Goodbye, slow internet, hello Starlink: All we have had out here in the country is microwave internet with speeds of about 20 or so download with it often going out. Yesterday my...

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

All we have had out here in the country is microwave internet with speeds of about 20 or so download with it often going out. Yesterday my son-in-law IT person installed a new Starlink satellite system. The download speed varies from around 100 to 300, depending on which satellite it picks up. Goodbye slow internet! And good riddance!

phlash46 Loc: Westchester County, New York

Excellent John! Does bad weather affect it?

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

phlash46 wrote:

Excellent John! Does bad weather affect it?

No. We had thunder, wind, and rain storms last night with no effect at all.

Bob Mevis Loc: Plymouth, Indiana

Congratulations.

fourlocks Loc: Londonderry, NH

Very interesting. How does Starlink work? I understand there are hundreds of satellites covering every square inch of the planet but does your device connect directly to one or more satellites or is it picked up and amplified by a cell tower and then relayed to and from the satellites?

I wonder if it's an option for those of us well covered by the traditional services but who would like to get away from their expense. What does this cost you per month and do you need any special software or hardware for it?

phlash46 Loc: Westchester County, New York

jaymatt wrote:

No. We had thunder, wind, and rain storms last night with no effect at all.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

fourlocks wrote:

Very interesting. How does Starlink work? I unde... (show quote)

Nope, you connect directly to the satellites and they relay data from satellite to satellite. When I checked, the price of the “ground station” was a one time $499 and the service was typically about $99/month.

ETmom Loc: Elizabeth, Colorado

Starling is a game changer. We got ours last month. It's
So nice to be able to upload photos the first time. We've had 2 snow storms, one was 3 feet of snow the other only about 18 inches, with no problem.
Ellen

jederick Loc: Northern Utah

fourlocks Loc: Londonderry, NH

TriX wrote:

Nope, you connect directly to the satellites and they relay data from satellite to satellite. When I checked, the price of the “ground station” was a one time $499 and the service was typically about $99/month.

Thanks for the info. That 's kinda interesting. Elon Musk defended filling up the sky with all these satellites because he said it would make the Internet available to people in remote areas of the world who don't have any access. I wonder how many poor people in remote areas of third world countries can afford their own $499 ground station, a $99 monthly charge and oh yeah, several hundred dollar's for a PC. Overall I agree it's going to help a lot of people like you but I doubt it's going to bring the internet to a poor, remote village in southern Africa or India.

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

phlash46 wrote:

Excellent John! Does bad weather affect it?

My guess is it is microwave and obviously digital not affected by water like FM is. And probably a fancy error checking buffering system.

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

jaymatt wrote:

All we have had out here in the country is microwave internet with speeds of about 20 or so download with it often going out. Yesterday my son-in-law IT person installed a new Starlink satellite system. The download speed varies from around 100 to 300, depending on which satellite it picks up. Goodbye slow internet! And good riddance!

That sounds like it is great for you. I do remember the dial-up days. I had FiOS. But luckily even though we moved to a semi-rural area of California, still being in the state and not too far form cities we get Cable Service for our TV and Computer that is just as fast as the FiOS but copper wire based and not optical laser glass cable. Too hard to maintain so Verizon sold it off. Now you can view smooth YouTube.

nobler

Astronomers and astrophotographers are not too happy with the added light pollution.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

nobler wrote:

Astronomers and astrophotographers are not too happy with the added light pollution.

Indeed, and Starlink is aware of it as well. The last page of their ad touts the fact that they are working with astronomers to mitigate the issue (but I have no idea how).

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

fourlocks wrote:

Very interesting. How does Starlink work? I unde... (show quote)

No cell tower involved. The dish tracks satellites and connects to the nearest one. You can see it move from time to time, picking up a different satellite. It isn’t cheap. There’s a $500 equipment cost (with a 30-day money back guarantee if you don’t like it) and a monthly charge. For us living out in no man’s land with no cable or reliable service, it’s about our only answer to anything like high-speed internet. We tried HughesNet for a while, and its service was bad. Its satellite is thousands of miles up, and and Starlink’s are only hundreds of miles up. If you are looking for inexpensive, Starlink probably isn’t your answer. For us, it is.