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A new regulatory filing by SpaceX has revealed that Starlink are preparing to release a new Wi-Fi 7 capable home wireless router (UTR-261 – this is same line as the Router Mini UTR-251) for customers of their ultrafast satellite broadband constellation in the UK, USA and other countries.
The details are presently quite thin on the ground, although the product supports Power over Ethernet (PoE), 1 x WAN port (AC power is also handled through this via a POE adapter), 2 x LAN ports and a USB-C port. The Wi-Fi 7 capability should naturally deliver better speeds, congestion management and faster latency times, although testing of a sample device only seemed to show use of the 2.4GHz and 5GHz band (no 6GHz).
The new router, which is to be “Made in Vietnam“, is expected to launch very soon and will probably accompany Starlink’s V5 dish terminal for consumers (details here and here), which incidentally will not support either Standby Mode or In-Motion use.
Starlink currently has around 11,000 satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) – mostly at altitudes of between c.340-550km. Residential customers in the UK pay from £40 a month for the 100Mbps unlimited data plan, 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).