Elon Musk’s company, Starlink, began its private operations in April 2023 in the country, and operates with a constellation of low Earth orbit satellites.
A vehicle connected to the antenna of a Starlink satellite.
Through its business unit, the Telefónica operator became a strategic partner of Starlink, Elon Musk’s company that proposes Internet connection using low Earth orbit satellites.
With this agreement, the company will be able to offer the Starlink service to the business sector in the world, including Ecuador.
Some of the advantages of the service is the promise that the Internet will reach rural areas, where connectivity has never reached before.
In addition, the connection speed will be 300 megabits of download and the possibility of providing a special terminal capable of connecting to the Internet from a moving vehicle.
“The satellite will allow connectivity projects to be carried out very quickly and efficiently,” said the CEO of the mobile operator, Julio Beamonte.
Initially, the joint operations of Starlink and Telefónica are underway in Mexico, and will reach other countries in the region, such as Ecuador, in the coming months.
In April 2023, the Ministry of Telecommunications welcomed Starlink for the residential sector in the country, and with an initial price of USD 60 per month.
To function in the 32 countries that it operates, Starlink uses its 4,200 nanosatellites, which are intertwined by laser.
But the service has its drawbacks, especially due to the latency factor, which measures the delay in the arrival of a data packet at its destination.
Latency is measured in units of time, such as milliseconds. With Starlink, it takes 27 to 41 milliseconds for a data packet to arrive.
Not terrible results, when compared to the typical speeds of 10 megabits per second seen in a rural area.
