Finally, decent internet with Starlink

[Jackfre]

We live in a third world nation, meaning E of I-5 in CA. Internet, or lack of it, is a real problem here. We have AT&T and they deliver as they say, “all the way up to 3 mbps.“ You can read that as “up to” but “not over 3”. I signed up for Starlink in Feb ‘21 and got he system a couple weeks ago. Install was a challenge as the house is surrounded by some 4’diameter black walnuts a 100’ Ponderosa nd a larger Sequoia. I am trimming back one of the walnuts and we are getting about 150 mbps. It is a real pleasure. As well, I am able to now get decent coverage out to the shop which is about 100’ away. Way to go Elon.

 

[jumpstart]

Having good internet is a real game changer. I dealt with dial up and satellite (Hughsnet) for years. As a rural town we self financed a fiber optic network. Huge change for us.

 

[NakeDiesel]

I've felt your pain here in BFE oklahoma. I've been on starlink now for about 6 months. Before that was 2 ATT mifi boxes routed into a broadband combiner for my home network.

 

[Bad Habit]

Yep, had a crappy DSL with a lot of noise on the line so it would lock up. Have had Starlink for over a year and it's been great. Went through 42" of snow in 24 hours and never skipped a beat. Because of my geography, there's a mountain with trees just to the north of me which is the way the dish points, I do have sporadic dropouts, usually 10 seconds or so. I don't game no so problem. Occasionally there are some longer ones but think those are more system wide. Overall highly impressed.

 

[MattN03]

We recently were able to get T-Mobile Home Internet and it's been awesome! I've seen up to 500 mbps out in the country. It's a game changer!

 

[dougf]

I'll have to look into Starlink. I live in BFE Missouri and have something called Splash Wireless. There's a dish on my roof that shoots to a tower on a farm, not sure if that tower shoots to another tower or has some sort of fiber optic cable connection. I get 30+/- MBPS so its doable for sure would like 150!

 

[mike93lx]

3 to 150 is amazing.

I've been spoiled with fiber for years. I wouldn't be able to handle something like 3 again

 

[kj_mustang]

More and more rural areas will start to see better coverage as they roll out systems with all the Federal grant money that got thrown out. The company I use has a system using cell phone towers broadcasting on the mid-band spectrum. About a 1' x 1' plastic box receiver mounted on my house.

 

[dcg9381]

We live in a third world nation, meaning E of I-5 in CA. Internet, or lack of it, is a real problem here.

What's the cost? I agree, this is a big deal - especially for people that are mobile and need reliable internet.

 

[NakeDiesel]

starlink is 110.00 a month and 600 I think for the equipment

 

[Denwood]

We have a few of our staff using Starlink in remote locations...it's surprisingly good for VOIP, VPN etc. Definitely a game changer for anyone not connected to broadband.

 

[That Guy Scott]

I really need to install my Starlink. I’ve had it for a month and haven’t had time to install it (finishing the pool while it’s still hot was priority). We’ve been using an AT&T FirstNet hotspot for a few years. It’s okay but real internet will be nice.

 

[Mikeske]

Star Link for my area has been a joke. A 2 years ago they told me it would be available in 6 months. So I did the pre order and paid the $100. They have never even gave a update and in February of this year I finally requested a refund for the pre order. It took until three weeks ago to get the refund after I complained the consumer protection Department of the state.

I just look on the service map and it still shows available in 2023 they are almost completely surrounding my home area and if I was 3 miles north or 6 miles east I could have service.

 

[rustyanthony]

Next month will make a year I've been on the preorder list. I'm in the rural suburbs of Houston and honestly didn't think I'd be waiting this long.

 

[NakeDiesel]

My brother and I were on the list for a year and a half before we each go ours. Roll out was delayed due to the chip shortage that happened.

 

[Cairo94507]

Frustrating I know. I have been on the list for about 6 months now but have faith I will get it one of these months. There is no better solution for where I live.

I have Sudden LInk which now changed its name to Optimum or something like that. Their service is the worst! Customer service is in the Philippines or somewhere like that and all they say is "How is your customer service experience?" I want a company that has a USA call center with people who speak English- is that too much to ask?

 

[mrb1]

Almost went the Starlink route. TMobile here in rural Ohio is stepping up. Just received their new 5G gateway to replace the 4G unit. 450Mbps down, $50 month, no limit.

 

[theoldwizard1]

If you have good 4G reception, shop around. With a good "hotspot" that has 2 external antenna connections and a pair of Wilson Electronics Yagi Directional Cellular Antennas (Amazon $52) there are companies that have reasonably priced data plans.

