You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
We live in quite a remote area in Wales on top of a hill. Using a 4G system at the moment which is £55 a month and speeds are around 3m...so quite slow. Anyone got any real-life experiences of the costs and speeds of the Starlink system?
Depending which network / type of data connection you have there may be solutions to boost your speeds.
In short:
- use an external antenna
- mount as high as possible
- use a high-gain solution e.g. mounting the antenna in the middle of an old satellite dish and directing it towards the phone mast
The forums on ISPReview are pretty handy.
There’s also a starlink thread as well - one of the issues is that its quite expensive for electricity costs.
Also - £55 a month is loads.
Unlimited data can be had on EE and Voda for £25 a month or less (see scancom / lebara) or less on 3.
Three is currently £9 a month on one of the scancom pre-pay data deals.
Can help with Starlink but yeah when setting up 4G failover for work an unlimited Smarty sim was only £20/month! Is the £55 from ISP & including equipment? A 4G LTE modem from Netgear etc is not too expensive, think we paid £120. Probably cheaper options.
Mates brother has it in Oregon, he tried it out when he visited and conclusion was it's crap.
Mates brother has it in Oregon, he tried it out when he visited and conclusion was it’s crap.
The coverage / capacity will be changing all the time as they deploy more satellites / gain more users, the experience of one person in the US won't reflect on what you might see elsewhere....
Seems to be available for most of the UK now....
I looked at it but using 4g router and an external antenna and its 17 to 23meg so I'm happy
External antenna mounted high (so it's clear of roof if possible) made a massive difference for us. We get around 25 meg average, bit less evening and weekends but perfectly usable for tv/teams/etc. Due to being 5km from exchange there's a few solutions for the scattered houses where we live. One farm did have starlink but binned it because 1) it was really expensive (about a year ago I think) and 2) it needed a powered dish to reorient itself and 3) when it did 2) it went off line and this happened twice a day.
Anecdotal only. Never saw it myself, just what he told us in the pub!
The coverage / capacity will be changing all the time as they deploy more satellites / gain more users, the experience of one person in the US won’t reflect on what you might see elsewhere….
Probably not but considering his brother is exactly the sort of person (high up tech industry within half an hours helicopter flight from the office) they were trying to capture as a user I'd still say it has a long way to go if an Ayrshire pleb could get a better service on his mobile.
Yes, I have it.
Remote-ish, Cornwall.
For me it's been brilliant, and the other day they dropped the monthly charge by a tenner I think.
The kit's well made and setup is easy. It's fast, ~250mph most of the time. It's reliable, with no drop-outs so far, after nearly a year. It just sits there doing its thing and I don't have to communicate with any of the providers we have in this country which is a major bonus.
The only drawback is, you know, Elon 🙂
2) it needed a powered dish to reorient itself
The dish gets its power from the router - so you just place the dish, wire it into the router and (for me, so far) that's the last time you have to worry about the dish. I found it was pretty easy-going with placement too. It is mounted on a shed roof at the moment, but worked just as well on a patio table and down on the lawn, with buildings and walls around it. But that is obviously going to be fairly context-sensitive.
when it did 2) it went off line and this happened twice a day.
This certainly hasn't been my experience.
as a user I’d still say it has a long way to go if an Ayrshire pleb could get a better service on his mobile.
Well they have only deployed about 1/10 of the final satellite constellation, so it's no where near final capacity / coverage.
The system has been and is being used to pilot drones all over Ukraine, with real time video feedback and controlling the flight path etc - very impressive - taken out several Russian ships with them!
Mounted on a jet-ski...
https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2022/oct/30/footage-appears-to-show-drone-boat-attack-on-russian-ships-in-crimea-video
A quick (remote) speed test shows 307.9 down, 45.1 up.
Plenty good enough for working in one room and playing in another.
Wifi performance of router perhaps not awesome but I put Tp-Link Decos in and now have strong wi-fi all round the barn and out into the garden.
Of course, now I've said all this, it is bound to go down for some reason. I haven't worked in tech industry for 30 years without learning that. Watch this space.
Of course, now I’ve said all this, it is bound to go down for some reason. I haven’t worked in tech industry for 30 years without learning that. Watch this space.
We were giving a demo to the top brass in the Indian Military in Delhi many years ago. Set all the kit up in an auditorium at their HQ. As normal (for India) they had flaky power supplies and all our kit ran off one knackered extension lead plugged into a wall using paper clips.
I was doing the presentation and as I was talking away I stepped back and knocked the power lead with my heal, tripping out everything. I had to then adlib for another 15 mins whilst my colleague crawled round on his knees under the podium fixing everything ready for the bit where we did the actual demo...
I don't miss working in the developing world...
My mate has it in rural Ayrshire....swears by it, and uses it for online gaming so clearly no issue with download/upload speeds or latency. Don't know the cost....
just to add Starlink are putting a cap on data allowance. I deal with this product in a commercial environment and they are doing it by stealth now as the networks are struggling with contention issues
What's a typical fast internet monthly charge, once you're through the cheap intro offer? £50?
Starlink = £75.
So the marginal cost is £25 a month which for my circumstances I find quite easy to justify. Especially given the lack of decent internet from any other provider in our location. I'd be looking at like ~10 mph max, which isn't going to work for us.
Plus it's all quite good fun. Feels like your own personal internet, coming to you direct from space.
just to add Starlink are putting a cap on data allowance. I deal with this product in a commercial environment and they are doing it by stealth now as the networks are struggling with contention issues
🙁
My Sky 78mb BB is £18/m fixed for 2 years. I'll then move. I've not paid more than £22 a month for 8 years. Always more than 50mb.
£75 doesn't seem all that bad TBH. Just a shame it goes to Musk.
well, unless you're on Virgin/Trooli etc you can just switch to another provider and get another intro offer! I'm paying about £35/month for the same speeds you're getting. So it is more expensive, but FWIW I think if you're in the back of beyond it is good value because they're aren't alternatives really! That said the news about data caps isn't greatWhat’s a typical fast internet monthly charge, once you’re through the cheap intro offer? £50?Starlink = £75.
Have you ruled out fixed wireless internet? This sort of thing: https://www.al-technical.co.uk/wisp
Have you tried hard wiring into the router just to check that poor WiFi signal isn’t part of the problem. Your device can show a “good” signal with lots of bars but that doesn’t necessarily mean you are getting a good data transfer rate.
We don’t have it but for lots of people that live near me it’s pretty much their only option… and their conclusion is that it’s amazing. But v expensive.
Quite a few people have it here - Scottish island as 4G is very limited in more remote areas. I live quite close to the main road around the island so have FTTP that is half the price of Starlink.
Yes, I have it.
Remote-ish, Cornwall.
For me it’s been brilliant, and the other day they dropped the monthly charge by a tenner I think.
The kit’s well made and setup is easy. It’s fast, ~250mph most of the time. It’s reliable, with no drop-outs so far, after nearly a year. It just sits there doing its thing and I don’t have to communicate with any of the providers we have in this country which is a major bonus.
The only drawback is, you know, Elon 🙂
May I ask whereabouts in Cornwall you are? Those speeds sound really good (best I can get is about 15mb on fttc or 4g), but I wonder how much starlink performance varies locally? Apparently the UK average DL speed for starlink has dropped to 85mb, but maybe the more populated areas where the uptake is higher are dragging down the average speeds?