FCC Approves Mysterious SpaceX Device: Is It for the Starlink Mini Dish?
"SpaceX has received FCC clearance to operate a mysterious 'wireless module' device," PC Magazine reported earlier this week, speculating that the device "might be a new Starlink router."On Tuesday, the FCC issued an equipment authorization for the device, which uses the 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi radio bands. A document in SpaceX's filing also says it features antennas along with Wi-Fi chips apparently from MediaTek. Another document calls the device by the codename "UTW-231," and defines it as a "wireless router" supporting IEEE 802.11b/g/n/ax for Wi-Fi 6 speeds up to 1,300Mbps. But perhaps the most interesting part is an image SpaceX attached, which suggests the router is relatively small and can fit in a person's open hand.... SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has said the "Starlink mini" dish is slated to arrive later this year and that it's small enough to fit in a backpack... On Wednesday, PCMag also spotted the official Starlink.com site referencing the name "Mini" in a specification page for the satellite internet system. Today saw some interesting speculation on the unoffical "Starlink Hardware" blog (written by Noah Clarke, who has a degree in electronics). Clarke guesses the product "will be aimed at portable use cases, such as camping, RV's, vans, hiking... designed to be easy to store, transport, and deploy". But he also notes Starlink updated their app today, with a new shopping page showing what he believes the upcoming product will look like. ("Very similar to the Standard dish, just smaller. It has a similar shape, and even a kickstand.")If you go into developer mode and play around with the Mini network settings, you notice something interesting. There is no separate router. Devices are connected to the dish itself... I'm guessing that, in order to make the Mini as portable as possible, Starlink decided it was best to simplify the system and limit the number of components. There are more Wifi details that have been revealed, and that is mesh compatibility. For those of you that might be interested in using the Mini at home, or for larger events where you need additional Wifi coverage, the Mini's built-in router will be compatible with Starlink mesh. You'll be able to wirelessly pair another Starlink router to the Mini.
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