SpaceX Provides Free Internet To Victims Of Forest Fires In Washington

JAKARTA - Forest and land fires had struck in the suburbs of Washington DC, United States (US). Even though they are still recovering, the people there can still use internet access thanks to the help of SpaceX's satellite boardband.

Citing PCMag, Thursday October 1, through the Starlink system, SpaceX has supplied emergency internet to residents in Malden, a town of about 200 people, where an estimated 80 percent of homes have been destroyed by the devastating wildfires.

This was discovered when the Washington Department of Emergency Management @waEMD tweeted a photo of the Starlink satellite terminal that functions as a public Wi-Fi hotspot.

Happy to have the support of @ SpaceX's Starlink internet as emergency responders look to help residents rebuild the town of Malden, WA that was overcome by wildfires earlier this month. #wawildfire pic.twitter.com/xUSQOjcT4T

- WA Emergency Management 😷 (@waEMD) September 28, 2020

“Malden, WA is a fiber area and a large part of the city is on fire. Without these tools, it would be much more difficult for people to get to the internet in that area, "tweeted @waEMD.

According to the department's report, another Starlink terminal is supplying emergency broadband around Lake Bonney, Washington, where some of the locals have also taken refuge in the area.

"The terminal is used for free public Wi-Fi, but we also use it for incident command vehicles coming out of Bonney Lake, WA. SpaceX hasn't given us a timetable for when they need the equipment back. They are very generous," said @waEMD.

Unfortunately, the department is reluctant to say what the speed of the latency level for the internet is. According to a CNBC report, the latency rate has reached around 30 milliseconds, which is the equivalent of land-based internet.

Meanwhile, the head of emergency telecommunications for the Washington Military Department's IT division, Richard Hall, said that the free internet was used so that children could still learn online.

"I even arranged for the kids to be able to do some of their early schooling too, as they progressed slowly with limited attendance. We covered a lot of bases. Starlink changed the game as far as it was available," Hall said.

It is known, since the beginning of the month SpaceX has indeed launched 700 Starlink transmitting satellites that can support internet access speeds of up to 100Mbps. The company plans to reach 1Gbps internet speeds by launching thousands more satellites into space. The goal, of course, is to provide the fastest broadband around the world.

The company will also expand coverage to most parts of the world around 2021. However, one of the challenges facing SpaceX today is launching satellites on schedule to power broadband systems. Not long ago, SpaceX had to delay the delivery of another 60 satellites due to bad weather.