DICT chief Ivan Uy: “It (Starlink) will not reach the middle and southern part of the Philippines where we badly need this satellite connectivity.”
DICT CHIEF — Information and Communications Secretary Ivan Uy said that the Starlink satellite internet service will initially cover only the northern part of the Philippines.
At a “Laging Handa” public briefing on Monday, Uy said that the Starlink satellite internet service owned by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk will not reach the middle and southern part of the country.
“So it may take a bit longer before this service can be availed — until they can launch additional satellites that will cover Central Philippines and Southern Philippines,” he said, speaking in a mix of English and Filipino.
It was last May when the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) approved the registration of Starlink Internet Services Philippines Inc. — a subsidiary of Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service.
Uy said that Starlink’s entry into the Philippines will widen the scope of internet coverage, reaching even far-flung areas of the country. According to him, Starlink’s satellite technology would be an “ideal” tool to address the internet connectivity problem.
“Because this is a low Earth orbit satellite network, a lot of satellites would have to be deployed,” Uy said. “As far as we know, it looks like Starlink plans to deploy a total of 40,000 satellites, and about 2,000 satellites have been deployed. And they will add some more satellites.”
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The National Telecommunications Commission said that Starlink’s registration in the country now allows the company to directly access satellite systems and to build and operate broadband facilities providing internet services.
Further, the National Telecommunications Commission said that Starlink would offer a high-speed, low-latency satellite internet service with download speeds reaching 100Mbps to 200 Mbps.
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