Starlink Public Beta About to Happen?!?!

Jelly said:
Getting in line. :)
Will be Northwest Arkansas. Best we got available is 5mbps DSL that doesn't work when it rains.
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I had one of those DSL lines once... and I'm in an urban area. Was a thick rubber coated 2 wire pair coming from the pole, had to be original to the house when it was built in the 50s, over time the rubber got brittle cracked, and even the copper broke, so if the wind was blowing to hard no more connection :D
 
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I got my availability email Monday, and order confirmation payment processed email, as fast I could click through. Email said it could take 2-4 weeks before I see the shipping/tracking number for my equipment.

We just moved, only thing available was via sat or hughes, got via sat (25mbps 60gb month @ $150 a month) installed in December, super excited to pay that early cancellation fee.

House is in the middle of Oregon half way between the coast and I-5.

To all you townies stay off my starlink, don't saturate it when you could get cable for the same price or less lol
 
Wat said:
Hoa's cannot prevent you from putting up a dish. This is been well established now--those legal battles were fought 20 years ago when satellite TV was in its heyday.
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I guess I was using "HOA" as a term of art, but when your house is on the national historical register, it becomes a bit more complicated :p
 
westrock2000 said:
Jokes on you! I’m a townie that cant get cable AND I pay more than you do. 🤪

on a serious note, as more satellites are added, the bandwidth will go up.
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Yes! This is going to be a game changer, SpaceX has many advantages over traditional ISPs. As SpaceX continues to drive launch pricing down it won't be too long before the next to zero maintenance of Starlink when compared to traditional ISPs edges them out. Traditional land based ISPs have considerable maintenance issues, overhead lines, service trucks/drivers, pole amplifiers, weather etc which Starlink doesn't have.

Going to heat up further once Blue Origin and OneWeb start their roll-outs.

I live out in the country and am very lucky to have cable, even though my node is horribly over subbed and we have constant outages caused by power/falling trees etc. And all of my computing/network/95% of house are on solar power so if I had Starlink these outages including power wouldn't cause an internet disruption.

I wonder how long till Netflix has an OCA floating around in space? :D
 
Machupo said:
I guess I was using "HOA" as a term of art, but when your house is on the national historical register, it becomes a bit more complicated :p
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Can you install a pole and install the dish on that, if you can't modify the building? On top of a shed in the back yard? :D
 
I had satellite internet that was garbage before. I switched to the newish T-Mobile home internet platform which is significantly faster but not as fast as Starlink. I am signing up as well.
 
I live north of Atlanta

I have 1gbps Comcrap garbage company internet. Ill be so glad to kiss comcast goodbye! I live in the country and am one of the very last run of coax for the county. I have a data cap too??!?! Screw you comcast. Im tired of your antics.

I also refuse 5g for reasons, and 4g is too slow. Enter starlink!
Screenshot_20210212-100733_Firefox.jpg
 
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westrock2000 said:
on a serious note, as more satellites are added, the bandwidth will go up.
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Totally I am not worried at all 😃
Plus one of the base stations is in Charleston OR, like 60 miles as the crow flies. The only person that I know that has it installed nearby, about 10 miles away, is getting speed test around 180mbps and pings in the low 20's
I think a lot of the performance will be based on how near a base station is and how many people are getting pushed through it. Time will tell but it is amazing how fast they are moving on this project.
As soon as I get mine I will report back

And if you own any via sat or hughes stock sell it now lol, for that matter dish and directv will take a hit also. I know my via sat and dish network will be cancelled as soon as I get it.

