That is how my client/friend describes his first ten days with his new Starlink install.

We have been struggling with his 1-3 Mbps ( at best ) Verizon DSL for years. Although he only lives about a mile from me, cable is not an option and cell service sucks. He happens to live right across a township line where Comcast is not allowed to go and his township provider refuses to go.

Mid April we signed up for Starlink Beta, paid the $500.00 and received the package about ten days ago.

It took us about 20 minutes to deploy the system. 10 minutes was spent untangling the mess we made of the 100 foot cat6e cable from the dish to POE ( power over internet injector ). The router just plugs into the injector. We just sat the dish on a tree stump and ran the cable through a door until we could permanently mount everything. The stump mount gave us a mostly clear view of north-northwest sky.

Once plugged in, it took about 10 minutes for router to boot and dish to orient itself and download satellite schedule data. Bamm!!! 256 Mbps down and 18.7 Mbps up !!

Did I mention life changing?

We have now permanently mounted the dish with clear view and ran line through conduit and into house. Fun watching dish seek and find satellites. The system has been very stable.

It will be interesting to monitor his service over the next few months. He is, obviously, beyond pleased considering where he was coming from. I have comparable download speeds with my Comcast Blast Pro service and pay the same $100.00/mt. Later this year, when Starlink is promised to go mobile, I will be very tempted to ditch the cable.

Any questions, feel free to ask. It has been a fascinating project!!

fred

P.S. The second picture below is the instruction manual! 

Next is UV exposure....I hope it's made with UV protection. 

Yeah...so when Elon comes out with a more robust mobile version, assuming it IS mechanically hardened, I might make a donation once a month to his Mars Missile.

But not till then!

Good questions. Remember, J has been living with 1-3 Mbps DSL for years. I'm slowly bringing him into the broadband age. He has never heard of VOIP! It's kinda hard to get empirical data by talking, texting or emailing with him. He is just amazed he can send emails with attachments or stream movies on his computer.

That brings me to a big gripe. There is no remote management yet. Although the iPhone app provides great statistics, I have to be onsite to access them. I can easily remote manage his desktop computer, but stats are only available in the app. I'll be onsite today, so I'll grab some stats.

f

P.S. I forgot to add. The dish rarely, if ever, moves once it has oriented itself to designated cell position. It's more like the satellite constellation locks in on the dish, rather that the dish following satellites.

Actually, the hardware seems very, very sturdy. The dish itself weighs in about 12 pounds. I've been following  https://www.reddit.com/r/Starlink/ - https://www.reddit.com/r/Starlink/  closely and have yet to hear of any broken dishes. A few lawn mower/cable incidents, though. I would imagine SpaceX is pretty good with UV exposure.

Although Starlink policies may change once the program is out of beta, all reports are that Starlink support is very good about replacing damaged or malfunctioning equipment.

f

Source:  http://wccftech.com/starlink-laser-operating-temperature-other-details/ - https://wccftech.com/starlink-laser-operating-temperature-other-details/

I don't plan on investing $500 and watch it twist into a pile of broken plastic within the first 2 weeks of ownership.

Oh did I mention hail? Lots of it! Big ones. 1-2" is common....sometimes even bad enough here in tornado country that cars and RVs are totaled...it can destroy entire roofs...

I dont expect it to survive a tornado...but high winds and hail...yeah we need that amount of robustness out here. I am not in the city with trees all around me...I am out in the county....and no wind blocks exist here at all...so...ladders, metal panels, trashcans, plastic bags, boxes, buckets, all these things can and do become airborne...and they can do some secondary damage also.

As I said...once they can prove they have a weather-hardened unit...something similar to the enclosed satellite TV dish that you can buy for RVs and trucks....maybe then.

Maybe.

https://www.google.com/search?q=wind+site:www.reddit.com/r/Starlink/&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8 - https://www.google.com/search?q=wind+site:https://www.reddit.com/r/Starlink/&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

And:

https://www.google.com/search?q=hail+site:www.reddit.com/r/Starlink/&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8 - https://www.google.com/search?q=hail+site:https://www.reddit.com/r/Starlink/&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

My money, my choice.

