SpaceX, the space company founded by Elon Musk, makes it easier to get rural and underprivileged communities online. A change to one of the company’s websites could simplify the process.
The company is in the process of building Starlink, a satellite constellation designed to deliver higher speeds and lower latencies than competing services. The trick is that Starlink satellites run much lower than other satellites, about 550 kilometers above sea level. Because they will be closer to the ground, SpaceX launches a large number of satellites to ensure that ground-based terminals can maintain a connection with the constellation in the air. SpaceX has applied for permission to launch a maximum of 42,000 satellites.
It can be a big win for rural and underprivileged communities – people who cannot rely on land connections. But hopeful users tell Inverse that until recently logging on to the website to receive more information has proved difficult. Critically, evidence suggests that problems can be solved if a limited beta test proves successful.
“Signing up for the Starlink requires a street address,” said Alaska’s Craig Duncan. Inverse. When he and Millie Duncan retired from their professional positions seven years ago, they moved from Juneau to a small island in the southeast of the state. Their new home has caused problems with boarding Starlink – the nearest road is about 10 miles away. “We have no streets on the island.”
When the Duncans tried to register, they found that the website was asking the user for two pieces of information: an email address, and a physical address. The last field uses suggestions provided by Google to fill out the form. The “Submit” button will not be available until the user selects a Google suggestion. With this, people have lived in spaces with no traditional address to plug in confusingly about how they can sign up.
“I live off-grid in the middle of nowhere with no internet access, exactly what Starlink is meant to be,” says Larry Maass, a 69-year-old retiree Inverse. “My street exists in the UPS, FedEx, and USPS databases, but not Google Maps.”
However, a new adaptation of the website could help solve these problems. The form now suggests that users can enter a “Plus Code” if their address is not mentioned or if they do not have an address. Logs from the Wayback Machine suggest that the adjustment was made at the beginning of August.
A Plus code is a string of Google-supplied characters that match latitude and longitude. Users can now provide a Plus code in forms like these to point Google Maps to a specific marker on a map.
To generate a Plus Code and sign up for more information about Starlink, here’s what to do:
- Open the Google Maps website or app.
- Navigate to the right location. Then tap and hold the screen when using a touchscreen device, or click and hold when using a mouse.
- Click on the label “sink in” near the bottom.
- The Plus Code will appear in the list of information next to a “+” symbol. For example, the Plus code for Buckingham Palace is “GV25 + G6 London”.
- Copy the information and paste it into the Starlink form.
Although the extension is small, it can help users who otherwise have difficulty entering their location to log in. Ultimately, this can help the service reach more users who would otherwise be left behind due to poor ground infrastructure.
“I currently have a Hughes satellite and am frustrated by the very slow download speeds and at times the system seems too much,” says David Pratt, a 59-year-old retiree in Garden City, Utah. Inverse. “With as many satellites as Starlink, I hope the redundancy will result in faster and more reliable service.”
SpaceX did not respond Inverse‘s requests for comment. The company is expected to launch its 11th batch of Starlink satellites on August 18, bringing the total number to 655.
