Starlink Public Beta About to Happen?!?!

It's really not too bad. My parents are in a rural area and the only "broadband" they can get is through a Verizon Hotspot or the standard awful satellite internet. They're currently spending $200 a month for 2 phones and the hotspot through Verizon and we all know how their "unlimited data" is so if they can drop that they're not really spending any additional cash on a monthly basis. $500 is a bit of an outlay but it sounds like it will be worth it.
This is similar, I pay around $80 a month for crap sat internet where I rarely break 1mb/s (mega bit).... I would gladly pay $100 for 50mbps. And my typical ping is > 800ms... So 40ms sounds much better. Even if I get 25mbps and 80ms ping it's still 10-20x better than what I have available.
 
Typical elon... it's more advanced than fighter jets... uuugh
 
This seems cheap. I'm looking at $2000 for a tower and dish, plus $75 per month for a local WISP provider. speed for that is 15Mbps

If it can perform, then $500 is worth every single penny. And if they dont pull the "introductory price" then double the price after the first year (BS that cable companies do) , then I hope they demolish every cable company in existence.
 
Gotta recoup their investment at some point. Early adopters' tax, and all that. :/
Well yeah, Elon Musk isn't altruistic someone is going to pay.

That said, if I wanted to make the move to move to a rural/out of the way area I would happily pay $500 up front for this. But that said, I represent a class of "would pay for if..." population that has money to do this. The vast majority of rural people are not, and that's just counting this country, if you want to expand it world wide (which I'm sure was part of one of Musk's "look at how awesome I am" speeches) that ability to pay for this falls off. So I wouldn't be half surprised if this is an "America Tax because you can afford it" first and foremost. Also could see a small community buying one subscription and then everyone using it, used routers, or local wifi/cell signals, and Elon's dream to make $30B/year from this will literally be that, a pipe dream.
 
Typical elon... it's more advanced than fighter jets... uuugh
Notice he doesn't state what kind of fighter jets! Could be Russian jets that have transistor tubes in them :D But that said, yeah this is dumb if you understand how low tech a fighter jet actually is, they need all their technology to be able to hold up against the rigors of higher than normal Gforce (no not them) maneuvers and that usually means "billions of transistors" is not an option... I'm pretty sure a Raspberry Pi is more advanced than a fighter jet...
 
Does that include TV? If not, you should call them up and renegotiate. I’m only paying $50 for 100/20 U-verse.
Just internet , with the $30 no cap option. There is no competition. It’s the only option I have. The prices have actually gone up over the years.
 
Had to chuckle at this one. If you can remember living in the US before the 90's you know what life was like without the internet. It wasn't really as awful as you think.
There are still plenty of places in Canada and the USA without internet access(or even cell phone access). People who have never left a major city tend to never understand what being "without" is. Not a knock on them mind you just something thats hard to comprehend when you have so much at your fingertips. Heck even tradesmen in cities never quite get the concept that sometimes you cant just go back and get a replacement part.

The concept behind starlink is a good one if it works. It will level the playing field for many people and make it even harder to continue with autocratic BS some folks have to deal with.
 
Had to chuckle at this one. If you can remember living in the US before the 90's you know what life was like without the internet. It wasn't really as awful as you think.

it is when the rest of the world uses and relies on it and you can’t. It locks countries out from the rest of the world. Privileged folk like to think they can give up the internet at the drop of a hat like the internet just revolves around social media and Tinder.

Try living on the poverty line, cant get education resources, telehealth etc. It creates a deficit for many that they never recover from. Its like going to school when everyone has laptops for online learning and you are given a pencil to compete.

This is not about giving the world access to social media, it is about giving everyone equal rights and a fair chance in the new world.
 
Yeah, back around 2000 or so, the only option at my house was dial up. When a wireless Internet company came in and had 400kb Internet available, I was happy to pay 3x more for it. The cost for Starlink of $500 install and $100 a month for true high speed Internet, when you are living somewhere without it, is absolutely worth the cost.

What I want to know is how are they getting such low latency? Lon.tv did a review and he was seeing 20ms latency. That's only a touch worse than my wired Internet.
 
