The UK will begin trialling Elon Musk’s Starlink technology in its first test of web-linked satellites to help meet the government’s ambition of providing ultrafast internet to all homes across the country.
The first Starlink satellites will be deployed to provide connectivity to a few specific isolated sites, including a 12th-century abbey in the North York Moors National Park, and rescue operations in the Lake District and Snowdonia National Park, according to a government announcement on Wednesday.
The government has opted to use Starlink, a satellite constellation operated by the billionaire entrepreneur’s SpaceX company, instead of the British satellite broadband pioneer OneWeb, which it rescued from bankruptcy in 2020 with a controversial $500mn investment.