Original article ISPreview UK:Read More
The next generation family of terminals (dishes) from Starlink (SpaceX), which operates a mega constellation of low latency and ultrafast broadband satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) for the UK and the world, will feature – “for the first time” – the capability to communicate simultaneously with two satellites.
The service currently has around 10,650 satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) – mostly at altitudes of between c.340-550km. Residential customers in the UK currently pay from £40 a month for the Residential 100Mbps unlimited data plan (plus £10pm for the hardware), which also promises uploads of c.15-35Mbps and low latency connectivity (c.20ms). Faster packages exist at greater cost, while more restrictive (data capped) options also exist for roaming users (e.g. £55 per month for 100GB of data).
Regular readers will know that Starlink are currently preparing to launch their next gen family of terminals to customers, two of which were recently previewed by Elon Musk (here). Currently, we know these will be more compact and portable, with some models featuring USB-C ports and battery power. But the full details remain subject to some considerable speculation.
The latest development today comes from international connectivity provider and authorized reseller of Starlink, Neterra, which has announced that customers in 129 territories can benefit from discounts exceeding 15% on their Starlink terminals, while 99 territories now enjoy substantial reductions ranging from 50% to 80% on selected products.
However, in-between announcing such discounts, ISPreview noted that the company also let slip some new details about Starlink’s next-gen family of terminals.
Extract from Neterra’s Pricing Update
“Looking ahead, Neterra can also share an early glimpse into Starlink’s future roadmap. By the end of 2026, Starlink is expected to introduce a new family of satellite terminals featuring improved resilience and, for the first time, the capability to communicate simultaneously with two satellites … This advancement is expected to deliver greater connection stability and improved overall performance.”
At present the dish terminals that Starlink ships to customers are typically designed to connect to one satellite at a time. The dish is, however, designed to switch between different LEO satellites in milliseconds in order to provide seamless and continuous connectivity (it can also “see” several at once in its view of the sky), which does create a brief period where it may technically seem to be communicating with two satellites at once.
The ability to maintain a continuous connection with two satellites at once would mark a significant change and one that could provide a major performance boost for customers. The catch right now is that we don’t yet know whether this capability will be limited to a specific part of Starlink’s next gen terminal family (e.g. enterprise / military terminals) or if it’ll be available across all of them (consumers, business etc.).
Normally we might expect that such a capability would push up the power requirements of Starlink’s kit. But SpaceX’s focus on optimising the hardware, as well as the mentions of battery power for some models, does suggest that we might not need to be too concerned. On the flip side, Starlink’s service has become significantly more expensive over the past month.