Wouldn’t it be great to have fast, satellite internet on your boat? Now you can get it through SpaceX’s Starlink Maritime, an internet service designed specifically for use on ships.
On Twitter, Elon Musk called it “Starlink for boats,” but it’s not that simple.
Starlink for boats! https://t.co/BQujU8Ngna
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 7, 2022
The official Starlink page says the brand-new service is aimed for “merchant vessels to oil rigs to premium yachts,” which is a bit more accurate given the pricing. The hardware costs $10,000, shipping and handling is an extra $100, and service is $5,000 a month.
For the price, you’ll get “high-latency internet” with download speeds of up to 350Mbps.
As far as coverage goes, SpaceX says that Starlink Maritime allows you to connect from the most remote waters worldwide, but that’s not true yet. According to the company’s coverage map (below), only a fairly thin strip of sea/ocean around North America, South America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand is currently covered.
Coverage of the world’s oceans will increase dramatically in the fourth quarter of 2022, and the rest of the planet will be covered in the first quarter of 2023.
When you navigate far from the coast, coverage may take a while to arrive.
Starlink Maritime is pretty tough and can withstand “extreme cold, heat, hail, sleet, heavy rain, and gale force winds,” SpaceX says.
Although unlikely to be useful to anyone besides dictators and supervillains, a cool perk is Starlink Maritime’s resistance to the forces and heat generated by rocket engines. You know those cool videos of SpaceX rockets landing at sea? SpaceX was using Starlink Maritime to deliver them, so if it can withstand that, it can probably withstand your puny rocket.
The only thing you need is some deck space and an unobstructed view of the sky to install Starlink Maritime. The service can be paused at any time if you don’t need it all the time (what, you don’t live on a superyacht?)
Starlink Maritime is shipping within two weeks; check out if it’s available where you live over at https://www.starlink.com/maritime.