Elon Musk’s SpaceX confirmed via Twitter (10 October) that its Starlink broadband service is now available in Japan, marking its first live service in Asia.
Back in September 2021 Japanese telco KDDI (au) signed a contract with the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) operator to provide high speed internet connectivity to remote islands and mountainous regions of Japan and au base station backhaul, via the US firm’s satellites. In a press release at the time, KDDI said that from 2022 some 1,200 locations would be able to benefit from high speed, low-latency satellite broadband internet. According to the Starlink coverage map, as of today Starlink’s satellites are live in the north of Japan, including the capital Tokyo.