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| Starlink Performance gigabit dish |
Starlink is officially on track to deliver gigabit download speeds from its satellite network in 2026, but there's a catch: the fastest speeds will roll out first to customers using the company's most expensive hardware.
According to a memo sent to enterprise clients, Starlink's Business Maritime plan users—those who shelled out $1,999 for the latest Performance Kit and pay at least $250 per month for the lowest 50 GB tier—will see their speeds double by the end of December. In other words, if you're cruising the seas on a ship or yacht with the Performance Gen 3 terminal, you could soon be enjoying download speeds approaching 1 Gbps. Just be prepared for your monthly bill to climb along with your bandwidth.
For context, the current spec sheet lists that dish at 475 Mbps down and 75 Mbps up—basically the same as the Standard Kit that sells for $349 on Amazon. Doubling the download side would push maritime connections squarely into gigabit territory. Curious about the hardware details? You can check out the Standard Kit here for comparison.
Land-based business customers, meanwhile, will reportedly get gigabit speeds in 2027, aligning with SpaceX's V3 satellite deployment roadmap. The company is targeting Monday for the Starship Flight 14 launch, which is expected to carry a batch of V3 satellites into orbit. These satellites are massive—as big as a Boeing 737 when their solar panels are unfurled—and offer 10x the throughput of the current V2 kit. The catch? They need SpaceX's giant Starship rocket, which is still undergoing test flights.
Elon Musk has previously stated that the V3 constellation needs to reach serious numbers before Starlink can flip the gigabit switch broadly. Just the small inaugural batch launching on September 28 will add 3% capacity to the entire Starlink satellite internet network. Industry observers are already buzzing about the implications—you can follow the latest discussions on LinkedIn.
There might also be some pricing shifts on the horizon. Starlink is apparently renaming its Local Priority and Global Priority tiers to Business Plan and Global Business Plan starting December 1, alongside a UK price hike and a new cap limiting Business Plan users to 30 days of service outside their home region before they're pushed onto the costlier Global tier. As PCMag reports, Starlink already charges up to $2,150 a month for its top 2 TB business plan at today's 400 Mbps peak speeds. It wouldn't be surprising if faster maritime throughput arrived with some kind of new pricing structure attached.
The V3 satellites will also bring a drastic 24x boost in uploads, though the up-to-160 Gbps figure being tossed around may not materialize right away with the first batch that's just about to launch. For now, maritime users with the priciest gear are first in line for the gigabit era—everyone else will have to wait.