Starlink Introduces Maritime $5,000 Internet Subscription for Ships

Starlink is launching a new satellite internet subscription aimed at shipping. Customers pay $5,000 per month for the Maritime subscription and a one-time purchase price of $10,000 for the two receiver dishes and the installation package.

The Starlink Maritime dish, via Starlink

Customers in select regions, which do not currently include the Benelux, can Maritime package expected in a few weeks. The internet subscription offers in terms of download speed between 100 and 350 megabits per second. The upload speed must be between 20 and 40Mb/s. These are higher theoretical speeds than the average achievable with the consumer version of Starlink, although this is mainly because the Maritime package requires two dishes.

According to Starlink, the two ‘high performance terminals’ for use at sea can withstand ‘extreme cold, heat, hail, sleet, heavy rain and gale force winds’. The company also says that the dishes can withstand a knock from a rocket engine; immediately comparison video on Instagram shows Starlink what customers can expect with two videos of the landing of a Falcon rocket from SpaceX. The video on the right has relatively good image quality and is said to have been made with Starlink internet. By extension tweet Elon Musk that the video on the left was shot using an Internet connection from an unnamed competing provider, costing $150,000 a month, according to the CEO.

For the time being, Starlink Maritime’s coverage is quite limited. Currently, only part of the North Sea, the entire Mediterranean Sea and the coastal areas around the US, Australia and New Zealand are covered. From the last quarter of this year, a few significant pieces will be added. In Q1 of 2023, the sea area of ​​practically the entire planet should be covered by Starlink internet.

Image Maritime coverage via Starlink