The first Starlink community gateway on the remote island of Unalaska, Alaska. Photo: SpaceX

SpaceX’s Starlink has begun advertising community gateways as part of the business portfolio of Starlink services. According to the webpage, the service starts at $75,000 per month with a one-time upfront cost of $1.25 million for the gateway antennas. 

Instead of the consumer service, where a Starlink consumer has a dish at their home, a community gateway is a site a local network provider operates and to provide internet service from. 

“With community gateways, Starlink satellites are able to deliver fiber-like speeds with local providers distributing connectivity to homes, businesses, and governments using last-mile fiber, fixed wireless and mobile wireless,” the website reads. 

Starlink had previously announced the first community gateway on the remote island of Unalaska, Alaska this month. The announcement said the community gateway is providing up to 10 Gbps of uplink and downlink to the island with 99% uptime, to serve thousands of customers.  

Emmett Fitch, CEO of OptimERA xG, a service provider based in Unalaska, Alaska, spoke about the Starlink gateway:  “The community gateway represents the beginning of something great for delivering gbps speeds to anywhere on the planet. Areas that never dreamed of having this capability will now be able to develop new ideas for making use of this technology,” he said.