Starlink satellites seen crossing the sky. Photo: Unsplash / Forest Katsch
Elon Musk's satellite internet provider Starlink is back online after reporting mass outages earlier this afternoon.
The company has posted an update on social media confirming the network outage just after 12.30pm.
It has confirmed the issue has been resolved.
It has not said how many users or locations were affected, but users globally, including many in New Zealand, posted online that their connection was down.
Starlink is currently in a network outage and we are actively implementing a solution. We appreciate your patience, we'll share an update once this issue is resolved
— Starlink (@Starlink) September 13, 2023
The website downdetector.co.nz showed a spike in reports of the service going offline, with more than 1860 people flagging the issue around midday.
On the StarLinkNZ Facebook page, multiple regular users said this was the first outage they had noticed in more than a year.
Starlink was a series of satellites operated by Musk's company SpaceX, built to deliver high-speed, low-latency internet globally.
In New Zealand, it was helpful for those who lived remotely, or during disasters, and the connection came into its own in the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle, with Civil Defence teams like Gisborne's relying on it to reach outside the region, when regular telco connections were down for the better part of a week.
