Posted on 01/24/2021 7:19:17 AM PST by SmokingJoe
A recent survey has determined that over half of Americans are ready to switch to SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service. This was despite only 5% of internet subscribers in the United States being connected via satellite today.
The study was conducted by Reviews.org, which asked respondents whether they would consider getting on board with Starlink once the satellite internet service is fully set up. As it turns out, over half of those surveyed stated that they’d be signing up for the Starlink Beta program, despite the $499 cost of the satellite dish and the service’s current $99 per month fee.
Interestingly enough, 55% of the study’s respondents who do not use satellite internet today noted that they would stay with Starlink permanently if the system’s connection was faster, even if its price was higher than their current internet service provider. Over 40% of the respondents also stated that they would stay with Starlink if SpaceX would allow subscribers to make payments on the satellite system instead of an upfront $499 fee.
Average internet costs in the United States today stand at 57.2 Mbps for about $65 per month, which translates to a $1.13 per Mbps rate. Starlink is more expensive at $99 per month, but considering that the system provides average speeds of 103.1 Mbps at its present state, SpaceX’s satellite system is actually cheaper on a per Mbps basis.
What really sets Starlink apart from current internet service providers in the United States is its low latency, which allows the system to perform much closer to what subscribers receive with cable internet. Current Starlink latency averages 39 milliseconds with download speeds of about 79.5 Mbps as of October 2020. This is over three times the best download
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If they can ever miniaturize the transceiver to be mobile phone sized, it will curb stomp terrestrial cellular service.
Even as it stands, Starlink could build its own 5g towers and use Starlink satellites for its backbone and not have to lay fiber. All they’d need is lease to build towers, no easements for cabling at all.
Right. :)
It will work best in sparsely populated areas. The max bandwidth you will be able to get, is the capacity of the satellite currently overhead divided by the number of users in its footprint.
It’s designed to bring internet to rural areas, not urban areas.
The first phase of 1440 satellites are set to operate at an inclination of 53 degrees so the highest northern point reached by them in their orbital plane would be 53 degrees north latitude and with an altitude ~550 KM, the footprint would increase the latitude very slightly. Future phases are calling for orbits more inclined to the polar regions.
Everywhere on earth.
I’m 45 mins from the nearest town, middle of the sticks heh.
I’m not a physicist but I’d guess this system is a little more resistant to weather.
Directv is a directional signal. The satellite is in geostationary orbit so it stays in the same spot in the sky at all times and your dish has to be aligned perfectly on it. Geostationary orbit something like 20k miles distant, which is why it has such crap latency for internet and is easily interrupted.
Starlink is Omni directional. It has to be because the satellites are not geostationary. They’re very low altitude, something like 600 miles for the highest orbiting shell. The lower ones are 400 miles maybe? Anyway, the signals for this system are Omni directional, more like cellular towers. The much shorter distance and Omni directional nature likely means it will tolerate weather better.
That’s just my semi educated guess.
That was my interest as well. I live way out in the country where internet is spotty at best. This would help me and I suspect that the cost will drop rapidly once he has enough subscribers. I am on his list to call me when service is available.
All good except when there’s a storm. Then no signal.
I’ve got unlimited internet through an antennae. $65 per month and no equipment cost. Yes, it works during a storm!
35-45 mbs.
That would be great.
Might take a while thogh.
Read this from the Motley Fool:
Will SpaceX’s Starlink Kill the Cable Industry?
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/will-spacexs-starlink-kill-the-cable-industry/ar-BB1d2UK2
Thanks, that makes a lot of sense.
The eventual plan is for up to 42,000 (!) Satellites in various orbital shells globally. The satellites are being mass produced as fast as they can and weigh approximately 500 pounds each. I remember getting excited when I got XM and they had 2 satellites.
CC
Oh! So you’ve got radioactive water!
:)
Its only in beta right now, with only 1,000 out of the eventual 40,000 satellites launched so far.
Not only will the speed sharply increase to the aimed for 1 Gig per second, the price will inevitably drop considerably too.
I understand the ability to connect in areas which currently have limited or zero connection but cable and fiber are much faster and cheaper. The real market will be those who do not have access to internet, but that is becoming a limited potential market in 1st world countries but will open up 3rd world countries to internet. Will be interesting from a business standpoint.
HughesNet has huge latency issues. StarLink satellites are in much, much lower orbits, so that latency issue, which is a big one, is largely erased.
I expect Starlink to be popular with ships and planes.
It blows my mind that an airliner can go down in the ocean, and nobody knows where. Put a Starlink box on every airliner, to give internet/phone access to passengers, and on the side have the box send a packet with the plane’s location and status every 10 seconds, with the box in a location that hijackers cannot get to in flight.
Elon can revolutionize American business by staying focused on business for all of his customers rather than pissing off 1/2 of them on alternate days by mixing business and politics.
“If you’re in snow country, never mount your dish where you can’t easily get to it to brush snow off. A mistake I made.”
This probably won’t help you, but I had my Hughesnet dish mounted to the same poll as my old C band dish. As an unexpected benefit, the C band dish keeps the snow off my Hughesnet dish.
So that’s why I can’t miss the john in the middle of the night. Thanks.
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