Yeah, back around 2000 or so, the only option at my house was dial up. When a wireless Internet company came in and had 400kb Internet available, I was happy to pay 3x more for it. The cost for Starlink of $500 install and $100 a month for true high speed Internet, when you are living somewhere without it, is absolutely worth the cost.

What I want to know is how are they getting such low latency? Lon.tv did a review and he was seeing 20ms latency. That's only a touch worse than my wired Internet.
Neural net predictive networking. It anticipates packets so let's say you go to ping google, it sends the reply ping back before you send your ping so that way the latency appears very fast.
 
Yeah, back around 2000 or so, the only option at my house was dial up. When a wireless Internet company came in and had 400kb Internet available, I was happy to pay 3x more for it. The cost for Starlink of $500 install and $100 a month for true high speed Internet, when you are living somewhere without it, is absolutely worth the cost.

What I want to know is how are they getting such low latency? Lon.tv did a review and he was seeing 20ms latency. That's only a touch worse than my wired Internet.

Because it’s only a ~1500 mile round trip instead of 90,000 miles.
 
I guess this wouldn't work great for a mobile use - like an RV?

I've been considering buying one, gutting it, putting comfy leather furniture and a wet bar in the back - then hire someone to drive me around on a road trip while I get wrecked in my mobile lounge.
 
I guess this wouldn't work great for a mobile use - like an RV?

Maybe. I know someone that has purchased the equipment and the tripod to attempt to use this system as a mobile internet service. Not sure how it will work out but I'll update here after he receives it and tests it out.
 
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I guess this wouldn't work great for a mobile use - like an RV?

I've been considering buying one, gutting it, putting comfy leather furniture and a wet bar in the back - then hire someone to drive me around on a road trip while I get wrecked in my mobile lounge.


Yeah, for now its parked-only. But there is nothing preventing a phased array from receiving on-the-move (they just need more signal processing)

Every F22 phased-array radar runs just fine running at over mach 1 (but it needs a lot of signal processing help to get it there). Making that work on a truck would be a lot easier task!
 
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Yeah, for now its parked-only. But there is nothing preventing a phased array from receiving on-the-move (they just need more signal processing)
Which is odd, because the satellites locations themselves are moving with respect to the antenna and it's not like the antenna is tracking a particular satellite in the sky.
 
Well yeah, Elon Musk isn't altruistic someone is going to pay.

That said, if I wanted to make the move to move to a rural/out of the way area I would happily pay $500 up front for this. But that said, I represent a class of "would pay for if..." population that has money to do this. The vast majority of rural people are not, and that's just counting this country, if you want to expand it world wide (which I'm sure was part of one of Musk's "look at how awesome I am" speeches) that ability to pay for this falls off. So I wouldn't be half surprised if this is an "America Tax because you can afford it" first and foremost. Also could see a small community buying one subscription and then everyone using it, used routers, or local wifi/cell signals, and Elon's dream to make $30B/year from this will literally be that, a pipe dream.
This isnt really true... (At least not always) Most people near me are currently paying $80-$120 for sh!t Hughes net/whatever... They can afford itnterne, it just isn't available. We just have zero options besides this and "4g".... 4g meaning verizon says I have LTE but I rarely break 30KB/s due to (I'm guessing) saturated towers, when I manage to go over my monthly limit it gets even worse. It costs the cable company to much investment to pull lines long distances where they wouldn't be able to charge < $1000 a month. Sure some rural areas may not be able to afford it, but plenty can we just don't have the option. I called a company and asked if I put $5k up front and paid $1k per month, what could I get to my house... They just laughed and said nothing. It's just not feasible with current models. I started pricing out my own WISP, but with starlink on the horizon it seems a wasted effort at this point. Although no word on any availability in my part of the country.
 
Maybe. I know someone that has purchased the equipment and the tripod to attempt to use this system as a mobile internet service. Not sure how it will work out but I'll update here after he receives it and tests it out.
They already started testing in airplanes... So I'm sure land speeds probably won't be a problem, however no word on what equipment it was using.
 
You might actually learn something that way. Be careful.
Yeah let us know how that pencil gives you access to your online curriculum. Im sure you’ll do real well.

