SpaceX has officially started sales of its Starlink Mini Kit. The new compact size kit will make it possible to access the internet anywhere, with a minimum amount of equipment.
Starlink sent out emails to early customers inviting them to purchase the Starlink Mini Kit, as shared by @SawyerMerritt on X. The kit costs $599 and can be combined with the Mini Roam service with an existing residential service plan for an additional $30 per month. The company has promised that the price of the kit will come down later, which is great news.
Starlink Mini is 63% lighter than the standard Starlink antenna. Moreover, its size is 11.75 inches long and 10.2 inches wide, which is slightly larger than a sheet of paper. The Mini dish weighs just 3.37 pounds with a kickstand and 15-meter cable. All these features make it portable enough to be carried in a backpack. In fact, Mini just takes up about the space of a laptop.
Starlink Mini has a built-in Wi-Fi router, which means you do not need to have anything extra other than the dish itself. The Mini dish has lower power consumption, a DC power input, and max download speeds over 100 Mbps. The temperature at which the equipment will operate properly is -30°C to 50°C (-22°F to 122°F). This means that it can be used almost anywhere in the world. The first deliveries will begin next month.
The Mini Roam service, for an additional $30 per month, provides 50GB of mobile data that can be used anywhere in the US. After exceeding the limit, the cost of 1 gigabyte of data will be $1.
In the email, SpaceX explained the Mini Kit’s price being higher than expected. Currently, a limited number of kits are offered starting at $599 in high usage areas. However, this is necessary in order to be able to offer them cheaper in those regions where communication is poor or completely unavailable.
“Our goal is to reduce the price of Starlink, especially for those around the world where connectivity has been unaffordable or completely unavailable. But in regions with high usage, where Starlink Mini places additional demand on the satellite network, we are offering a limited number of the Starlink Mini Kits to start for $599,” SpaceX wrote in the email.
