SpaceX Is Providing Satellite Internet Service to Towns Hit by Wildfires - PCMag

As SpaceX prepares to begin beta trials for Starlink, the service is already being put to use for residents in two Washington state towns hit by the wildfires.

The company’s Starlink system has been supplying the emergency internet to residents in Malden, a town of about 200 people, where an estimated 80 percent of the homes have been destroyed by the wildfires.

On Monday, Washington’s Emergency Management Department tweeted a photo of a Starlink satellite terminal acting as a public Wi-Fi hotspot.

“SpaceX provided seven terminals for our agency to use for free, where we saw the most need,” the state’s Emergency Management Department told PCMag.

Other Starlink terminals are supplying emergency broadband around Bonney Lake, Washington, where some local residents were also forced to evacuate due to the wildfires. .

The department declined to answer questions about the speed and latency rates for the emergency internet, and instead told PCMag to ask SpaceX.