Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite system plans to transform the internet landscape into a country considered one of the worst internet connections in the world.
The Philippines may be home to millions of social media experts, but the quality of Internet services in the country has remained gloomy over the years. As noted in a VICE reported, the Philippines boasts the lowest internet speed in the world, reaching the 100th place worldwide.
The country in Southeast Asia is also notorious for the most expensive internet services, with a 2020 Digital Quality of Life Index that ranks the Philippines as 85th in terms of internet affordability from 85 countries. The country’s gloomy internet quality is due to several factors, one of which is an ISP duopoly that locals consider equally inadequate and expensive.
That’s at least until Starlink comes to the country. In a recent statement, Converge Information and Communications Technology Solutions Inc, one of the smaller Internet service providers that has emerged in recent years as an alternative to the top two ISPs in the country, announced that it has held several talks with SpaceX to bring Starlink to the Philippines.
Talk to the local news agency ANC, Co-founder and CEO of Converge, Dennis Anthony Uy, noted that his company is already in communication with SpaceX. When asked if an agreement is progressing, Uy notes that “it is on.” “We continue to seek new technologies to bring high-speed Internet service to the Philippines, which includes SpaceX,” the CEO said.
Although a relatively small country in the Southeast Asian region, the Philippines could be a good test bed for Elon Musk’s vision of a global satellite Internet system. After all, the Philippines consists of more than 7,000 islands, some of which are extremely remote to this day. One of these places, a small town called Palauan, actually became the recipient of a Tesla Powerpack installation, which ultimately provides residents with stable renewable energy.
SpaceX’s Starlink is only in its beta phase, and its 1,000 satellites in orbit are only a fraction of the size of the system. Despite this, Starlink users have already shared some positive experiences with the satellite-based system, and some have noticed that they are already experiencing a download speed of up to 400 Mbps after a recent update.
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