Here is a fun link
https://satellitemap.space/
 
westrock2000 said:
Jokes on you! I’m a townie that cant get cable AND I pay more than you do. 🤪

on a serious note, as more satellites are added, the bandwidth will go up.
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Interesting fact, before this project there were about 2700 active satellites in orbit, roughly 1900 in low Earth orbit, SpaceX increased that amount by 2/3rds with it's first round of deployments (3 years)
 
sfsuphysics said:
Interesting fact, before this project there were about 2700 active satellites in orbit, roughly 1900 in low Earth orbit, SpaceX increased that amount by 2/3rds with it's first round of deployments (3 years)
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SL sats are design to self destruct via re entry after 5 years
 
sfsuphysics said:
Interesting fact, before this project there were about 2700 active satellites in orbit, roughly 1900 in low Earth orbit, SpaceX increased that amount by 2/3rds with it's first round of deployments (3 years)
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not sure I’m excited about more satellites up there. Sure they’re supposed to de-orbit themselves, but nuclear power was supposed to be safe and condoms were supposed to prevent pregnancy, but alas, here we are...
 
Northern CT. Signed up the day it opened, mid-late 2021.

Currently on Cox. $99 for 300/30 plus the $50 to avoid data caps.

I'll gladly take my business elsewhere just to give cox the middle finger. They had a 2tb soft cap on their ultimate plan, adjusted it down to 1tb for "fairness" and then started charging for overages soon after.
 
Guarana [BAWLS] said:
Can you install a pole and install the dish on that, if you can't modify the building? On top of a shed in the back yard? :D
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It's a fight -- apparently a "viewshed" is a thing, (a la watershed, etc)... I've got the "modification request" in and we'll see where it goes. My cable is 200mbit, but goes out about once a month for no apparent reason; would love a failover.
 
I hope by the time they, and other countries and corporations are finished with this that we can still see the stars at least somewhere in the world without seeing bright satellites.
 
painintheworld said:
Just signed up for one of my homes here in Western North Carolina. Starlink says mid to late 2021.
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I think that mid to late 2021 is for everyone nationwide that is NOT beta testing.

I think that is the expected window they are going live with the service. SpaceEx might need to put a few thousand more sats up before they go full live. That is probably what the delay is.
 
tangoseal said:
I think that mid to late 2021 is for everyone nationwide that is NOT beta testing.

I think that is the expected window they are going live with the service. SpaceEx might need to put a few thousand more sats up before they go full live. That is probably what the delay is.
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Yes...copy and paste from the Starlink email to me after placing the order/deposit: "Starlink will begin offering service in your area beginning mid to late 2021. Orders will be fulfilled on a first-come, first-served basis. You will be notified via email prior to shipment, and you will be charged the remainder of your balance once your kit ships."
 
Manny Calavera said:
Starlink cannot come soon enough
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Exactly, because I can't stand Comcast AT ALL

yes I am giving up 1gbps cable internet for Starlink. I know that Starlink is going to grow to half or more of this bandwidth in the next year after launch so I am fine with that. Once they laser links up between sats latency is going to fall even more because there will be no interference from the Sun, man made crap, etc... to have to error correct constantly causing more latency due to processing said error corrections etc...

Plus the wife and I are pushing hard to buy 50 acres so I would like to go out there for a week at a time and have internet.
 
Update: from my post last week.
Equipment has shipped!!!
Tracking number says Sunday delivery.

Availability email came, ordered immediately on the 8th of February. Said 2-4 weeks for equipment to ship. So we are ahead of schedule, fine by me.
 
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tangoseal said:
Exactly, because I can't stand Comcast AT ALL

yes I am giving up 1gbps cable internet for Starlink. I know that Starlink is going to grow to half or more of this bandwidth in the next year after launch so I am fine with that. Once they laser links up between sats latency is going to fall even more because there will be no interference from the Sun, man made crap, etc... to have to error correct constantly causing more latency due to processing said error corrections etc...

Plus the wife and I are pushing hard to buy 50 acres so I would like to go out there for a week at a time and have internet.
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Can put a lot of bodies in 50 acres...
 
So my starlink is up and running!
First day/evening I didn't have much time to get things setup so I sat the dish on the roof of my trailer that sits to the east of my house.
Got it running and ran into a lot of disconnects due to obstructions. I have a lot of tall fir trees on the west and east side of the property, I figured I was going to have to put it on a pole on the shop, but was hoping I could get lucky.
So today I got a pole up on the shop, 100% signal, no drops.
I played some World of tanks real quick to test ping while playing, and was around 65-70 (keep in mind with my comcast 2 months ago in town, before the move, I was in the 60's ping, thier servers suck lol) didn't notice any lag, movement was smooth. I haven't had time to test any other games. Maybe tomorrow. Download speeds have been as low as 70mbps and as high as 130mbps. Netflix has no problem streaming 4k to my LG oled, quick near instant fast forward and everything. Feels like cable and the best part is I am out in the country and I don't have to pay comcast a dime.