I actually get suitable internet right now from the two cell towers each within a mile of me, for a very reasonable $50/month for BOTH plans (not each plan) ...(almost) unlimited GB on one and 15 GB on the other..and fairly high speeds, I can watch HD video on youtube or Netflix....plus these hotspots are inside sitting on my desk as we speak...one is a phone, and one is a dedicated cellular hotspot...so its not like I need to send Elon any money right now to get internet.

In the future, with a robust unit and maybe even some cheaper plans, you never know...it could happen. 

You are exactly right. It's really not for those who already have fast and reliable broadband. It is actually promoted as "Better Than Nothing Beta". 

It's also not for you if you live in a forrest! Obstructions ( currently to the NNW ) are a huge issue. At least until the constellation is so built out the connection beam can be maintained through a thin sliver of sky.

f

Last 12 hours

Ping Success:  Average 99%  •  Last 100%

No Satellites: 42 seconds

Other outages: 7 minutes **

Obstructions: 0

Latency: Min 23 ms  •  Max 54 ms  • Last 46 ms

** Generally described as Beta Downtime - software/firmware updates, etc

Currently there are 1675 satellites launched of which 915 are on station.

Just for fun:   https://starlink.sx - https://starlink.sx

Just for grins, I ran speed tests on the same computer but logged onto my AT&T hotspot, then logged onto my T-Mobile phone in tethering mode...

Not as fast as starlink....but about $20 for AT&T and about $30 for my T-Mobile plan....and not too shabby on the speeds....in fact, better than the old DSL and U-verse plans I had at my previous sticks and bricks...

So I'm in no hurry...as of yet...

Thanks!

In meantime Visible has just gotten better. I got a Gl iNet 750M to play with in addition to my Mango. The latest firmware has made a huge difference in crazy easy lan network setup w/tethering and one little line of code to adjust TTL ( basically bypass 5 Mbps cap on tethering ) and the Visible hotspot has become a really viable connection.

Because I have referred two customers to Visible in the last two months, I have been paying $5.00/mt for unlimited, non-capped data. Can't beat that! My normal rate is $25/mt. Last week, while in Trap Pond State Park I was really surprised how well my camp WiFi (FredNet) was working. Had no problem with Google YouTubeTV via Visible and Chromecast, but could barely get a signal with my AT&T phone.

We have gotten off the track of Starlink.

Hard to say when those 7 minutes of down time was. Could have been at 4 AM doing a firmware update - beta mystery. As Musk has already said they plan on offering phone service with Starlink, I don't think dropouts will be an issue in the near future.

Like I have said several times, it may not be the perfect answer for everyone. It is, howeve, very well executed technology that, heretofore, no-one else has been able to match. Kind of like landing 80+ booster rockets on a floating barges and re-using them to fly again. I personally don't like the guy, but his organizations are pulling off some pretty incredible engineering.

f

I'm grandfathered in on the $20/mo Mobley Connected Car (kinda unlimited) data plan from 2017....they let me keep it and I have no plans to let it go anytime soon. It's a hotspot so yes, I can hotspot with it.

Did you use my referral code??!! 

Just kidding.

That's insanely cheap for ATT if it's truly unthrottled data. I have an old Mobile Share plan with ATT. Two phones share 6GB for $40.00. They claim it's unlimited by throttling anything over 6GB to 128K. Basically unusable beyond 6GB. I can burn through 6GB in a weekend no problem.

We just use the Visible hotspot tethered to Gl Slate while traveling or at campsite....until I can stick that dish on top of the Pod. 

f

Truly unthrottled data? Does anyone have that anywhere with ANY carrier? I doubt it.

What this does is more or less unlimited, except, like always, it's 'limited'....but again, it's ONLY $20 per month.

