Starlink

[Mike Lewis]

The Starlink Internet network is now taking subscribers on a limited basis. Has anyone signed up yet?


www.starlink.com

[blue_bullet]

Originally Posted by Mike Lewis

The Starlink Internet network is now taking subscribers on a limited basis. Has anyone signed up yet?


www.starlink.com

I've been looking at it as their beta test is focused on northern latitudes. Just got fiber in August so hoping Elon Musk will force ISPs to lower prices. Also read there is a good chance Musk may sell it off as time goes on. You need a good northern exposure for Dishy.
I may have too many big fir and larch trees in that direction. Need to take my phone out with their app and have a look. You can do that b4 you kick in the $99 refundable deposit.

[Greg A]

Starlink at the moment, is set to an address and will only deliver Internet to a limited area determined by the service address.
Not ready for RV use, but given the need of that market it’s probably coming.

[padlin]

Says it'll do 50Mb/s, is that the same as 50Mbps?

[John in Santa Cruz]

big M is mega or million, little b is bit, /s is same as per second. so yes.

lotta people get sloppy and confuse bits and Bytes.

[Brian B-P]

I signed up for notifications, and recently received an e-mail message inviting me to apply to be test user... based on my location near Edmonton. The application is not guaranteed, as there are limited test users allowed and location would need to be confirmed. I did not apply, as I don't need it at the moment and the cost is not trivial.

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by Greg A

Starlink at the moment, is set to an address and will only deliver Internet to a limited area determined by the service address.
Not ready for RV use, but given the need of that market it’s probably coming.

True. In addition to the satellite footprint limitation, the traffic goes through a ground station and those are limited (essentially one per U.S. state at the moment). People have been hauling their Starlink terminals off into the wilderness to demonstrate that they work, but Starlink is unlikely to allow service outside of the subscriber's assigned ground station coverage at this point.

[Bea]

As Greg A and others have noted, Starlink currently only works around the address is was registered at, However, there is reason to hope that a mobile version will be released, perhaps even this year. Here's an interesting article on the subject: https://rvlifestyle.com/starlink-internet-for-rvers/

- Bea

[brroberts]

I’m in northern Kansas. I can see 10-15 satellites anytime I look. Right now it’s use is limited to your address area. I have sent in my money. Yes it’s a risk, but my internet options here are bad and worse. I had much better internet on an island in Alaska. It can’t come soon enough for me even though those bright lights are annoying in my observatory.

[TTMartin]

Originally Posted by Bea

As Greg A and others have noted, Starlink currently only works around the address is was registered at, However, there is reason to hope that a mobile version will be released, perhaps even this year. Here's an interesting article on the subject: https://rvlifestyle.com/starlink-internet-for-rvers/

I got the email to sign up for my home. Right now it is $500 for the equipment and $100 per month for the service. Too expensive to be competitive anywhere there is an alternative internet provider available.

[Rossue]

Not by much though. Spectrum lures you in with $50/mo. for first year then it goes to $65 the second then $75 in third. And they refuse to negotiate.

[brroberts]

Where I live, I pay $40 a month for what is .4 up and about 2.5 down, but that’s only when it works which is about 75% of the time. I could pay $80 a month and have .4 up and about 5 down, but it would still only work about 3/4 of the time. The other options are Viasat or Hughesnet. Neither of those are worthwhile to me given their limitations. So while I don’t want to pay $99 a month, it’s far easier to get stuff done and it’s the only viable option here. Fiber is a mile away, but the provider has not done anything with it in two years. It’s just sitting in the ground doing nothing.

[cityofdestiny]

Originally Posted by Mike Lewis

The Starlink Internet network is now taking subscribers on a limited basis. Has anyone signed up yet?


www.starlink.com

Have a deposit in, but no word on when they'll be shipping.

[Bouvier]

Our first exposure to the Starlink array was a couple of months ago while camping on the central Oregon coast near Yachats. In the eastern sky we saw about 25 bright "stars" traveling north very fast. They appeared to be absolutely equidistant. Neighboring campers came to our site and they were equally gobsmacked. We were all expecting an imminent "take me to your leader" moment. In fact, we all knew better. Pretty cool never the less.

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by TTMartin

I got the email to sign up for my home. Right now it is $500 for the equipment and $100 per month for the service. Too expensive to be competitive anywhere there is an alternative internet provider available.

It's too expensive to be competitive with a wired service, but the price and especially performance are very competitive with many wireless services and especially other satellite services, which is as intended.

At my house, no wired (or fibre) service is available and fixed terrestrial wireless services are blocked by trees. The alternatives are satellite and mobile data networks; Starlink is appealing for anyone wanting high data volume, or satellite service without excessive latency.

[kavm]

I too have an invite, but have not pursued it as it is quite expensive. We have a 1GB connection at home with Google Fiber. We are happy with that and are not switching to StarLink.

StarLink would simply be for the mobile (Escape camping) use only. Until we retire (and that could be a few years away), I and my wife will have limits on how far away from good internet we can be for any length of time. So, a reliable mobile camping bandwidth is a big enough driver. I an imagine paying $500+$100/month (high as it is) but I am not clear whether it will lead to a good option for remote Escape camping type use. How big the equipment will be, and so on. If anyone has more insight on that - I'd love to find out.

The current plan is to get a cell phone booster. So, if this is a much better option - I'd switch in a heartbeat.

PS: I do not know how old this article is but https://camperreport.com/starlink-internet/ seems to suggest that it is not ready for RV type use.

The following is from the Startlink website:

Starlink satellites are scheduled to send internet down to all users within a designated area on the ground. This designated area is referred to as a cell.

Your Starlink is assigned to a single cell. If you move your Starlink outside of its assigned cell, a satellite will not be scheduled to serve your Starlink and you will not receive internet. This is constrained by geometry and is not arbitrary geofencing.

[John in Santa Cruz]

indeed, its not yet ready for mobile usage, but I expect once they have the satellite density, and the laser based inter-satellite communications working, it will be able to handle mobile use.

[kavm]

The problem, for is, is a lack of timeframe what that could happen. Once we retire, it's value will be a bit diminished.

The cell phone booster and installation is a bit of money and hassle (installation). One can hold off if this were to become an open in a matter of months. Not so much if it will take years...

[gbaglo]

Originally Posted by John in Santa Cruz

indeed, its not yet ready for mobile usage, but I expect once they have the satellite density, and the laser based inter-satellite communications working

As in, when you can no longer see a full moon?

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by John in Santa Cruz

indeed, its not yet ready for mobile usage, but I expect once they have the satellite density, and the laser based inter-satellite communications working, it will be able to handle mobile use.

I don't think whether or not inter-satellite links are implemented will matter to mobile service. A vehicle driving down the road is essentially stationary compared to the speed of the satellites.

A terminal used at campsites is only different from ordinary fixed service because in any given day it could be in the service area of any ground station, so the system has to be ready to reliably serve a shifting number of users anywhere (and as quoted above they don't support that). If the terminal is expected to work even while actually moving, it will need to get even better at satellite tracking - that is going to cost.

I don't think that either a subscriber changing base stations or a terminal moving on the ground will be helped by inter-satellite communications. I assume those links are mostly to allow traffic between Starlink users (which there won't be much of) more directly without hitting a ground station at all, or to land traffic at a ground station nearer the internet destination or with more available internet access bandwidth.