Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp.’s (SpaceX) announced via social media that their internet service is now available in the Philippines.

According to their official announcement made on their official Twitter page, Starlink can now be accessed by Filipinos.

According to the social media post, one needs to simply visit Starlink’s Map portal (https://www.starlink.com/map), fill up the form indicating your address so that you can place your order.

After filling-up the address, there will be a prompt that will show that service contains a fixed payment of P2,700 per month.

It will carry no contract of obligation, meaning one will not be tied for a specific period, but there will be a P29,320 fee for the hardware.

SpaceX operates a satellite internet service which launched Starlink satellites since 2019.

Aside from the offer of a no contract, it also boats of low latency internet connection, and download speeds up to 200 Mb/s.

The announcement fits well with the thrust of President Ferdinand R. Marcos to connect all Filipinos via the internet.

Earlier, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) said the government will be shouldering the cost of deploying and connecting far-flung communities via the SpaceX low earth orbit (LEO) satellite internet connectivity known as Starlink services.

Starlink Philippines is a wholly owned subsidiary of American tech billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX. The company secured the thumbs up of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) as a Value-Added Service (VAS) provider in May.

Information Technology Secretary Ivan John Uy said the agency is working with the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to identify GIDAs or geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas where the LEO satellite internet service will be deployed.

Uy said the government can shoulder the cost of Starlink internet services in far-flung areas “until such time there is an economic upliftment in the communities.”

Starlink is a satellite internet constellation operated by SpaceX, providing satellite Internet access coverage to 40 countries that aims for global coverage. Engineered by SpaceXStarlink, it boasts speeds of up to 200 Mpbs and latency as low as 20ms for residential use.

The NTC earlier said the Starlink service offers high speed low latency satellite internet service with download speed between 100 megabits per second (Mbps) to 200Mbps.

Using advanced satellites in a low orbit, the agency said Starlink will enable video calls, online gaming, streaming and other high data activities that historically have not been possible with satellite internet.

Starlink is expected to cover villages in urban and suburban areas and rural areas that remain unserved or underserved with internet access services.

CURRENTPH NEWS SERVICE