Right now I am just using the supplied wifi router. I need to run a hardwire from the shop to the house but that won't happen anytime soon.

So the only thing I didn't expect was how low on the north horizon I needed a clear view of.

Fyi, I am located near the 43rd parallel in Oregon. 30 miles from the coast.

So if you don't have a good view of the north horizon I would think about waiting until they get more up in the sky. The starlink apps "check for obstructions" is fairly accurate if trees are in view on the northern 120° or so you will get drops.
 
Received my Starlink a week ago, retrofitted an old Hughesnet mount on my roof to work with it. So far it has been great in nearly all aspects - pings ~ 30ms, average d/l is around 80Mbps, with speeds periodically getting up to 130Mbps, upload speeds ~ 15-20Mbps. Night and day better over my last ISP. The only small downside is the dropouts (I get dropouts about five times a day, lasting for 10 seconds - 1 minute each). I can deal with 5 minutes of no internet a day to have speeds as fast as when I lived in the city for the rest of the time. It is truly fantastic, and once the dropouts get eliminated, it will be even better.
 
unfortunateson said:
Received my Starlink a week ago, retrofitted an old Hughesnet mount on my roof to work with it. So far it has been great in nearly all aspects - pings ~ 30ms, average d/l is around 80Mbps, with speeds periodically getting up to 130Mbps, upload speeds ~ 15-20Mbps. Night and day better over my last ISP. The only small downside is the dropouts (I get dropouts about five times a day, lasting for 10 seconds - 1 minute each). I can deal with 5 minutes of no internet a day to have speeds as fast as when I lived in the city for the rest of the time. It is truly fantastic, and once the dropouts get eliminated, it will be even better.
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Sounds great, enough for me to give up fiber to go full rural/hermit... although doubt my wife will appreciate the move :D
 
after my suggestion, we just ordered a kit for one of our rural schools thats on a LTE connection that craps out constantly. we'll see how she goes in bumfluff nowhere alberta....
 
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unfortunateson said:
Received my Starlink a week ago, retrofitted an old Hughesnet mount on my roof to work with it. So far it has been great in nearly all aspects - pings ~ 30ms, average d/l is around 80Mbps, with speeds periodically getting up to 130Mbps, upload speeds ~ 15-20Mbps. Night and day better over my last ISP. The only small downside is the dropouts (I get dropouts about five times a day, lasting for 10 seconds - 1 minute each). I can deal with 5 minutes of no internet a day to have speeds as fast as when I lived in the city for the rest of the time. It is truly fantastic, and once the dropouts get eliminated, it will be even better.
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Do you know what's causing the dropouts? Do they just need more satellites?
 
sharknice said:
Do you know what's causing the dropouts? Do they just need more satellites?
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They have about 850 sats up. When the service is fully delivetable they are authorized for 12,000 and they utilize the 12ghz band. When service goes post beta and deliverable they will use 40 to 75ghz.

At 70ghz the side bands can be very broadband at 10ghz if they choose, making the upper and lower side bands 5ghz each and in that spread of spectrum they can pack a lot of data which will increase throughout substantially.
 
While it sounds exciting, I need to have nearly 100% uptime. Ill keep an eye out to see what happens in the future with uptime. I currently pay too much to my ISP for what I get, but I do have nearly 100% uptime. My job / career depend on it.
 
Any updates on those of you that got into the beta program?

I've read mixed feelings on this. Some say it's great and some complain about dropped internet times.
 
stinger608 said:
I've read mixed feelings on this. Some say it's great and some complain about dropped internet times.
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It's still beta, Elon has specifically said there will be outage times as they update the Sat firmware etc. I think last i read this is expected to continue till at least the end of this year.
 
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