SpaceX is rolling out Beta Testing on its Starlink high speed satellite internet service. Starlink will be a constellation of around 40,000 satellites located in low earth orbit. A SpaceX rocket mission can take 60 satellites at a time and deploy them. The satellites then will get to their proper location.
The satellites will make high speed internet available for most of the entire planet. Right now Starlink consists of about 800 satellites. Currently, Starlink service is being offered in the northern US and recently part of Canada. Minnesota and Wisconsin are part of this service area. Best part about Starlink is that it will offer high speed internet to rural areas that have little to no high speed internet service. Starlink may not work in high density urban area's. Many beekeepers live in rural areas and could benefit from this service.
This service right now is beta testing, so at the moment it is not perfect. I did a speed test of my Centurylink DSL internet. I get 11 Mbps download and 0.7 Mbps upload speeds. Starlink users are reporting download speeds of 100 - 160 Mbps and upload speeds of 20 Mbps. This is quite a difference. As time goes on I expect to see Starlink have a pretty much steady number with most participants getting the same speeds. Some internet service providers will throttle some of their higher users of data stream. The providers slow down the stream. Starlink at this time, their capacity is so large, they do not see throttling in their future.
You can go to Starlink's website https://www.starlink.com/ and sign up for information. I signed up two months ago. I recently was sent an email from Starlink stating that Starlink is being offered in my area and I could get the service. My friend who lives north of Grand Rapids way out in the sticks signed up and has received his dish on Friday. He will be setting it up this week.
I do have a fiber optic cable running in my ditch. I have not been offered any fiber service. There is a guy about a mile from me who put up a huge house. He paid $145,000.00 to run fiber optic cable from the main line to his home (about one mile). I think he should have waited for Starlink.
Right now Starlink costs $500.00 for the equipment and $99.00 a month for the service. This price could go down as the system expands.
There are quite a few YouTube videos about Starlink. Here is a short video that shows the equipment and internet speeds. Plus compares speed with his Hughs Net satellite system.
60 satellites deploying from the Falcon 9 rocket