DICT: Elon Musk’s Starlink may start delivering services in PH by Q4 2022

DICT: Elon Musk’s Starlink may start delivering services in PH by Q4 2022

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 3) — The Department of Information and Communications Technology projected that Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service company may start delivering its services to Filipinos by the fourth quarter of 2022.

“They have started building their ground stations wherein it will relay the internet. The optimistic target is about quarter four of this year. But give and take another two quarters and that will really be available to our kababayans, especially the ones in rural areas,” DICT acting secretary Emmanuel Rey Caintic told CNN Philippines’ The Exchange.

The National Telecommunications Commission said on May 27 it has approved the registration of Starlink Internet Services Philippines Inc. as a value-added service (VAS) provider. 

“Starlink will hopefully be able to deliver fast internet at low latency. Average of about 200 mbps and latency of about 20 or even lower milliseconds,” Caintic said.

He also noted there are still other foreign players interested in entering the Philippines, which could hopefully drive more competition and drive down costs.

Asked about Starlink’s entry, DITO Telecommunity chief administrative officer Adel Tamano said they are not worried about it.

“We are not afraid of competition. The only thing we ask is fair and equal treatment. Give these players the same stringent terms as we did,” he added.

As for Angelo Gutierrez, vice president for administration of the Internet Society Philippines Chapter, he said that Starlink’s presence in the Philippine market is a welcome development to be able to bring internet connectivity in rural areas. However, there will be a need for more space and more technologies appropriate for any setting in the future, he argued.

“What we want is a lot of different players having different models appropriate for different locations,” he said.