Starlink is slowly expanding its beta program to new locations, and now it’s time to see how it works in Canada. According to a SpaceQ report, the Starlink beta is coming to Canada towards the end of the week or early next week. SpaceX just received an approval to operate in the low orbit and offer its services in Canada.
It seems that the Starlink beta test invites are already being sent to a lot of people, and that’s really exciting to hear. For a lot of people, this came out of nowhere, since they thought the service will continue to stay within the US for the beta testing. But it seems that they are expanding, slowly yet surely, to other places and that alone is very important.

The thing to consider here is that SpaceX requires licenses in order to operate ground stations in Canada. According to Elon Musk, that will take a little while. For the time being, the Canadian version of the Starlink beta will be routed via the US gateways that are able to reach the 49th parallel. This is obviously not ideal, but it will bring in front some interesting options and benefits, which is exactly what makes the service so interesting and also very rewarding at the same time.

Right now the interesting thing is that each one of the Starlink satellites is operating as a single network node. It can communicate with user terminals that can be found on the ground. The ground stations are basically the main backbone of Starlink and they connect the internet coming from space to the remaining internet found on the planet.

How does the beta work and the system itself? The main idea behind it is that you have a satellite that orbits above, it connects to the user terminal, receives the uplink request, then it routes the requests to the ground station via its own beam, and then it beams the content to the Starlink satellite. Then it’s beamed right down to the user. It really helps bring in front a very good value and quality, and the experience itself will shine.

Having a Canada only Starlink depends on the ground stations. Right now those stations are actually routed from other place, so it’s not ideal. Without them however, Starlink would be pretty much a router without a cable modem. It’s said that they need several dozen ground stations to be approved in Canada, something that does take a little bit of time.

However, most people are hopeful that the full Canadian service will become operational sooner rather than later. What really matters is to get the Starlink beta and obtain a glimpse of what the system can provide right now and also what you can expect. It’s a very promising service as you can see, and it brings in front a lot of potential. That’s why you have to give it a try for yourself, if you have the possibility!