[Hiro]

Starlink has opened up on a first come, first service basis an opportunity to sign up for their internet service via LEO (low earth orbit) satellites. They advertise high speed, low latency and no data limits.

Starlink

 

[todd_xxxx]

I just got the email as well.

 

[mreynolds]

I signed up a few weeks ago. They want a deposit.

 

[painterswife]

What are your speeds now? Is this worth the money for you?

 

[Hiro]

I am on cell service internet. Theoretically, the data is unlimited; but, they throttle back when you hit a certain level of data consumption. It feels about like dialup then. The kids do online classes which burns it up pretty quickly.

So, if it is as advertised, I can get rid of the satellite TV service and the cell data plan and come out ahead by a wide margin. Right now, I can't do video streaming TV at all....well for two days, maybe.

 

[todd_xxxx]

Just put down my deposit.

 

[mreynolds]

Slow here. I am on dsl and the last one on the line so I get crap for internet.

 

[SLFarmMI]

Just put down my deposit.

We did too.

 

[SLFarmMI]

What are your speeds now? Is this worth the money for you?

If it's anything like it is advertised it will be well worth the money for us. We are currently running on hotspots -- some Verizon and some AT&T. I have to limp along on a combination of of 3 hotspots and my phone. Still waiting on a hotspot from the school district. Online teaching burns through my data very fast and I end up blowing past my data cap every month and then the speeds are at about turtle speed. Those hot spots aren't cheap either. Starlink, if they keep the price as advertised, is going to be much cheaper.

 

[Whoo]

Wranglerstar did a review of Starlink on Youtube. Seems like he liked it.

 

[Rodeo's Bud]

If it's anything like it is advertised it will be well worth the money for us. We are currently running on hotspots -- some Verizon and some AT&T. I have to limp along on a combination of of 3 hotspots and my phone. Still waiting on a hotspot from the school district. Online teaching burns through my data very fast and I end up blowing past my data cap every month and then the speeds are at about turtle speed. Those hot spots aren't cheap either. Starlink, if they keep the price as advertised, is going to be much cheaper.

If you have a good tower, you may be able to get Verizon LTE internet. It is wireless, but not a Hotspot. It is a regular modem/router.

We get 50 mbps, no throttling or data caps. 40 bucks a month. Worka very well. One gaming and skyping, two tvs streaming 1080p. No problem.

We were paying 70 for 35 mbps, no data caps and very rare and very minor throttling on a prepaid skipping,

This is after having Viasat for years. Uhg. That sucked.

 

[goodatit]

Starlink has opened up on a first come, first service basis an opportunity to sign up for their internet service via LEO (low earth orbit) satellites. They advertise high speed, low latency and no data limits.

Starlink

i went to their site. all information is vague at best. not yet running everywhere.

 

[robin416]

After having had Hughesnet for several years and finally clearing them out of my life this group will have to around for a while before I'll jump on board. Customer service with Hughesnet was some of the worst. And their nickel and diming for every failure of their equipment, even leased equipment, was not tolerable.

 

[todd_xxxx]

After having had Hughesnet for several years and finally clearing them out of my life this group will have to around for a while before I'll jump on board. Customer service with Hughesnet was some of the worst. And their nickel and diming for every failure of their equipment, even leased equipment, was not tolerable.

Isn't that a little like saying "I had a Ford once, and it sucked, so I'm not buying a Chevy."?

 

[robin416]

Not even a little bit. It's another satellite company. As mentioned their website is spotty with in depth information. How do they handle customer issues? How sensitive is their equipment to weather? How much will your access be slowed due to heavy customer loads? Are they going to charge for anything that fails even for leased equipment? Who's providing customer support? India?

Jumping in with both feet without some crucial information in place could be a stressful, frustrating venture.

Get locked into a 2 year contract with a nightmare company who's only criteria is to make money off you in every way possible and you'll understand exactly what I mean.

 

[todd_xxxx]

Not even a little bit. It's another satellite company. As mentioned their website is spotty with in depth information. How do they handle customer issues? How sensitive is their equipment to weather? How much will your access be slowed due to heavy customer loads? Are they going to charge for anything that fails even for leased equipment? Who's providing customer support? India?

Jumping in with both feet without some crucial information in place could be a stressful, frustrating venture.

Get locked into a 2 year contract with a nightmare company who's only criteria is to make money off you in every way possible and you'll understand exactly what I mean.

"Not even a little bit. It's another satellite company. "

And Chevy is another car company. My point is just that one satellite company has nothing to do with another satellite company. They don't use the same equipment, the same satellites, the same customer service.

The sad truth of customer service is that you never know how it's going to be until you need help. I've been in situation where the customer support is terrible. I'm in one with AT&T right now, using their MiFi for my internet. But I'm not going to judge another internet company by that experience. If I did, I would be stuck with AT&T, or nothing.

 

[HDRider]

According to https://www.starlink.com/ Their latency is from 20ms to 40ms in most locations

My DSL is 53 ms

I think Hughesnet approaches 1,000 ms

 

[robin416]

More information is needed. It's as simple as that.

I know all about AT&T, that's why I don't have them as a provider.

 

[Hiro]

Hughesnet and Directv satellite internet offerings use middle orbit satellites, it takes around one second for the signal to travel from earth to the satellite and back. Also, a drizzly rain will make it unusable or it did when I had it at a commercial property. They also didn't secure their side very well and my server was constantly under attack.

Starlink with low orbit satellites likely will not be directly comparable. But, at this point it just hopeful to us poor rural sods with no other viable option.

 

[painterswife]

We lucked out here. They are widening the highway and that means moving all the telephone lines. That and a grant meant Fiber for us and many people that did not have it before. We got our fiber last summer and it has been wonderful. When we built we could not even get a telephone line so getting fiber at no cost to us was amazing.