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Starlink Internet

Darren Wright

Darren Wright

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Anyone else here sign up for the Starlink Beta program?

For those that don't know, it's Elon Musk's plan to provide broadband internet to the world. It consists of putting several hundred small satellites into low orbit around the earth. They fly in what they call trains, so as they pass by, they will relay the connection to the other satellites in the train to provide consistent connectivity.

For cities it may not be a big deal and I don't really need it here at home, but down at the farm we're limited in internet options, so we're hoping this pans out, or at least forces the other cellular/satellite companies to complete and open up bandwidth and lower pricing.
 
Just signed up for updates.

Thank you for your interest in Starlink!

Starlink is designed to deliver high speed broadband internet to locations where access has been unreliable, expensive, or completely unavailable. Private beta testing is expected to begin later this summer, followed by public beta testing, starting with higher latitudes.

If you provided us with your address, you will be notified via email if beta testing opportunities become available in your area. In the meantime, we will continue to share with you updates about general service availability and upcoming Starlink launches.
 
I been following the progress but haven't signed up yet. I read just yesterday that the speeds were a bit shy of what they are shooting for BUT it also said the system if far from being complete.. They are shooting for spped to match fiber. Out here where I am at we don't have any hope to get fiber in the foreseeable future. so it would be nice. Right now I am stuck with DSL.
 
well they put up more part of the puzzle today according to the article they have 60% of the satilite network in orbit now..https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-100th-launch-rocket-reuse-milestone/?fbclid=IwAR1wgnjDMszJy1KzhOajHrnsnpF2bXWmZBfnKQjISArKcPLcQ6cCc5VBZvQ
 
I hope it works and comes soon. DSL is all that is available here at what they tongue-in-cheek refer to as high speed internet - 7 MPS down, 1 MPS up.
 
Dave Gravel said:
The only thing I know about it is the astronomy community is worried all the satellites in orbit are going to interfere with viewing as they pass by.
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That is a true concern to those that enjoy looking up there. I do, but I also tend to spend time watching for satellites to cruise over with the grand kids. I'm sure a string of them in a row are going to make them much easier to spot.
 
Darren Wright said:
That is a true concern to those that enjoy looking up there. I do, but I also tend to spend time watching for satellites to cruise over with the grand kids. I'm sure a string of them in a row are going to make them much easier to spot.
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We've seen the string of satellites pass over us several times. First time there were about twenty, next time more like 35. Lost count the last time, due to overcast sky. They're about the same brightness As the space station.
 
I saw strings of them fly over a couple times. It was very interesting. I did hear that the did some reconfiguration of the angle of the solar collectors to make them less visible.

Here's a link you can use that will help you to plan on seeing them, although they have a disclaimer about them being hard to see.

https://findstarlink.com/
 
Brent Dowell said:
I saw strings of them fly over a couple times. It was very interesting. I did hear that the did some reconfiguration of the angle of the solar collectors to make them less visible.

Here's a link you can use that will help you to plan on seeing them, although they have a disclaimer about them being hard to see.

https://findstarlink.com/
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I've seen the Space station a couple times but not any satellites. Lot of light pollution where I live so only the brightest objects are visible. Need to get to a dark sky location soon. Right now the brightest objects besides the Moon are Saturn and Jupiter. I would to have a reflector that can resolve the clouds on Jupiter and Saturn's rings. Guess that'll be my next money saving goal, and learn more about the space above us.
 
Where I live, I used to be able to see the milky way pretty clearly, but slowly, civilization is creeping my way and making it tough. And I've got a neighbor about a mile away with the brightest dusk to dawn lights on the planet it seems. My ability to see the stars is getting worse.
 
I look forward to seeing it operational and I hope it's a huge success. My IP really sucks, both in speed and reliability. On top of that it's fairly expensive. So I'd like to have an alternative. That string of satellites was supposed to e visible here a few weeks back but as I recall it was quite late at night and I, well, am not. :rofl:
 
I hope it happens soon. All I can get is dsl with speeds between 1.5 and 2.7 mbs. No hope fiber or cable on my part of the street for the forseeable future.
I'll sign up today and hope.
 
I see no reason for me to change from my wireless broadband. I average 50mbs down and 15 up. And, when the weather is really bad and the satellite signals, such as TV, are blocked I can still see what the weather is doing around me, such as tornadoes. I am sure it will be a good thing for someone, but not me.
 
Dave Hoskins said:
I see no reason for me to change from my wireless broadband. I average 50mbs down and 15 up. And, when the weather is really bad and the satellite signals, such as TV, are blocked I can still see what the weather is doing around me, such as tornadoes. I am sure it will be a good thing for someone, but not me.
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Same here. I have a fiber-optic cable connection that's been rock solid reliable for many years. 40 bucks a month. No reason to change.
 
It's really not for people that already have decent internet. This is for a lot of the folks out in the country that can't get decent internet due to distance and or terrain.

My WISP connection is pretty decent and I have no real complaints. Sure I'm jealous of those fiber optic speeds, but I'm able to work from home and do most 'modern' things with my connection.

I have friends that are able to do things quite well with using their mobile phones as wireless hotspots.

I tried the hughesnet satellite internet when I first moved out to NV. It worked, but the bandwidth caps and latency were just horrible, and I had upgraded to the 'business' class service and dish that they had at the time. Once I got my wireless connection setup it was night and day.

It will be interesting to see how that service works. Elon sure is investing in it heavily and has quite a few sattelites up there already.
 
I have a internet provider that use's radio frequencies and throttles it to 3.4mb normal speed is 1 to 2.7 on a good day all for $84.00/mo. I had satellite for the first 5 years I lived here and it REALLY sucked. If you used it for skype it would lag making it impossible to carry a conversation and we only got 10g of time at $70/mo then it became slower than dial-up. We would go through our time in about 9 days
 
Well I just sighed up for updates, always find this sort of stuff interesting, although I don't understand a whole lot about it. I have pretty good service, least good enough for me, with PocketInet, but I have to have the little dish receiver thing moved ever so often because of my neighbors trees keep growing... Same with my TV dish. Are these satellites only for internet or are they going to be for TV, phone service package type thing....?
 
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Paul Douglass said:
PocketInet
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We had them when we lived in the Tri Cities (West Richland sort of..). I was super impressed by them. The local Telco had disconnected our dsl because they had an slo on hookup times but none for continued connectivity so were disconnecting existing customers to avoid penalties for not hooking up new ones (seems unbelievable but true). So we had switched to pocketinet. We were above a month into the new service when the tower that we were hooked up to got hit by lightning and burned to the ground. We figured "well here we go again" and were fairly quickly starting to explore running a long haul wifi connection to someone we knew in the valley (needed internet for work). But not more than four hours later they had a complete mobile van setup on the hill complete with generator and we were back up and running. Left me feeling really good about them.
 
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