KUALA LUMPUR, July 25 — Starlink is officially available in Malaysia and you can now place orders for their Starlink satellite broadband kit.

This is a satellite broadband service under SpaceX which provides high-speed broadband with lower latency than traditional GEO satellites.

Starlink satellite broadband costs RM220/month

According to Starlink’s Malaysia page, the satellite service provides download speeds of around 100Mbps. The satellite broadband plan costs RM220/month without a contract but you’ll have to purchase the hardware separately.

According to the website, users can try the service for 30 days and they can seek a full refund by returning the hardware.

Starlink Hardware Kits in Malaysia

Starlink offers two hardware options in Malaysia. The standard equipment costs RM2,300 while the High Performance option costs an eye-watering RM11,613.

According to Starlink, the standard kit is best for residential users for everyday applications while High-Performance is recommended for power users and enterprise applications, and it is designed for improved weather resistance and offer 3x speeds at temperatures above 35 degrees celsius.

Looking at the specifications for the Standard and High-Performance kits, both come with a motorised self-orienting satellite dish, while the Starlink WiFi router supports up to 802.11ac WiFi 5 with dual-band 3×3 MIMO.

The dish for High-Performance is bigger at 575mm x 511mm and has a higher average power usage of 110-150W, versus the standard’s 513mm x 303mm dish with an average power usage of 50-75W.

According to Starlink’s specifications, users can expect a download speed of 25-100Mbps and upload speeds of 5-10Mbps for the standard fixed plans.

Meanwhile, the expected latency is 25-60ms, which is much closer to a 4G connection. Take note that satellite broadband is a finite resource and Starlink does have its own Fair Usage Policy.

If you’re interested, you can place an order on Starlink’s website and the kit will take one to two weeks to ship.

According to Starlink, Malaysia is their 60th country worldwide. Malaysia is the second country in Asean to offer Starlink to consumers after the Philippines.

Starlink received approval from the MCMC to operate in Malaysia on 17th July 2023 after Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had a teleconference meeting with Elon Musk. The Malaysian government had placed orders for 40 Starlink broadband kits for schools and universities which include UiTM.

As revealed by the MCMC, Starlink is allowed to operate in Malaysia as a 100 per cent foreign-owned entity as the 49 per cent threshold for foreign equity imposed on NFP(I) and NSP(I) licence holders has been waived after considering the value and benefits to be provided by Starlink Malaysia. — SoyaCincau