Starlink Better Than Nothing, Beta tester!

Just above is my Whine about Comcast they have it straightened out so I get about 150 on the average for $89 a month.

Just received an email from Starlink I have 48 hours to sign up. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

Comcast has one more year then they are history and Starlink has a year to fix the little problems.

So it's available in Southwest Michigan at about 41.56 north

originally posted by: Hypntick
a reply to: Macenroe82

As soon as they open up to the 35th parallel I should be able to get it. No response back on the beta email or application yet however. They did mention opening up more by the end of this month. I tried to reason with AT&T, as my new house is close enough for their fiber access, but would need trenching down the easement on the side of the road. I offered to cover the cost, which would open it up to my neighbors as well. They wouldn't hear of it. I even asked for a cost to rent tower space so I could put a microwave dish up, couldn't get a response either. So on the 18th they'll be installing whatever their most basic package is, which I think is 25/2 at $50 a month, since I'm not under contract I may ask the guy to run 3 lines as that would be acceptable until StarLink is available.

What the deal with the Fiber optics infrastructure? I moved to a home about 1/2 mile from the fiber optics cable run. They won’t hook up any of the houses here. How do some houses have it while others don’t? Hughes net sucks, so does Viasat.

In podunck SC I had fiber optic it ran right in front of the house, and I lived in the boonies. I got spoiled, darn it.

a reply to: 38181

I can second that. In my hometown in Central NY, it seems the fiber runs have been set down and are available subscribers waaay out on the outskirts of the village (yes I said village, so that lets you know remote this is), but nobody within the village proper has access yet. All of the fiber infra is new there. I don't understand the logistics of it; they are seemingly running it bass ackwards (the farther out from village center you are the better chance of have a run nearby that you can gain access to). There must be some technical reason, I just understand it.

a reply to: 38181

I can go to the end of my 1/4 mile driveway and see the junction box at the end of the road. I have no clue why the issues with it, I offered to cover all the costs associated with it including permits. Even establishing an LLC and trying to get it run as a business was out of the question. All I can think of is the cable company on that South Park episode, they get off on denying people access.

Received an e-mail yesterday entitled "Starlink Now Available - First Come First Served". Here is the body of the email:

Additional Starlink capacity is now available to a limited number of users per coverage area. Orders will be fulfilled on a first-come, first-served basis.

If service is not currently available in your area, you can place a deposit to hold your place in line for future service.

During beta, users can expect to see data speeds vary from 50Mb/s to 150Mb/s and latency from 20ms to 40ms in most locations over the next several months as we enhance the Starlink system. There will also be brief periods of no connectivity at all.

As we launch more satellites, install more ground stations and improve our networking software, data speed, latency and uptime will improve dramatically. For latency, we expect to achieve 16ms to 19ms by summer 2021.

The Starlink team will provide periodic updates on availability as we launch more satellites and expand our coverage area. Depending on your location, some orders may take 6 months or more to fulfill.

Additionally, there was a link to confirm availability in my area, and place an order for the equipment. The price breakdown, which I believe was already shared earlier in the thread, was in the vicinity of:

> Equipment fee = $499.00
> Est. Tax = ~$34.00
> Monthly Service = $99.00

Amount due at signup: $99.00 (deposit)

Awesome! Order confirmed, payment processed and ready to roll when they ship out the equipment.

After your purchase, you are given another link to create a customer account on the Starlink.com site. This is where you perform the typical service activity (check billing, change contact info, download statements, order & track new gear, etc).

There is also a smartphone app for iOS/Android, which I'm going to try out shortly.

I am going to "pilot" this side by side with my cable ISP for a time to evaluate if this is truly viable or not. I was just locked in to one of the ISP "NEW! CHEAP! AMAZING" 48 month teaser plans, which means my bill has about 46 months until it rockets up to around $150/month for 300Mb service. I am hoping that by end of summer 2021 I'll have enough experience, and Starlink will have worked out the kinks in their beta offering, such that I can make an informed decision on whether to keep Starlink or stick with cable.

ETA:

I'm at about 41.2 North for those tracking Starlink's progression Southward.