Comments on: The first Starlink user test results

By: pzatchok

pzatchok — Fri, 25 Sep 2020 06:26:02 +0000

I want it just fast enough to make 25 mbps download and 5 mbps upload.
I don’t need anything faster.

I will just download anything I want to watch.

And ease of mobility. I want the antenna on top of my camper.

By: Edward

Edward — Thu, 24 Sep 2020 01:53:23 +0000

The article’s author, Karl Bode, seems disappointed that he is among the 83 million that will continue to be “stuck under a broadband monopoly”

That still leaves tens of millions of Americans and millions of businesses eligible to sign up for the service. Worldwide, the potential customer base is even better. It looks to me that Starlink is likely to be a wildly successful enterprise.

I begin to wonder whether Starlink and OneWeb will have enough capacity to satisfy the world market for this service.

By: mpthompson

mpthompson — Thu, 24 Sep 2020 01:02:48 +0000

My interest in Starlink if very selfish. I hope to someday be a California ex-pat and I like the idea that high-speed Internet access (which my job depends upon) would not be a limitation if the promises of Starlink comes to pass for rural locations. I assume there are many others like me who are eager for the freedom Starlink can bring.

By: wayne

wayne — Wed, 23 Sep 2020 23:32:17 +0000

If you go to the Starlink website, you can sign up to receive notification of service availability at your address.

By: Fred

Fred — Wed, 23 Sep 2020 21:42:32 +0000

It’s not very difficult to imagine that the base antenna’s can be designed to ALSO work with terrestrial cellular networks. Terminals can be designed to fallback to the cell networks when conditions require it (like high traffic, or poor sat connection). This is much like what your phone does with wifi vs. cell.

Cellular based internet works quite well in high/medium population areas, and it’s weakness is more rural areas.

Seamlessly combine starlink and cell based internet and you have a service that can scale well in most markets. (The few exceptions would be very dense high rise areas)

By: TL

TL — Wed, 23 Sep 2020 21:11:35 +0000

I guess I’ve always assumed that the market for Starlink was rural based. Very tough to compete against a landline connection where the infrastructure is already there. That said there is a huge market potential just in the US for rural areas which simply can’t get a fast and reliable link currently.

By: Andrew_W

Andrew_W — Wed, 23 Sep 2020 17:13:28 +0000

It’ll be available, but at a higher price than is charged by providers in the major metro areas, so in those areas there’ll be lower rates of up-take. Generally rural broadband is the most expensive, and the Starlink system will be optimized for those customers.
https://www.inverse.com/innovation/spacex-starlink-heres-how-much-it-will-cost-to-subscribe

By: geoffc

geoffc — Wed, 23 Sep 2020 16:54:20 +0000

To be fair, he has been upfront and clear about this all along.

That is why initial markets are northern latitudes. Not just because of orbital slots make it easier to cover with fewer satellites, but rather that the population is sparse, connectivity is expensive, and they are easy wins.

Though they claim to have 700K users signed up to request service, be interesting to see how many are supportable, considering cell size.