Elon Musk’s Starlink mega-constellation will initiate beta testing of the system in about 3 months, and public beta testing in about 6 months, according to Tweets from Musk.

There are now just over 400 Starlink craft operational and Musk indicated in his Tweets that the beta tests will start in the “high latitudes” – taken to mean Alaska and Canada.

Musk’s comments prompted a flurry of congratulatory Tweets and requests to be added to the beta testers, especially from potential users in Canada and the northern States. One frustrated would-be user summed up the comments from others, “Can’t wait to tell Comcast to shove it!”

The April 22nd launch of another 60 satellites takes the constellation to 422 craft although some satellites are known to be non-operational.

Starlink will need far more satellites to be in orbit before a global service can commence, although Musk has stated that 2021 will see commercial services introduced.

The April 22nd batch is due to be followed with another 60 satellites later in May.

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