Following the splashdown of SpaceX Starship’s 11th flight test, SpaceX announced the V3 phase of its Starlink program, now with vastly larger, more powerful satellites. V3 will be offering gigabit internet connectivity to Starlink users for the first time, some of the most powerful off-the-grid support we’ve seen.
When announcing the V3 satellite, Starlink mentioned that it’s also designed to provide 60 Terabits per second of downlink capacity to its network, more than 20x the capacity of every V2 Mini launch on its older Falcon 9 rocket.
There’s still no word on exactly when we can expect these V3 satellites to launch and start providing boosted internet speeds. Since they’re well over 4,000 pounds, it may take the SpaceX team additional work to find the best way to launch these upgraded satellites.
Starlink’s current lineup is expensive — see our full review here — but provides internet in places where there’s simply no other way to get it (albeit with nighttime sky pollution that Starlink is still struggling to deal with). Our resident Starlink expert at CNET, principal writer Joe Supan, recently tried the Starlink Mini, which is small enough to take on a hiking trip and can get you camping internet anywhere, as long as there’s not a lot of trees.
Now, we’re wondering how V3 Starlink may improve the average 127Mbps download speeds we found during testing and if that will mean a hike in subscription prices as well. Starlink is currently charging $165 per month for unlimited data connections.
SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