 

[theoldwizard1]

Almost went the Starlink route. TMobile here in rural Ohio is stepping up. Just received their new 5G gateway to replace the 4G unit. 450Mbps down, $50 month, no limit.

5G is somewhat of a "gimmick". 5G runs on 2 different frequencies. The first, is in the same band as 4g and only give marginally better speed. The second is in a much higher band. It is much faster, but has very limited distance and must be line-of-sight.

The price is good and if your happy ...

 

[jmdirk]

I've been using it for ~ 1.5 years now.

It's certainly not as good as it once was. When I first got it, was consistently over 100 Mbps, even over 200 at times. I think nowadays I'm lucky to get 50 most times, especially during peak times.

It's still better than what I had

 

[niget2002]

I'm debating the RV version of starlink or cellular for the travel trailer. The wife wants to start taking longer trips where I'd work from the camper, so I'd need something reliable.

I have a bit to make the decision. First longer trip is planned for next summer. I'm considering just hot spotting my phone for that trip if I don't have any other equipment by then.

 

[Innovate1]

I've been using it for ~ 1.5 years now.

It's certainly not as good as it once was. When I first got it, was consistently over 100 Mbps, even over 200 at times. I think nowadays I'm lucky to get 50 most times, especially during peak times.

It's still better than what I had

Had it for about a year as I recall... First unit was defective and would only work for about 20 minutes at a time. They replaced it quickly. Had 6 M ATT DSL (renamed Uverse but basically the same as I understand it). That would have been enough if that was the actual speed but it had gotten much slower at peak times. Max I could get was 10M but since the system was overloaded I didn't think that would be much better. uverse has been good overall although I have noticed some times the speed was around 10M - thankfully only once or twice. Would do something cheaper if I could find it. I'm not in the boonies - it's not dense but in the suburbs and reasonably built up. Only cell signals I can get are ATT and Verizon.

Might try to use it for RV although we like to get away from tech somewhat when on vacation.

 

[Jackfre]

I installed this system for a friend. He lives in the forest and they get quite a bit of snow at 4000‘ elev. so I welded up the mount out of 2” pipe I had laying around to get him above the likely snow load. He says it is a new world at his house. SL offer a pipe adapter with 6 set screws. With wind load and all I could not imagine the set screws holding so we drilled and tapped the 2” so the mount is firm, set and not going anywhere.

 

[Bad Habit]

Yep, I did a couple of struts with a stand off and a chunk of 1-1/2 galv pipe. Remembered to seal off the opening in the pipe so those little ******* wasps won't move a ghetto into (they have enough around as it is...)

 

[Hubmonkey]

My brother and I were on the list for a year and a half before we each go ours. Roll out was delayed due to the chip shortage that happened.

I am in NE OK and have been on the list for well over a year and still shows "Available in your area by end of 2022"..

 

[NakeDiesel]

I am in NE OK and have been on the list for well over a year and still shows "Available in your area by end of 2022"..

There is also a wait list on equipment. My sister signed up for it a few months ago and it's saying sometime late next year I believe.

 

[Flatland Dave]

More and more rural areas will start to see better coverage as they roll out systems with all the Federal grant money that got thrown out. The company I use has a system using cell phone towers broadcasting on the mid-band spectrum. About a 1' x 1' plastic box receiver mounted on my house.

Our area was a recipient of some of that money. Buried fiber to the house. In our rural area it is the best bet by far. Brought in the houses and shot it over to the shop wirelessly.

 

[Hank11]

Installed Starlink last February as a beta user and have enjoyed 100% function even with 2 people on Zoom meetings at once. Maybe 5 minutes total downtime in the last 18 months.

 

[NakeDiesel]

I work from home full time as a Data Architect with most of my team in London, England. So I'm on teams calls almost all morning it seems sometimes. I was having an issue with teams dropping out quite a bit and finally figured it out that my broadband combiner was causing the issue. I have been running that TP-Link R480T+ with my 2 ATT boxes for a long time and had kept one hooked up as backup connection for when we have heavy rain storms. I took the combiner out of the network and not had more issues. Will eventually replace it so I can add my backup connection back in.

 

[reader2580]

Our area was a recipient of some of that money. Buried fiber to the house. In our rural area it is the best bet by far. Brought in the houses and shot it over to the shop wirelessly.

