Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite internet subsidiary, is only four years old, but in this short time it has managed to position itself as one of the most important companies in the sector (although not everyone is happy with its service).
Before the end of the year, and in parallel with the launch of new satellites, SpaceX presented the third generation of the Starlink installation kit, i.e. the equipment that customers receive when they sign up for the service. Here’s what’s new.
Starlink has a new antenna and router
As we said, the Starlink kit consists of several elements, but let’s start with the main one: the antenna. This generation has some interesting changes. The dish is now thinner, but also bigger. Let’s take a look at its exact dimensions.
According to the official website, the 30.3 cm width of the previous generation remains the same, but the height has grown from 51.3 cm to 59.4 cm. The thickness of the antenna is also only 3.97 cm, as the motorised automatic orientation mechanism has been removed.
The latter means that, unlike the second-generation dish, users will have to steer the antenna manually. This, however, is where the Starlink mobile app comes into play, providing a step-by-step guide with the exact parameters.
The antenna comes with a simple stand and the possibility to attach it to an external mast. Starlink claims that this has been made possible, among other things, because the antenna now has a 10% better field of view than the previous generation.
The antenna’s protection rating scales from IP54 to IP67 Type 4 and promises to operate in a temperature range of -30°C to 60°C. The antenna is also designed to remain in the same high performance range as its predecessor. It has also been designed to remain operational even in wind speeds of up to 96 km/h.
One thing that does not go unnoticed is the power consumption. The second generation had a range of 50 to 75 W, while the current generation is in the 75-100 W range. We are looking at a higher power consumption between generations, although not drastically.
The kit also comes with a router with WiFi 6 (formerly WiFi 5), tri-band (formerly dual) and two Ethernet LAN ports with removable cover. The kit is compatible with Starlink Gen 2 and Gen 3 Mesh nodes, but is not compatible with third-party Mesh systems.
The other items included in the box are a Starlink Gen 3 cable, a power cable and the power supply. It should be noted that the generation kit is still available, but no details have been provided on the criteria Starlink will follow in shipping one or the other.