Anybody use Star Link?

[madwildcat]

We have it for our country place. It was night and day compared to everything we had tried previously. Consistently have 100+ Mbs speed, down time better than anything else we could get. One comment on storms, its all about which satellites you are aligned with and strength of the signal. Ours hasn't gone down in any of the crazy storms, but we have friends with it where it has. We also have a completely clear view above it (zero obstructions) which makes a huge difference. My wife and I use it for work out there regularly with no issues. It ain't cheap, but I would highly recommend it. It will also keep working if the power goes out if you can power it remotely, which is an issue with almost every other internet option.

 

[Psssniper]

My Starlink wait timeline

Ordered 2/21
Arrived 6/22
Installed 7/22

So 15 months of use.

Here’s what a heavy rain outage looks like. Usually doesn’t last too long.

 

[Hoji]

We do. It has been amazing. Thanks @Sam Colt for the reccomendatiion

 

[Texan-in-Training]

After battling with Rise/Skybeam/JAB "broadband" for years, Star Link is like finally getting out of a miserable marriage.
Rise would never invest in upgrading their equipment on Rockdale's water tower for a unfortunate number of us subscribers (the technicians were always honest with me), plus overselling their bandwidth.
So instead of ~$70 per month for dropouts on a regular basis or just "dial-up" speeds, I pay $120 a month for great service. $50 a month is well worth not being pissed-off every time I use the computer.

 

[SabreFirearms]

Speeds are great or sure.

 

[jnynetwk]

I've had Starlink for the past month or so and it has been pretty good. Not cable modem good, but if you don't have any other options, I have no complaints. It is MUCH better than the point to point little dish thing we had with TISD. TISD is a fine company with good customer service, but the speeds just can't compare to StarLink. Both my wife and I work from home and are on video calls all day long with no real issues. I think there is the occasional "skip" with the video where you may miss a word but streaming 4k movies works great.
I also really like that it is super easy to put their router in bridge mode and use my own equipment for better/more customized wifi setup. I'd recommend it.

 

[LL_Spartan]

For use in the country its been great for what it is. Its not like having a fiber connection back at the house but its certainly better than all the other options I tried before it. Overall it does the job for content consumption but gaming is a bit of a stretch.

 

[leVieux]

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We’ve been on StarLInk about 2 months now. It runs all of our internet, TV’s, and WiFi phone calls. There is NO ‘’cable’’ where I live.

So far, it performs much better than ’’Direct TV’’ or ’’The Dish’’. Weather interruptions are minimal and very brief.

Only problems were that we, in a rural region, had to wait on the Beta list over 2 years; and, that although once advertised @ $25/mo. actually costs a bit over $125/mo.

I consult on complex images from a large East Coast University Medical School’s Hospitals, so I need large data inputs. The StarLink handles this well.

I don’t do gaming or watch SitCom’s; but I get massive data loads on demand regularly, several times/day.

I’m convinced that this is the future and the cable companies are anachronisms in today’s ‘’connected’’ World.

We, in rural areas, have had problems b/c our cable services operated as uncontrolled monopolies, and there was no ‘Free Market” to control them via competition. Those in large cities could always just switch to another service; but we were ‘’stuck’’.

leVieux

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[jnynetwk]

Yeah, I had to wait almost 2 years as well. Fortunately, I signed up long before we started building our house in the country so it wasn't that long after we moved in that it shipped.

 

[HKSig]

We, in rural areas, have had problems b/c our cable services operated as uncontrolled monopolies, and there was no ‘Free Market” to control them via competition. Those in large cities could always just switch to another service; but we were ‘’stuck’’.

Yet Joe Bidet has spent billions on rural internetification.

 

[TNHoosier]

Yet Joe Bidet has spent billions on rural internetification.

....in Ukraine maybe.

 

[HKSig]

....in Ukraine maybe.

In the United States of America. Not the Ukranian States.

 

[leVieux]

Yet Joe Bidet has spent billions on rural internetification.

Yes, we have rural cable on. both sides of us, just not here. . . .

 

[Eli]

Yes, we have rural cable on. both sides of us, just not here. . . .

Sounds like my sister! When she bought her house, 2 different providers said they offered service; but when she tried to get it installed, it turned out nobody did. I told her to get on the StarLink waiting list, she decided a satellite that provides dial-up speed would work (it doesn't) and is now waiting for fiber provided by the local electric co-op.

Eli

 

[leVieux]

Sounds like my sister! When she bought her house, 2 different providers said they offered service; but when she tried to get it installed, it turned out nobody did. I told her to get on the StarLink waiting list, she decided a satellite that provides dial-up speed would work (it doesn't) and is now waiting for fiber provided by the local electric co-op.

Eli

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Verizon told us they would run 215’ of cable to our home fro $9,500; but, it would be their cable and they wouldn’t give any guarantee that it would work.

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[jnynetwk]

They've been spending money on rural internet since Al Gore was around!

 

[easy rider]

Finally got fed up with my subpar, albeit free, internet and hooked up Starlink yesterday. All I can say is WOW! What a difference. I am one of those that live outside the stockyards, many call the city, so alternatives had been limited and poor in my estimation.

With Starlink, I am averaging around 140 Mbps download, 25 Mbps upload with 71 ms Latency. I didn't have an app for my last internet, but my computer nerd neighbor one time told me we were averaging around 8.5 Mbps download.

Is it expensive? Hell yes! $650 (after taxes) for the kit and another $120/ month for the service, you be the judge. I hated spending the money for it, but try to take it from me, I'll killya!

 

[kbaxter60]

The place we stayed this weekend has Starlink and I am impressed. Speeds similar to prior post, but the low latency is what really surprised me. Far better than we ever got with HughesNet, which was borderline unusable.

 

[jmohme]

AT&T recently ran fiber optic to our area so we got it but with our past luck with AT&T we kept Starlink as a backup and also to take with us in the RV.
Starlink is not as fast as fiber optic, but it always works, and yes. AT&T is still hit or miss, even with fiber optic.

 

[Ausländer]

AT&T is still hit or miss, even with fiber optic.

Fiber optic cable is just (part of) the physical transmission line from your home to tie into their (whoever 'they' are) network. The hand-off to the back-end is typically the bottle neck. After that you are still dependent on their network: routers, switches, servers, etc..

The bandwidth on fiber is "dedicated" compared to cable, but read the fine print to see what they are really guaranteeing compared to what they are advertising/billing for. Cable, by comparison, is shared (the more people surfing, the slower the speeds).