Most users of the SpaceX Starlink service understand that the ‘Better Than Nothing Beta‘ program will have its issues, and in email to those beta users last night Starlink acknowledged a recent issue and outlined upcoming improvements.
Below is the email that was sent out to beta users with our comments interspersed.
Throughout the beta program, customer feedback has helped drive some of our most important changes to date as we continue to test and scale the network.
The Starlink team has implemented a number of improvements since our last update. Below are some of the key highlights:
Starlink Expansion
Since rollout of initial U.S. service in October 2020, Starlink now offers limited beta service in Canada, U.K., Germany and New Zealand. To date, we have deposits from almost every country around the world; going forward, our ability to expand service will be driven in large part by governments granting us licensing internationally.
SpaceX has added another 430 satellites this year to its constellation of over 1,300 satellites and is planning on launching over a 1,000 this year. The company now finds itself in a race to get as many satellites on-orbit as possible as competition is coming. The race also includes convincing governments to allow service providers like Starlink, OneWeb, and now China’s Guowang, access to their markets.
Preventative Maintenance
Recently some beta users saw short but more frequent outages, particularly in the evening hours. This was caused by two main issues— preventive maintenance on various ground gateways, coupled with a network logic bug that intermittently caused some packet processing services to hang until they were reset. The good news is fixes were implemented and users should no longer see this particular issue.
Users have reported this and other issues, but for the most part are happy with the service.
Gateway Availability
As more users come online, the team is seeing an increase in surges of activity, particularly during peak hours. The gateway infrastructure to support these types of surges is in place, but we are awaiting final regulatory approval to use all available channels. Near term fixes have been implemented to facilitate better load balancing in the interim, and this issue will fully resolve once all approvals are received.
Gateway availability is critical for Starlink, and outside of the U.S. market, getting approval to operate gateways is an ongoing issue. In Canada for example, Starlink only has the one test gateway in Newfoundland licensed for testing. When will other gateways be available in Canada is unknown. Starlink isn’t commenting and neither is ISED. But we are regularly checking the monthly Satellite Earth Station list issued by ISED.
Dynamic Frame Allocation
The Starlink software team recently rolled out our dynamic frame allocation feature which dynamically allocates additional bandwidth to beta users based on real time usage. This feature enables the network to better balance load and deliver higher speeds to the user.
Connecting to the Best Satellite
Today, your Starlink speaks to a single satellite assigned to your terminal for a particular period of time. In the future, if communication with your assigned satellite is interrupted for any reason, your Starlink will seamlessly switch to a different satellite, resulting in far fewer network disruptions. There can only be one satellite connected to your Starlink at any time, but this feature will allow for choice of the best satellite. This feature will be available to most beta users in April and is expected to deliver one of our most notable reliability improvements to date.
This is a welcome improvement and hints at mobility of the service, something SpaceX recently applied for in the U.S. and which users hope will be available in Canada.
These upgrades are part of our overall effort to build a network that not only reaches underserved users, but also performs significantly better than traditional satellite internet.
To that end, the Starlink team is always looking for great software, integration and network engineers. If you want to help us build the internet in space, please send your resume to starlinksoftwarejobs@spacex.com.
Thank you for your feedback and continued support!
The Starlink Team