back to article Philippines logs on to Starlink for remote area internet services

The Philippines is considering SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service as a means to provide access for remote communities. The nation of 7,100 islands and 110 million souls has a policy of implementing free Wi-Fi in all public spaces, so citizens can access digital government services and the economic opportunities of …

  1. SJA

    Inlaws

    My wife is Filipina and my inlaws live - as you might have guessed - in the Philippines. Since communication is very important (happy wife, happy life) I was pondering to get Starlink for them, as they only had crappy 4G (well, mostly 3G) internet that often had outages and cost only little less than monthly starlink. So after I discovered Starlink in 2019 I think, I did also apply for it in the Philippines. However in mid-2020 they finally got fiber connection. It's also costly but they share a 600/600mbit connection among 5 families. So it's affordable.

  2. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    7,100 islands ?

    Yup, connecting all that is going to cost an astronomical amount.

    Go Starlink !

  3. Pangasinan Philippines

    Shaking up the industry

    Speaking from Manila;

    In my seven years of living here internet connections have improved from fixed LTE using home antenna to fibre (direct) to the home.

    Am getting 200Mb/s down and 400Mb/s up links

    5G phone is new but outside Manila is mainly 4G LTE.

    Way out in the provinces phone signals may be hard to get.

    Problem here is that Manila was the world's text capital due to the free texts added to any pre-paid load.

    However, the cell networks were not upgraded to cater for data and video.

    Big catch-up under way. Target is extra 10,000 cell towers in 5 years.

    The telcos are selling towers to third party to raise money to expand.

    The policy is for common towers but that is yet to happen.

    Three networks are PLDT, Globe and Dito.

    1. EricB123 Bronze badge

      Re: Shaking up the industry

      Dito?

  4. sabroni Silver badge
    Stop

    Last paragraph

    Should be labelled as an Ad.

    1. Peter2 Silver badge

      Re: Last paragraph

      Note the "if".

      However, if it's working rather well in Ukraine despite Russian jamming etc then it'll probably do at least as well elseware.

    2. EricB123 Bronze badge

      Re: Last paragraph

      Have you ever been to the Philippines?

  5. BOFH in Training

    It may not be so expensive if

    They setup so that one(or a few) starlink ground terminal covers a whole village or something. May need to add some APs, but it can work.

    Might be alot cheaper then running wires / fibre thru the sea and mountains.

    And if they are planning for bulk orders, they may be able to negotiate a better deal with Starlink in terms of pricing.

  6. Denarius
    Thumb Up

    if Oz NBN anything to go by

    Starlink will be cheaper, faster and available nationwide before heat death of Universe. Nice to see a government being reasonable with infrastructure in remote areas for once.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: if Oz NBN anything to go by

      If NBN is your baseline, then everyone having their own Starlink satellite looks cheap

  7. mark l 2 Silver badge

    Just watched one of Jeff Geerling recent Youtube videos on Starlink where he mentions that capacity seems to be becoming a issue on Starlink as when he first installed the kit he was getting 150Mb/s but now its down to 30Mb/s

    Now for someone who is in a remote area 30Mb/s is often the best speed you can get, but its definitely something to consider when getting Starlink.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Starlink capacity is generally a localized issue, so if you're in a remote area, you're also less likely to run into congestion. It's also driven by the number of available (viewable) satellites. Their satellite network is very incomplete, but growing.

      If you have access to fiber, Starlink will be a major step down for you (because physics).

      Source: am a (happy) Starlink user.

  8. thejoelr

    Actual coverage.

    At least initially, Starlink only has coverage over the northern area of the country. This helps some, but the largest need is farther south. The terminals themselves have a cost, but you also have to do an installation in a typhoon prone area with lots of trees. It has been good to watch how advancements in local networks has really accelerated after 2020, though.

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