Elon Musk’s Starlink Sends Out Invites For Public Beta Testing, Including Its First In Maine

Over the summer, a few photos popped up in rural parts of Maine from people who believed they were watching UFOs in the sky. Instead, they were a small series of satellites that are part of Tesla founder Elon Musk's latest project called Starlink. Starlink is hopeful to bring high speed internet coverage to the entire globe and do it all from space. Before they can reach that lofty goal, Starlink is publicly testing out their first batches of satellites by invite only, and it appears there will be at least one Maine resident participating.

Shared on Reddit by MadFrenchieFire, they have received and accepted their invite from Starlink and ordered the proper equipment to participate in the public beta testing from Madawaska. According to Space.com, taking part in the public beta testing isn't cheap, with the equipment needed costing about $500. After that, there's a $99-per-month fee for the actual service. While that may seem pricey to many, Starlink's proposed speeds will wildly outperform anything offered in northern Maine as of right now. In fact, Starlink may wildly outperform any internet offerings in Maine in the not-too-distant future. Plus, there has been no determination that the $99-per-month service fee is what Starlink plans to charge when it's fully up and running. A photo of the equipment needed for the public beta test was shared on Twitter by TJ Cooney.

For now, this public beta test is the next step as Starlink continues to trek towards their lofty goals of global internet coverage. Currently, Starlink has nearly 1,000 internet satellites in orbit with plans to continue to launch more in batches of about 60 in strategic locations. Clearly, many parts of New England could use internet upgrades and Starlink has viewed the area as a potential business hotspot.

Will it work? Time will tell. Let the testing begin.