxes & shipping.”
- Visit the Business section of Insider for more stories.
SpaceX on Monday began offering preorders of its Starlink satellite internet service to more countries and cities around the world, including Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, and parts of the US and Canada where Starlink is not yet up and running.
Starlink’s “Better Than Nothing” beta launched in October and currently operates in parts of northern US, southern Canada, and most recently in the UK.
Outside of these areas, people in certain locations can now put down a $99 deposit to get their hands on the service once it becomes available, which is expected to be later this year.
The deposit will be applied to the amount due on the Starlink kit, according to users in the Reddit Starlink community and Twitter users who have signed up for the satellite internet network. Starlink currently costs $600 upfront.
“Orders will be fulfilled on a first-come, first-served basis,” the company website says.
A Starlink subscriber in Ontario, Canada, who is currently not in the service area tweeted on Monday that he could preorder Starlink, and that he hoped the cost would come down soon.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk replied to his tweet, saying: "It's meant to be the same price in all countries. Only difference should be taxes & shipping."
A user on the Reddit Starlink community posted Tuesday they had also preordered the kit from Vancouver, Canada.
Another Reddit user based in Mexico posted a picture on the platform Tuesday of a deposit confirmation that said the internet service would come to the country in late 2021.
Across the Pacific ocean, Australian subscribers have also been able to preorder Starlink for mid to late 2021. One Twitter user in Victoria said he'd ordered it for his parents who live in rural Australia, adding that it's "game changing."
A Reddit user also based in Victoria on Tuesday posted a picture of their AU$139 ($107) deposit, saying they had just preordered Starlink. Other users responded to the post, including some in New Zealand who confirmed they were able to order too.
Other parts of the US outside current service areas are also able to reserve the Starlink kit.
One Reddit user in Virginia confirmed they preordered Musk's internet network, and other users in south-east Missouri, Kansas, and Illinois did the same, with expected deliveries in mid to late 2021.
Over the course of the year, more countries could green light Starlink. The approval process for the satellite network is still in early stages in the Caribbean, Austria, Spain, Ireland, Italy, the Philippines, India, Japan, South Africa, Brazil, and Columbia, according to a report from Teslarati.
Starlink now has more than 10,000 users worldwide and promises download speeds of between 50 and 150 megabits per second (Mbps), although some users are already hitting more than 210 Mbps.
Have you recently ordered or installed Starlink in your country? Get in touch with this reporter via email: [email protected].