High-Performance Dish for Likely Starlink Business Tier Gets FCC Approval
SpaceX seems to have finally secured regulatory approval to sell the premium Starlink Business dish to customers in the US.
On Monday, the FCC granted(Opens in a new window) a license for a “high-performance” end-user terminal for Starlink that can emit a more powerful signal. The same terminal has also been “ruggedized” to better withstand harsh environments.
In its application to the FCC, SpaceX didn’t reveal much about the technical specs for the high-performance user terminal. But the license is most likely for the Starlink Business dish, which SpaceX first introduced in February. The premium dish is designed to receive download speeds at 150Mbps to 500Mbps, far higher than the 50-200Mbps download speeds of the consumer-focused Starlink dish.
According to SpaceX, the Starlink Business dish also features “increased snow melt capabilities as well as the ability to deliver faster speeds in high temperature environments.”
Even before the Starlink Business dish gained FCC approval, SpaceX said it planned to deliver the first units in Q2. Now that the commission has approved them, the Starlink website(Opens in a new window) has been updated to specify that the first orders will start arriving at the end of Q2 for subscribers in the US and Canada.
In other countries, SpaceX has been sending a “circular(Opens in a new window)” Starlink Business dish based on existing hardware designs, according(Opens in a new window) to users(Opens in a new window) who’ve ordered Starlink Business.
As its name implies, Starlink Business is targeting enterprises that need high-speed broadband in remote locations. However, the service is very expensive. SpaceX has been charging interested customers $2,500 for the hardware, or about four
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