I get 22gb per month at high speed when on-AT&T network, nothing when I'm not. They can throttle it back after 22gb IF the tower is 'busy' or congested...whatever that means....but it has never happened in 4 years and I often blow way past the 22GB monthly data allotment.

At any rate, it works for me, for now.

https://www.rvmobileinternet.com/guides/top-cellular-data-plans-for-rvers-cruisers-verizon-att-t-mobile-and-sprint/ - https://www.rvmobileinternet.com/guides/top-cellular-data-plans-for-rvers-cruisers-verizon-att-t-mobile-and-sprint/

f

I would agree except for the fact that the dish design is somewhat vulnerable to the conditions typically found around the homes of those 5 to 10% of people out here in the boonies: Strong winds, hail, debris blowing around, lawnmowers, tractors, cattle, goats, chickens, kids, yada yada yada....

I WILL be impressed when they sell a robust solution actually suited for life 'out here'....

Dishy McFlatface DOES look good sitting there on a well-manicured suburban lawn or perched on a purple plastic table on a cute little balcony next to potted flowers and a colorful hanging 'dream catcher'.....I will give you that.

Miss soccer mommy can simply carry Mr Dishy inside when her wind chimes start to sing...

Think globally. Starlink and other constellation systems like OneWeb or Amazon's Kuiper are not designed *just* for US customers. Although ground stations are currently being used to beam backbone data to satellites, soon they will be transferring huge amounts of data between satellites via laser. Then it becomes a truly global system reaching far corners. No, it is not an urban solution where fiber is already available, but consider the 100's of millions of people worldwide who do not and will not have access to the internet via terrestrial systems.

f

+1 

I don't know about Kuiper and OneWeb, but Starlink also has the "capability" to provide service to areas where there isn't a ground station. 

This  means that Starlink can connect a dish to the actual internet instead of the state-controlled internet (e.g. China and Russia). I know for a fact that Russia has passed legislation that makes owning a Starlink dish illegal. It probably has Chinese bureaucrats working overtime. 

I'm not a rocket scientist even though my wife says I'm spacie.

I'm conflicted on the space pollution issue. Space is a big place and even 100K kitchen table size satellites just doesn't seem that dense to me. I have read that SpaceX is working closely with astronomers to try to minimize issues. Relative to the 350,000+ cell towers in the US alone and 5G nodes popping up on every street corner in urban settings, it kinda gives the satellite density issue some perspective.

Fortunately all new LEO satellites are maneuverable and can be safely de-orbited or will naturally decay to disposable orbit. Unlike the monster space junk China has been hurling. 

So is the Lightning F150 gonna carry a gas generator disguised as a toolbox in the bed to keep the battery charged? If it does, does it become a hybrid? 

f

Yeah but those pieces of hardware are not moving at 18,000 miles per hour relative to nearby people in vehicles.

BTW we are getting a LOT of severe weather here again...its making the news...again...

Ha! I did see Gravity. Still, a much safer place than an Indonesian submarine! 

Why not have orbiting or geostationary telescopes that anyone could tap into? Seems kinda quaint and selfish to have ground based telescopes these days vs. giving the world affordable and accessible internet access. That should push some buttons.

Look, I'm half kidding there. I was hoping this would be a discussion on how well the system performs and it's technical potential. Why did it turn into such an adversarial debate?

Oh, and BTW, has there actually been a collision I am unaware of? Not reported near collision. I mean real collision? Just curious.

f

BTW, they told us mid to late 2021 for the Starlink package. It arrived about two weeks after order.

Looking forward to your impressions.

f

I've been in the fixed wireless broadband business since 2004, and there are significant issues for this to be a reality. Out here, terrain and trees (you know those 300-foot-tall ones?) are a major obstacle to making it work. That and getting leases on places where you can place a POP (Point of Presence for those not familiar with the lingo). The last couple of years we have transitioned to a hybrid model where it's possible. We use a very high capacity PTP link, then run fiber around the neighborhood. We've made this work in a couple of places where the terrain and trees made it impossible to do wireless anything.