You like to think you can get by with nothing but in the developed world if you don’t keep up, you’re left behind.
 
Yeah let us know how that pencil gives you access to your online curriculum. Im sure you’ll do real well.

You like to think you can get by with nothing but in the developed world if you don’t keep up, you’re left behind.
usps still works last I checked, or fedex/ups/etc.. Send them a quarter at a time, have them mail back their work when done. Lazyness or the environment is no excuse for leaving kids out of an education. There are alternatives, even without mailing stuff around, if you just stop to think. Of course, it'd help if we had more teachers...
 
The hardware they are using will work just fine with anything in motion. Its not like dish type receivers.
The challenge will be having enough processing to do that and how much they cheaped on it. "Will work" and "Will work well" are two entirely different categories.
That said with what they have said so far it looks like it will work well for most standard usage even on vehicles. There is a great deal of interest for ships and this level of access.
 
Yeah let us know how that pencil gives you access to your online curriculum. Im sure you’ll do real well.

You like to think you can get by with nothing but in the developed world if you don’t keep up, you’re left behind.

Ummm, Sir. You said

Its like going to school when

I think most rational people over 20 interpret that as physical classes.
 
Just got a note that it is available in my AO and I can sign up for service.

Anyone got it yet? It's comparable with the service I have now (in speed and price), so may get it as a backup service if I can figure out a way to con the HOA into allowing the dish :p
 
It’s available where I am in the ass end of nowhere BC. I didn’t get in but a few acquaintances and friends in town did, they hope to have their equipment soon.
 
Just got a note that it is available in my AO and I can sign up for service.

Anyone got it yet? It's comparable with the service I have now (in speed and price), so may get it as a backup service if I can figure out a way to con the HOA into allowing the dish :p
Only thing stopping me is the HOA. I bet it's more reliable then my cable internet.
 
I will never live in a place with a HOA. Some dipshit tried to start one in my area but was quickly shut down. How many people seriously would pass up actually having good internet cause they don't want a small dish being visible?
 
I'm signed up for the full package today. I'll be going from Frontier 7mbps DSL to hopefully cable levels of speed.

I'm in an area where the main cable line runs down my road, but my house is inbetween the nodes so they won't service us.

I'm in Southwest Michigan.
 
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I'm signed up for the full package today. I'll be going from Frontier 7mbps DSL to hopefully cable levels of speed.

I'm in an area where the main cable line runs down my road, but my house is inbetween the nodes so they won't service us.
Let us know how it all turns out. I am curious. I have 100mb cable, but I hate cable companies enough I would be willing to switch,.
 
Well, not Starlink is available to limited number of people.

Jump on their site and you can now sign up.

However, it does state: "Starlink is available to a limited number of users per coverage area at this time. Orders will be fulfilled on a first-come, first-served basis."

https://www.starlink.com/
 
yea the linus video made this look really good...which is really good for us and competition. He even gamed on it with no real issues. the stuff people want to do on the internet worked really well.

may be time to find that cheap piece of land in the middle of no where and build a small house.
 
yea the linus video made this look really good...which is really good for us and competition. He even gamed on it with no real issues. the stuff people want to do on the internet worked really well.

may be time to find that cheap piece of land in the middle of no where and build a small house.
Yeah and the thing is... most people in need of something like this really don't need those "gamer levels" of performance. They probably want the best picture they can have, not everything turned down to zero at minimum resolution just so things process faster.

But yeah, always had the idea of a rural house very appealing... until the idea of internet hit then kind of soured the whole idea. It really is an essential utility unless you want to be completely off the grid. I wouldn't move anywhere that I couldn't get water, whether it's from a municipal source or from a well, I wouldn't move anywhere were I couldn't have electricity whether it's from a utility company or have the ability to make/store it with something like solar, and I sure as hell wouldn't move anywhere I'm thrown back in time to super early ADSL days.
 
Getting in line. :)
Will be Northwest Arkansas. Best we got available is 5mbps DSL that doesn't work when it rains. Very rural. I'm running on Ubifi cellular based rn, get 20/5 with antennas. Literally for 10 dollars more a month (minus the equipment of 499$) This should be a vast improvement.
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