MTN carves out private networks for Starlink’s business users

TAMPA, Fla. — Florida-based networking specialist MTN has launched a service that enables SpaceX’s Starlink low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites to operate as part of a privately secured communications system, giving businesses a way to link remote sites without using the public internet.

Data from customers using a Starlink terminal would instead travel through a terrestrial backbone that MTN leases from major carriers after reaching the ground via one of SpaceX’s gateways, under a communications architecture known as Layer 2.

MTN says its StarEdge Horizon service avoids the extra latency often seen with standard virtual private networks, since data does not need to pass through encrypted software tunnels before reaching MTN servers or a customer’s cloud system.

“There is a certain configuration that we implement on the SpaceX side to connect each terminal to MTN through formal agreement,” MTN spokesperson Fernando Vargas said via email. “Then from there we handle everything with our own hardware, products, and services.”

He said StarEdge Horizon is currently available in the United States and Europe, where the company is seeing most demand from the energy, construction and logistics markets. The service is slated to expand to Latin America and Africa soon, with availability for the maritime sector expected by the end of March.

StarEdge Horizon is also designed to integrate with secondary connections such as Eutelsat’s OneWeb LEO network and terrestrial 5G links to improve redundancy.

Meanwhile, SpaceX has been steadily expanding Starlink’s appeal to enterprise and government customers since kicking off early broadband services in 2019 with an initial focus on consumer households.

The company now reports “high-speed, low-latency internet with 99.9% average uptime” with weather-resilient antennas, while adding priority data tiers and managed services aimed at businesses and critical infrastructure users.

The enterprise market is also a key growth area for OneWeb and for proposed LEO constellations such as Telesat’s Lightspeed and Rivada’s Outernet, which are not targeting consumers.