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
(Excerpt) Read more at teslarati.com ...
I’m wondering is Elon is thinking about more than just Internet access:
Hope Musk has non-political, free speech browser, social media and store sites for it!
I bought a DirecDuo dish and receiver about 25 years ago, before you could get “high speed internet” 3G speeds on your cell phone. It used your phone landline to send info out and the dish to get signals back. I never did get it to work right. I learned that it is better not to be an early adopter if you can help it.
We are hoping to move to a more rural area soon, so I hope this works out well. Even where we are now however, trees obstruct our view of equitorial stationary satellites.
“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.
“Your Starlink will detect and melt snow that falls directly on it, however accumulating snow around your Starlink may block the field of view. We recommend installing Starlink in a location that avoids snow build-up and other obstructions from blocking the field of view. Heavy rain or wind can also affect your satellite internet connection, potentially leading to slower speeds or a rare outage.”
Correct.
They're very low altitude, something like 600 miles for the highest orbiting shell. The lower ones are 400 miles maybe?
Yes. SpeaceX satellites are at 342 miles LEO as compared to the Hughes Net geostationary orbit satellites at 22,000 miles.
StarLinks dish has a heater which comes on when needed to melt the snow.
It’s also self aligning.
The final number will be over 10,00 satellites.
They’re at 1,000 now and quite a few people are already on the network.
Was gonna say... Elon is launching 60 Starlink satellites at a pop. I don’t know how many will make up the active constellation, but he’ll have so many up there that there will be some in orbit to act as reserves should an individual satellite be damaged or simply fail.
Interesting.
Thanks.
I would consider using a satellite ISP like Star Link because of the poor options currently available to me with cable or DSL. My options are limited in my community because our city, like many other cities, uses a franchise system which limits competition. The franchise is supposedly to compensate for the burial of cables in the rights of way. However, it is simply a tax applied to subscribers bills and limits competition. Given our dependence on high speed Internet access with COVID forcing virtual schools and work from home Musk might have a winner if the price stays competitive and the service is reliable.
Yeah. StarLink will make its money from business users, primarily in the financial markets, where seconds can count.
Hub satellite - earth station comm is hi-speed sat signal. BUT, hub sat - sat - sat... (coordinated to user’s location, and back) is laser = fast.
Part of that, I’m sure is that your small parabolic dish is literally filling with water (or snow). I’m guessing that the antenna for the Starlink satellite signal will not be parabolic, but rather something more akin to a digit broadcast antenna. Plus, as others have pointed out, these are really low altitude satellites — not the distant geostationary variety with their directional signals.
Starlink won’t be lower latency than fiber will it?
Probably 25% of Americans need better Internet, and probably 3-5% have no Internet service at all right now.
This could go over YUUUUGE!
Right now Elon is all for free speech. He don't care if its from the left or the right.
When he sent a tweet saying to use “Sgnal”, downloads of both Signal and Telegram messenger apps skyrocketed.
He is totally pissed off at Facebook censorship right now.
A $500/entry price will be a non-starter for most...for underserved rural communities, this will be a boon.....
However this will not kill Comcast or Telecoms, they will just compete..... Expect lower prices.....
So I’ll pay 3X my DSL line cost and be subject to weather interference?
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