Starlink

[3 Nails 4 Given]

I’ve finally managed to obtain internet service that more than one user can log on at a time. We signed up for Starlink and after 6 months of waiting our satellite receiver and router came in today and this thing is fast.

This is the first time my son has been able to actually use his Xbox online, the first time we’ve been able to stream video without it buffering. Twenty years of pitiful internet service appears to be over!

We’re still on a waiting list for fiber optic so maybe just maybe we’ll have decent internet service now!

 

[YallNeedJesus]

Faster internet really does make a difference. I’d be interested to hear how it goes for you long-term. I work for a major cable company and it’d be interesting to see what starlink is capable of in a real life setting.

 

[3 Nails 4 Given]

We were getting average 8-10 mbps download and average 1.5-2 mbps upload with our previous internet through cell towers.

Starlink had 189 mbps download and 95 mbps upload last night. Early today was 683 mbps download and 89 mbps upload.

I can’t even try to compare that.

 

[3 Nails 4 Given]

The Starlink satellite receiver is a rectangular dish. It automatically tracks the satellites. Here it points North. My tv satellites point South.
Not of a real concern for me but it contains its own heaters to melt frost or snow off when it detects it.

 

[Tall Timbers]

Whenever I think of Starlink and the plan to eventually have 40,000 satellites in orbit I remember the Iridium project and how that was a large factor in the demise of the once great company, Motorola. The entity that purchased the Iridium constellation has done well enough that they've had the means to replace the older satellites with a 2nd generation of satellites. Their constellation is 66 total plus 9 that are up there for spares.

I once thought that Starlink might someday cause the death of the telecoms, but what I've been seeing is telecom/internet providers putting out better infrastructure so that they can remain competitive. The end result with Starlink is fierce competition which should be good for the consumer.

We have about 6 mbps download which is more than I ever thought we'd have at our current location. We're pretty heavy users but manage well enough. Compared to .5-1 mbps which we lived with for years, 6 mbps is really nice. After the local telecom made some upgrades with new DSL technology, we could now purchase 40 mbps for an additional $30 a month... but I think a hundred a month is too high for a measly 40 mbps when we're surviving with what we have. If they could offer 200 or more mbps at that price I might bite.

I think it was last year that I helped a sister upgrade from about 6 mbps to about 230 mbps for a lower monthly cost. What I noticed was that once you have a big pipeline like that, not everything comes your way lickety split because the pipeline size and traffic on the other end where the data is coming from also matters. None-the-less, having a large internet pipeline is sweet. When I visited my son last month he told me his internet speed was something over 1 gigabit... I forget the actual number. Over the course of my visit I quietly tested the speeds at different times and the fastest I came up with was 400 and something mbps. I didn't say anything to him about it. 400 and something is a big enough pipeline.

 

[3 Nails 4 Given]

It was like going from the old dialup modem to dsl, except for us this is like DSL on steroids. My son is starting med school and this was greatly needed for us.

For the first time in 20 years we don’t have to take turns using the internet

 

[Tall Timbers]

It was like going from the old dialup modem to dsl, except for us this is like DSL on steroids. My son is starting med school and this was greatly needed for us.

For the first time in 20 years we don’t have to take turns using the internet

I look forward to joining the broadband club someday, if we're not out of here first!