NEWS FLASH Starlink on its way

[caliam]

After months on Elon's waiting list, I had to share that I was notified Monday that I could officially order Starlink. After $500+ for the equipment and $99 per month, fingers crossed that it becomes a viable alternative to terrestrial broadband. I'm in St. Louis, Missouri where broadband is decently plentiful, however, the neighborhood I just moved into only has Spectrum with the promise of ATT Fiber someday (even though ATT thinks they already have it there, weirdos). Anxious to see how voice calls traverse Starlink.

 

[tbrummell]

A friend of mine was approved here, outside of Ottawa, Canada, where he can only get 3mb/sec (on a good day) wireless connection. Hardware here is $649 and $119/mnth service. I had previously contacted Bell Canada after seeing fiber being strung in his rural setting. Same day he got Starlink notification, Bell got back to me (coincidence? Bell never gets back to residential customers about upcoming deployments). Indeed they are deploying fiber to his area, and it should be turned up Q3 this year. He is going to wait for the fiber, as the initial cost is just too high for him to justify for Starlink.

 

[TirsoJRP]

A friend of mine was approved here, outside of Ottawa, Canada, where he can only get 3mb/sec (on a good day) wireless connection. Hardware here is $649 and $119/mnth service. I had previously contacted Bell Canada after seeing fiber being strung in his rural setting. Same day he got Starlink notification, Bell got back to me (coincidence? Bell never gets back to residential customers about upcoming deployments). Indeed they are deploying fiber to his area, and it should be turned up Q3 this year. He is going to wait for the fiber, as the initial cost is just too high for him to justify for Starlink.

Not sure how they handle this at Canada, but looks like they have access to credit reports and detected the new service being activated. This crap is common in my country.

 

[tbrummell]

No, that doesn't happen here.

 

[w1ve]

Yes, StarLink ordering is available to many users in Canada and the US -- but beware. You pay before you get your deployment date. They are saying mid-2021 for the big drop. A friend of mine in Northern Ontario works for Ontario Hydro and already has Starlink. His reports are pretty good. Remember, StarNet is GCNAT, so some hoops to get VoIP going. I'm looking at it for some deployments in the Territories.

 

[krzykat]

I like the idea of it for backup to Comcast/ATT internet.

 

[atsak]

Yes, StarLink ordering is available to many users in Canada and the US -- but beware. You pay before you get your deployment date. They are saying mid-2021 for the big drop. A friend of mine in Northern Ontario works for Ontario Hydro and already has Starlink. His reports are pretty good. Remember, StarNet is GCNAT, so some hoops to get VoIP going. I'm looking at it for some deployments in the Territories.

IAX2 FTW or a VPN tunnel to an SBC in a datacenter somewhere I would say. I'm sure it will be a great relief in Nunavut, NWT, Yukon where phone service is stupid expensive I'm told.

 

[w1ve]

IAX2 FTW or a VPN tunnel to an SBC in a datacenter somewhere I would say. I'm sure it will be a great relief in Nunavut, NWT, Yukon where phone service is stupid expensive I'm told.

For sure. I have a good friend in Whitehorse, YT, so I have a DID there. Actually, the cheapest provider was Twillio. I want it to remote a ham radio station to NT; same VoIP-type issues. It looks like it should work perfectly. It's just getting the darn gear.

 

[atsak]

For sure. I have a good friend in Whitehorse, YT, so I have a DID there. Actually, the cheapest provider was Twillio. I want it to remote a ham radio station to NT; same VoIP-type issues. It looks like it should work perfectly. It's just getting the darn gear.

They sent me the invite today (Oakville, ON) ,but I think I am going to pass. The urge to fool around with it is great, but at CDN$600 for the dish and $130 a month the costs add up quickly . . ..

 

[kenn10]

I received an invite here in Western North Carolina. I have a local cable company that provides fiber to the home. I pay $60/month for 100Mb service. Unfortunately, about 95% of the mountainous county I live in has no broadband access and almost no cellular service. Most of this county is also poverty level or below. I love the concept of Starlink but I don't think most rural folks will ever be able to afford it.

 

[tbrummell]

They sent me the invite today (Oakville, ON) ,but I think I am going to pass. The urge to fool around with it is great, but at CDN$600 for the dish and $130 a month the costs add up quickly . . ..

Do you not get decent broadband in Oakville, I mean, it's a major city in the GTA.

 

[w1ve]

So, I'm a long-time Amateur Radio operator. We now have many ways to operate radios remotely over the Internet. Of course, much of the audio transport is RTP, and in fact, some of the gear uses SIP for session management. Being out in the boonies is great for Shortwave (HF) Amateur Radio, but the drawback is if you want to operate remotely, it's the lack of decent Internet. I had a remote station in Whitehorse, YT that was DSL and was great. I now want to put a station in the Northern Territories, where good Internet is few and far between, with most users on the Anik satellite, which is both expensive and way too much latency.

In locations like @kenn10, StarLink offers a great advantage. Sometimes, WISPs try and cover these areas. The problem being, they tend to use cheap Ubiquiti gear, typically half-duplex.... and they backhaul on wireless as well. The aggregation in the backhaul can kill service quality... it can go from a few mS of jitter to 100s instantaneously.

Anyway, Starlink offers fast service with non of these issues, and VoIP is being done successfully over it. Yes, the initial cost is high, but $99 a month is very reasonable.

 

[atsak]

Do you not get decent broadband in Oakville, I mean, it's a major city in the GTA.

It's VDSL (25/7 at my house) or cable which I can get 360/20, for $93/month in a 2 year contract with scam increases whenever they feel like it - I get 40/10 though from a wholesaler which meets needs for $50/month until there's fiber, in maybe 5 years or whenever Bell gets to it. The 360/20 uses a modem with a puma6 chipset still AFAIK which has some terrible jitter issues from time to time (ie not good for VOIP). Hopefully fiber comes sooner rather than later or DOCSIS 4 will fix the upload speed cap issue on the coax.

 

[tbrummell]

Yeah, but when (Bell) fiber makes it there, you're back to the same scam increases. Ask me how I know. LoL But 500/500 (620/550 in real life) is the cats meow. I'm around $90 somewhere for just the 500/500 package, no TV or phone bundle anymore. (it was cheaper to bundle the TV & Phone, then just I'net alone, until the discounts went away).

 

[atsak]

Yeah, but when (Bell) fiber makes it there, you're back to the same scam increases. Ask me how I know. LoL But 500/500 (620/550 in real life) is the cats meow. I'm around $90 somewhere for just the 500/500 package, no TV or phone bundle anymore. (it was cheaper to bundle the TV & Phone, then just I'net alone, until the discounts went away).

I'll install Business and lock the contract. They don't scam business quite the same and I can get a static IP that way, albeit a bit more money but then . . . so many activities.

 

[Halea]

... I now want to put a station in the Northern Territories, where good Internet is few and far between, with most users on the Anik satellite, which is both expensive and way too much latency.
...
Anyway, Starlink offers fast service with non of these issues, and VoIP is being done successfully over it. Yes, the initial cost is high, but $99 a month is very reasonable.

One of my businesses specializes in automated telemetry and we have several dozens of stations scattered in Northern Canada. We lease licensed commercial HF spectrum to run our own meshnet, which is very costly for very little bandwidth (but very low latency). Even if we paid $99 per station it will still be a fraction of our current cost.