Galing na mismo kay Elon Musk – the value of Starlink is to provide low-latency, high-bandwidth internet access to the sparse and moderately sparse and relatively low density areas. Starlink is not well suited for high density cities.
Oh diba? Kala mo bibilis na internet dahil meron nang Starlink at mga libo-libong LEO (low-earth orbit) satellites?
Starlink will benefit rural communities, especially remote islands in the Philippines. Online classes will no longer be a problem kung merong Starlink since mas mataas na ang data speeds.The community or LGU simply has to set up a ground-station, distribute (or if a family can afford it) the Starlink Kits, and let everybody enjoy fast internet speeds.
Communication during video classes will be faster dahil mas maliit ang delays. Hindi na mahuhuli sa recitation ang student. Livestreaming will possibly be more time-accurate. Emergency medical response or telemedicine will even benefit from Starlink when improvements and upgrades come.
There are many more ways to implement or deliver the Starlink technology in the Philippines and hopefully, this is what the tech community could contribute to.
BENEFITS FOR GAMERS, FINTECH, and MORE
Starlink will benefit gamers because of the low latency. This will enable tournament participation in any part of the world. Just imagine nasa semi-finals na ang team mo and you’re doing it from the comfort of your own home!
Starlink’s extremely low latency will also be an advantage for traders, as information (exchange rates, stock prices, etc), is transmitted faster and losses will be kept at a minimum. Although wala pa tayong tech para makapag padala ng impormasyon at speeds faster than light, the concept already exists and is being studied by scientists.
What’s also great is WALANG DATA CAP. If Starlink has enough satellites orbiting the earth, darating din sa point na baka mag shift ang consumers from traditional wired internet connections to Starlink.
This is good news since local ISPs like Globe or Smart will have to come up with ways to retain their users. Otherwise, access to the Internet will become even cheaper, and will have less outages.
STARLINK DISADVANTAGES
Not all individuals will be able to afford a Starlink kit – it’s expensive, works via subscription, and is not something that would work in highly-populated areas like the Philippines.
Another disadvantage for Starlinks is it needs to have a view of the open sky. The Starlink kit will not connect with the satellite if it’s blocked by trees or your human body. There’s no official information if the company plans on making better technologies (satellites) that can withstand tropical rainstorms which plague the country every year.
These are just a few of the disadvantages Filipinos will be facing when they want to use Starlink tech. However, Starlink will improve once there are enough LEO satellites out there, kaya naman maghihintay na lang muna tayo. Or you can just shell out around PHP25,000 for a better internet experience. We won’t judge.
SHOULD I BUY STARLINK?
You can – if you live on a remote island, or up in the mountains – and you will benefit from Starlink. If you live in the Metro, it’s actually better to stick with ground-based connections.
The presence of Starlink in the Philippines could mean a slight decongestion in urban areas just so the Starlink kits could be set up, and most provinces would have open skies ideal for the linking. This would also prompt SpaceX to build ground-stations, and in turn, affect the market and the ISPs.
Pero remember, hindi lang Starlink ang meron netong tech na to. China has its own low-earth orbit satellites, as well as Amazon’s Kuiper, OneWeb, and a few other companies that invest in space-based network and satellite-based internet technologies.
