Starlink is a much-anticipated satellite internet service scheduled to launch for New Zealand and Australian customers later this year. Its aim is to bring affordable, broadband-equivalent data speeds to anyone, no matter where they are located around the world. This could be a game-changer for rural industries like forestry.
The service, backed by Elon Musk, is provided through thousands of interlinked satellites orbiting the earth at just 550 kilometres from the ground.
Pricing for Australia is A$139 a month with no data caps and speeds between 50 to 150 Mbps. Latency is also low, between 20 to 40 milliseconds. The hardware costs A$709 plus shipping. For New Zealand, costs are NZ$159 per month and NZ$799 plus shipping.
There is a good write up about the early signups in Australia on ABC. Further details can also be found at IT News.
Connectivity has always been an issue for the forestry sector. Access to faster, more reliable real-time data would go a long way to maximise the benefits of technologies like AI, IoT and UAVs.
Image Credit: SpaceX
Share this Post