I'm not real happy that rural areas are getting better Internet than I have paid for with my tax dollars. A Boy Scout camp I work with has full fiber Internet in the middle of nowhere eight miles from the nearest paved road. The cost of installing that fiber will take 100 years or more to be paid off with the service fees that the camp pays. Several miles of fiber only services the camp so the cost can't be split with other customers.

Meanwhile, I live in a major metro area and will be lucky to have fiber to the home by the year 2100. Nobody is getting any tax money to pay for service to my house. I have really fast Internet on the download side, but the upload side *****!

 

[mike93lx]

I'm not real happy that rural areas are getting better Internet than I have paid for with my tax dollars. A Boy Scout camp I work with has full fiber Internet in the middle of nowhere eight miles from the nearest paved road. The cost of installing that fiber will take 100 years or more to be paid off with the service fees that the camp pays. Several miles of fiber only services the camp so the cost can't be split with other customers.

Meanwhile, I live in a major metro area and will be lucky to have fiber to the home by the year 2100. Nobody is getting any tax money to pay for service to my house. I have really fast Internet on the download side, but the upload side *****!

Sounds like the camp director knows "better" people than you do

 

[Jeff C]

I have Verizon LTE home internet. Typical download speeds are in the 40-60Mbit range. It’s acceptable for our three person house. Price is great at $20 per month.

 

[reader2580]

Sounds like the camp director knows "better" people than you do

No, the local telephone company got over $100 million in tax dollars to install fiber optic lines to companies and households across their service area.

 

[LOW1]

I'm not real happy that rural areas are getting better Internet than I have paid for with my tax dollars. A Boy Scout camp I work with has full fiber Internet in the middle of nowhere eight miles from the nearest paved road. The cost of installing that fiber will take 100 years or more to be paid off with the service fees that the camp pays. Several miles of fiber only services the camp so the cost can't be split with other customers.

Meanwhile, I live in a major metro area and will be lucky to have fiber to the home by the year 2100. Nobody is getting any tax money to pay for service to my house. I have really fast Internet on the download side, but the upload side *****!

If you think that’s bad calculate the cost of delivering mail to rural America. Or electricity. Or phones. Or roads. Or whatever. It’s the cost to live in America.

 

[tez929rr]

I'm not real happy that rural areas are getting better Internet than I have paid for with my tax dollars. A Boy Scout camp I work with has full fiber Internet in the middle of nowhere eight miles from the nearest paved road. The cost of installing that fiber will take 100 years or more to be paid off with the service fees that the camp pays. Several miles of fiber only services the camp so the cost can't be split with other customers.

Meanwhile, I live in a major metro area and will be lucky to have fiber to the home by the year 2100. Nobody is getting any tax money to pay for service to my house. I have really fast Internet on the download side, but the upload side *****!

I have to admit it’s not fair. We are in the sticks (getting more people lately) and both the phone coop and electric coop offer fiber internet. $70 per month for 200mb. What’s interesting is that our electric coop and a neighboring phone coop both ran underground lines along a state two lane right of way a few months apart. They had one of those hydro machines tunneling along the highway. I seriously don’t get why they didn’t get together and do it just once but one of the contractors said they never work with competitors like that. Our VFD service went from DSL to fiber and the cost only went up $4 per month.

 

[My Old Tools]

We recently were able to get T-Mobile Home Internet and it's been awesome! I've seen up to 500 mbps out in the country. It's a game changer!

Me too. Has it for a couple of years. Great service at $50 a month.

 

[My Old Tools]

I want a company that has a USA call center with people who speak English- is that too much to ask?

yes

 

[kj_mustang]

I'm not real happy that rural areas are getting better Internet than I have paid for with my tax dollars. A Boy Scout camp I work with has full fiber Internet in the middle of nowhere eight miles from the nearest paved road. The cost of installing that fiber will take 100 years or more to be paid off with the service fees that the camp pays. Several miles of fiber only services the camp so the cost can't be split with other customers.

Well, Starlink was going to get about $900 million of grant money but they got denied for lack of performance. Do you think Elon needs that much?

 

[dougf]

I am very happy rural areas are getting high speed internet. It's a game changer for families and young children to be able to research and watch videos on things that interest them out in the middle of BFE.

 

[reader2580]

I am very happy rural areas are getting high speed internet. It's a game changer for families and young children to be able to research and watch videos on things that interest them out in the middle of BFE.

Sure, at great expense to taxpayers. The #1 thing when I was buying my current house was the ability to get high speed Internet. #2 was natural gas for heating, but I was willing to bend on that for the perfect house. (I am glad I bought a house with natural gas heat.)