April Update: Starlink Business is now available in NZ. The hardware costs NZ$4375 and the monthly cost is NZ$840 (costs are GST inclusive).
SpaceX has just revealed a Starlink plan with increased performance for business use. Previously Starlink had not been marketed for business use.
designated service locationThe main advantages of Starlink Business over the standard service are:
- Officially for business use
- Higher speed (roughly 2x)
- Improved performance in extreme weather conditions.
- Receiver can be used anywhere, rather than only in the designated service location.
- Prioritised support.
Equipment
Starlink Premium comes with a bigger antenna which is faster and more rugged. It is twice the area of the standard dish with broader scan angle.
Cost
Based on the current US pricing it won't be cheap. We can expect the cost of Starlink Premium to be around five times that of standard Starlink. This works out at approx NZD$800 per month and NZD$4000 initial equipment cost.
Starlink Business Availability
Not yet available for pre-order in New Zealand. (It is available in the US for pre-order with the first premium deliveries in Q2 2022.)
Alternatives
Your local WISP may be able to provide a premium grade business service. As far as other satellite services go, the nearest comparable service I found was Woi Satellite internet (70Mbps Down/ 20Mbps Up) at $2536 per month.
Closing Thoughts
A welcome development for those businesses with significant broadband requirements but are lacking fibre connectivity.
No-one talks about its availability (ie online). is it in the 99% range or higher? This matters for broadcasters, which is the case here.
I can’t comment directly about Starlink Business because we don’t have it. However I can say that the availability of our Standard Starlink connection has been well above 99%.
We’ve got a Samknows white box connected to our Starlink. Its reporting 23s downtime in the last 24 hrs. (See https://samknows.com/blog/uptime-downtime for how its measured.) Other days its been worse, but it been fine for non-broadcast use. Happy to help with some other measurements if you want.