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SpaceX’s global Starlink service, which offers ultrafast broadband speeds across the UK and globally via a mega constellation of compact satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), has provided their best view yet of what the company’s next generation v3 (GEN3) satellites will look like when deployed to orbit. Each one will have 10 times more capacity than earlier v2 satellites.
The service currently has around 8,600 satellites in orbit (c.5,000 are v2 / V2 Mini) – mostly at altitudes of c.500-600km – and they’ll add thousands more by the end of 2027. Residential customers in the UK usually pay from £75 a month, plus £299 for hardware (currently free for most areas) on the ‘Standard’ unlimited data plan (kit price may vary due to different offers), which promises UK latency times of 26-33ms, downloads of 116-277Mbps and uploads of 17-32Mbps. Cheaper and more restrictive options also exist for roaming users.
As we’ve previously reported, SpaceX is aiming to deliver a significant upgrade to the performance and capacity of their Starlink constellation by putting the next generation of v3 satellites into orbit. Each v3 will be able to handle 1 Terabit per second (1000Gbps) of downlink (up from 96Gbps on V2 Mini) and 160Gbps of uplink speed (shared capacity), with the future Starship rocket able to put around 60 of these into orbit per launch (here).
However, the company is currently unable to launch any of their new v3 satellites, which is because they’re too large and heavy (2,000kg each vs 575kg for V2 Mini) for that to be economically viable via their existing Falcon 9 rockets. SpaceX has thus had to wait for their new heavy lift Starship rocket to be ready.
The good news is that Starship has just aced its past two test launches and may thus be able to launch their first commercial v3 satellites into orbit sometime during early 2026 (here). The new satellites, which will also orbit closer to earth (good for performance if not coverage), will feature newer and larger antennas, solar arrays and be able to harness more radio spectrum frequency to help support their performance.
The latest update from SpaceX (here) reveals, as pictured above, what each V3 will look like once fully deployed in comparison to their earlier v1.5 and v2 satellites. The catch is that customers are expected to need a new router and dish (terminal kit) in order to be able to fully benefit from the extra performance they’ll bring.
Currently, the average (median) UK download speed on Starlink is 78.7Mbps and this rises up to 223.4Mbps for those with the top 10% of fastest connections, while uploads average just 10.8Mbps or 18.5Mbps for those in the top 10% (here).