Starlink Maritime Launched for the 1%
Today, July 7, 2022, Starlink announced their new Maritime Service on their website. They recently secured in-motion licensing from the FCC, so I’m sure this has been in the works for a while awaiting approval from them.
Be sure to stay up to date on all things Starlink at our Starlink Mobile News landing page!
What is Starlink Maritime?
Starlink Maritime is Starlink’s newest offering, and consists of their highest-end hardware and highest priced service to date. This is definitely targeting the cruise liners, mega-yachters, cargo shippers, and other similar high-end users and enterprise account types.
Starlink Maritime Cost
Grab a chair and your favorite cold beverage for this!
The hardware will set you back a cool $5,000 (originally $10,000) and the service will merely put a dent in your mega-yacht budget at $5,000 per month. If you are one of the users that will be affording this, congratulations…you are likely a millionaire at this point. Taxes on the hardware may cost you more than the standard Residential/RV equipment kits, depending on where you live. Wild, huh?!
Sadly, this will be a mega-bargain for a lot of these users that have been paying upwards of 4 times or more for Satellite Internet Services like Vsat. Starlink Maritime will likely blow away a lot of the previous versions, as far as performance goes, too. This could actually be a great deal for the right users.
The Starlink Maritime equipment kit comes with “two high performance terminals”, and when going through to the checkout screen, they are including two pipe adapters!
They do state that “Customers will have the option to upgrade to a flat panel Starlink and mounting hardware in Q4 2022”, which makes me wonder if new hardware for RV use is soon to follow.
Starlink Maritime Speeds
Starlink Maritime is claiming to offer speeds of “up to 350 Mbps download while at sea”. This is inline with what Starlink Business is claiming, so I would imagine they are similar in priorities where it matters.
Starlink Maritime Coverage
Starlink Maritime has its own coverage map with anticipated coverage timelines on it. It looks like later this year (Q4), they will have quite a bit of coverage at sea, with even more opening up in early 2023!
What Else?
Starlink Maritime will offer “pay-as-you-go” service, similar to Starlink RV, so you can pause and unpause service with ease for part-time/seasonal use for your rig.
“Rugged enough to withstand rocket landings”. On the Starlink Maritime website, they state that “Starlink is currently being used to get high-quality video of SpaceX rocket landing at sea, providing continuous coverage in the face of engines capable of generating up to 190,000 lbs of force”, so the Starlink Maritime terminals are likely the ones they have been using to test on their rockets!
This is all we know for now, so check back for more updates on Starlink Maritime as we learn them!
Is Starlink Maritime in your future? We would love to know if you are a prospective buyer and what you intend to use it for. Shoot us a message below!
I will update the Starlink RV Mounting and Storage Options post with some options for the larger Maritime terminals as more get in the hands of users.
