is STARLINK worth it? (1 Viewer)

[1911]

Conversation for those keeping it fixed…

I’m home-based with Microsoft Teams calls/video/screen sharing a constant. A couple TVs will be streaming something throughout the day with wife/kids. No time for games, so I really don’t think that level of speed/latency is a driver. Just looking for consistent and no surprise bandwidth throttling. Relatively rural and building the home in the middle of the woods. Clear view of sky, but not horizon - just up.

I like the idea of Starlink, but I’m not impressed with their vague descriptions and tiered offerings that are seemingly in place to mitigate their lack of commitment to deliverables. Price history seems to indicate about a 20% bump in monthly expense over the past couple years, but I guess what hasn’t? Would love to hear from some actual users.

I have had mine for 1.5 years now, and am 100% satisfied/happy with it. I am self-employed, work from home and download tons of data for my work, and it has never disappointed me yet. Was also a game changer for home entertainment; we can stream anything we want to. Any buffering slowness we have ever experienced was traced back to the streaming service (Apple TV in this case). I can't compare it to any kind of wired or wifi service, because we have lived out in the country for the last 20 years and these were not options for us. We had previously used Hughesnet all those years, and that sucked donkey dicks but it was the only option until Starlink. Starlink is the same cost as Hughesnet, but allowed us to drop a $160/month Dish Network sub too, so has saved us a lot of money besides being great service. Less affected by rain/snow/weather than either Hughesnet or Dish Network. No installation cost (easy to do yourself), only the initial cost of the antenna and router.

Anyway, a very happy customer here. I have recommended it to everyone I know in a similar situation (rural application).

 

[spazzyfry123]

I have had mine for 1.5 years now, and am 100% satisfied/happy with it. I am self-employed, work from home and download tons of data for my work, and it has never disappointed me yet. Was also a game changer for home entertainment; we can stream anything we want to. Any buffering slowness we have ever experienced was traced back to the streaming service (Apple TV in this case). I can't compare it to any kind of wired or wifi service, because we have lived out in the country for the last 20 years and these were not options for us. We had previously used Hughesnet all those years, and that sucked donkey dicks but it was the only option until Starlink. Starlink is the same cost as Hughesnet, but allowed us to drop a $160/month Dish Network sub too, so has saved us a lot of money besides being great service. Less affected by rain/snow/weather than either Hughesnet or Dish Network. No installation cost (easy to do yourself), only the initial cost of the antenna and router.

Anyway, a very happy customer here. I have recommended it to everyone I know in a similar situation (rural application).

Thanks for the insight!

Which plan do you have? I’ve had my eye on the standard ($120/mo?) with the $600 satellite. I believe there is the lowest end of Priority ($140/mo), but they say you need $2500 in hardware. That comes with 40GB of their “Priority data”, but I’m reading you don’t get to choose when that’s used. Seems overly complex and opens the door to potential overages I won’t have control over. I just want to pay for internet and receive. Any idea of speed?

What about trees? I’ve cleared probably about a 130x150 space in the woods for the house we’re building. Aside from the driveway, the rest is relatively dense, mature hardwoods. Will a clear shot to the sky cover it? Or will we need to see the horizon?

Thanks!
Tyler

 

[1911]

Thanks for the insight!

Which plan do you have? I’ve had my eye on the standard ($120/mo?) with the $600 satellite. I believe there is the lowest end of Priority ($140/mo), but they say you need $2500 in hardware. That comes with 40GB of their “Priority data”, but I’m reading you don’t get to choose when that’s used. Seems overly complex and opens the door to potential overages I won’t have control over. I just want to pay for internet and receive. Any idea of speed?

What about trees? I’ve cleared probably about a 130x150 space in the woods for the house we’re building. Aside from the driveway, the rest is relatively dense, mature hardwoods. Will a clear shot to the sky cover it? Or will we need to see the horizon?

Thanks!
Tyler

We have just the basic $120/month plan. Before that was available in our area, I had the $150/month RV plan, but the equipment (and service as far as I can tell) are identical. The RV plan is an option though if they tell you the regular plan is not available.

Our speed varies; when I first got it, I tested it a lot, but since I've never not been able to do whatever I wanted at decent speed, I quit testing. So with the RV plan I was getting 30-75 Mbps download pretty regularly, sometimes well over 100. I haven't seen any difference with the standard plan; tested it just now and got 65 Mbps download and 11 Mbps upload, with 45 ms latency. It will vary, depending on how many satellites are in view at that moment, but again, I can't tell any difference or degradation in performance ever in day-to-day use.

We have tons of big trees on our place, but the space we cleared to build our house is open enough to keep the antenna happy. It was easy to mount it near the ridge line of the metal roof of the barndominium we are living in now. But we are pretty much surrounded by trees. When we finish our main house, I will transfer to the roof of that. If you download the (free) Starlink app, there is an "Obstructions" function that uses your phone camera and location to tell you if your "view" of the sky in the correct quadrant is sufficient. For what it's worth, here in north Texas the antenna points a bit to the northeast, so it would be beneficial to have fewer trees in that direction. It does not need to see the horizon. Our house is down in a valley, and the valley is surrounded by trees on every side. If you want, you can see some photos of our land and houses here:
Building a new house and shop - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/building-a-new-house-and-shop.957253/

Hope this helps -

Lee

 

[spazzyfry123]

We have just the basic $120/month plan. Before that was available in our area, I had the $150/month RV plan, but the equipment (and service as far as I can tell) are identical. The RV plan is an option though if they tell you the regular plan is not available.

Our speed varies; when I first got it, I tested it a lot, but since I've never not been able to do whatever I wanted at decent speed, I quit testing. So with the RV plan I was getting 30-75 Mbps download pretty regularly, sometimes well over 100. I haven't seen any difference with the standard plan; tested it just now and got 65 Mbps download and 11 Mbps upload, with 45 ms latency. It will vary, depending on how many satellites are in view at that moment, but again, I can't tell any difference or degradation in performance ever in day-to-day use.

We have tons of big trees on our place, but the space we cleared to build our house is open enough to keep the antenna happy. It was easy to mount it near the ridge line of the metal roof of the barndominium we are living in now. But we are pretty much surrounded by trees. When we finish our main house, I will transfer to the roof of that. If you download the (free) Starlink app, there is an "Obstructions" function that uses your phone camera and location to tell you if your "view" of the sky in the correct quadrant is sufficient. For what it's worth, here in north Texas the antenna points a bit to the northeast, so it would be beneficial to have fewer trees in that direction. It does not need to see the horizon. Our house is down in a valley, and the valley is surrounded by trees on every side. If you want, you can see some photos of our land and houses here:
Building a new house and shop - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/building-a-new-house-and-shop.957253/

Hope this helps -

Lee

Fantastic info. Thanks, Lee.

Love the digs!

 

[janyyc]

Since this is MUD and we’re mainly a Toyota forum, for most applications on a Toyota base I’d say it’s too bulky and power hungry to be useful. I know of a few people who bought them for travel - and these are internet-savvy and -requiring travellers - who stopped using it due to those very factors (despite having built rigs). For RV’s and (gasp!) Sprinters (!) it’s probably perfect if you’re living on the road.
I’m sure one day soon we’ll have a smaller device which will be perfect for “overlanding” and texting via satellite directly from your phone and without a standalone communicator should be possible even sooner.