Starlink’s LEO Satellite Broadband Service Goes Live on Gibraltar

Elon Musk has confirmed that the global Starlink service from SpaceX, which offers ultrafast broadband via a massive global network of compact satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), is now available to people on Gibraltar, which is a British overseas territory on Spain’s south coast.

Starlink currently has over 10,290 satellites in orbit – mostly at altitudes of between c.340-550km. Residential customers in the UK usually pay from £35 £25 a month for the ‘Residential 100Mbps’ unlimited data plan (kit price may vary due to different offers), which also promises uploads of c.15-35Mbps and low latency connectivity. Faster packages exist at greater cost, while more restrictive (data capped) options also exist for roaming users (e.g. £50 per month for 100GB of data).

The service typically adopts different pricing and terms for different countries and regions. A quick check of the service for Gibraltar indicates that new customers (residential) will pay from £40 per month for speeds of 200Mbps (uploads of c.20-40Mbps), plus several one-off fees for hardware (£230 mini-dish or £310 for the Standard 4 X dish/kit) and shipping (£20).

Most of Gibraltar is already covered by a full fibre broadband network, but this hasn’t quite reached everywhere yet and so there may be some demand for Starlink’s service. Local company Electrical Marine Services (EMS) are also supplying the service for professional installations, although as above you can order it directly and deploy it yourself.