Elon Says Starlink Private Beta in 3 Months and Public in 6 Months

The SpaceX Starlink system will not have any competition for low altitude and low latency satellite service for many years. The nearest competitor, OneWeb, went bankrupt a few weeks ago. The Starlink system is about 80 times closer to the Earth. Lasers travel faster in a vacuum than through fiber. This means for low latency service Starlink will be superior to any communication system for distances greater than 2000 miles.

The satellite receiver will need to be able track the low earth orbit satellites and shift to a different satellite. The satellites will be about 30 times farther than the altitude of a commercial passenger jet and they will be moving about 30 times faster. The apparent motion of the satellites relative to people on the ground will be like watching an airplane track across the sky.