A SpaceX Starlink user from Australia recently shared via social media that he hung a Starlink dish antenna on a Tesla electric car to access the satellite Internet network on the road.
He also tested how far the vehicle could access the Internet from the service address, and the end result was that the vehicle was able to receive data within 40 kilometers of the home address. Although the Starlink network is currently limited to a single service address, the program will send services to that address throughout the day. According to the company's founder Elon Musk, SpaceX plans to enable Starlink mobile services in 2022, while Starlink will achieve global coverage by the end of next year, enabling ships, aircraft and mobile vehicles to access the Starlink satellite Internet network.
The Australian Starlink user shared that they could still receive "200Mbps [megabits per second] high-speed Internet downloads" from the SpaceX Starlink terminal installed on the Tesla Model X when driving on the highway at 100 kilometers per hour.
To achieve global Starlink coverage and enable users to move their disc terminals beyond specific addresses, SpaceX is working to deploy thousands of next-generation Starlink satellites equipped with inter-satellite communication laser links. The laser function enables satellites to transmit data to each other without having to receive data directly from ground stations on Earth. Musk explained last month: "Inter-satellite laser communication means that Starlink can transmit data around the Earth at the speed of light in a vacuum before touching the ground, and over time, some communication can simply go from one user terminal to another without touching the ground internet [ground station/data center]."
To date, SpaceX has approximately 1,944 Internet satellites operating in low Earth orbit, of which about 200 have laser links. The constellation currently serves approximately 140,000 customers living in rural/remote areas in 20 countries, including: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Switzerland, the United States and the United Kingdom. The service will also be available next year in Brazil and other parts of Latin America. Overall, Starlink will launch at least 12,000 satellites over the next seven years.