SpaceX Internet Satellite Network: Starlink

[adiggs]

Early Beta is happening.
$499 for ground terminal, tripod, and router.
$99 a month for service.
50-150 Mbs
20-50 mS
May have service interruptions
They're calling it the Better Than Nothing Beta

I just officially received an email invite to the Starlink beta. : Starlink

My inbox is sans invite.

Love the name.

And I gotta say - that email sure reads like something Elon would write (directly or indirectly). Here it is, it's literally "Better Than Nothing", here's what it costs. If that sounds good to you, <order> here.


With the complete, and I believe justified, belief, that they'll have all of the beta testers they could want with such a low key / anti-sell marketing approach.

 

[Pricee2]

Well this $99 price point is way to rich for me. I currently pay $30 for DSL service that is adequate for me. I don't do movies although I do watch Space X launches and you tube videos and my DSL works fine for that. I was hoping it would be cheap enough so I could replace my DSL and take the dish with me when traveling in my RV 2 to 4 months at a time and also use it at my beach cabin.
I guess I will just continue using my mobile hot spot when I am not at home.

 

[Misternt]

Too expensive for the speed and performance compared to internet options I can get in the city. However I know a few people in the country that are stuck with traditional satellite internet and StarLink would be a huge upgrade speed and latency wise.

 

[1965Falcon]

As someone who lives in a rural area with limited options I can't wait to get it. I currently have 3mb/s dsl and can't work from home due to internet speed. My kids can barely do school at home. I pay $60/month for my dsl/phone bundle and would be happy to pay $200/month if it meant I could work from home. The additional hours I could work while not commuting would more than pay for it. There are a lot of people in my same situation... demand will be very high.

 

[bxr140]

Or, does it make rural a better market? Instead of edges on a large surface, Starlink could allow centralized servers with low latency. Just spitballing.

There's something there for sure. A bit decoupled from actual rurality, one of the unicorns of space has been orbiting data centers (leveraging environmental upsides like thermal, real estate, and power), though for obvious reasons that's been a difficult lift to-date. If anyone can make it happen though, its SpaceX. The ISL network makes that concept feasible, and at the same time there would be a reduction in total gateway traffic.

 

[bxr140]

Mostly related to starlink in one way or the other, Ajit Pai discusses the latest and greatest on the upcoming auction, RDOF, and Ligado drama.

 

[bxr140]

Not sure if this was posted upthread or not, but here's a really nice starlink tracker. The Beta bands are outlined over NA and you can get a good visualization of the occasional gaps in coverage with the current number of sats on station. The gateways are the yellow dots; without the ISL network a user needs to see a sat [at a high enough angle] that has covisibility with a gateway--in other words, to have service without ISLs a user AND the gateway need to be in the same ground track circle.

 

[Cosmacelf]

Not sure if this was posted upthread or not, but here's a really nice starlink tracker. The Beta bands are outlined over NA and you can get a good visualization of the occasional gaps in coverage with the current number of sats on station. The gateways are the yellow dots; without the ISL network a user needs to see a sat [at a high enough angle] that has covisibility with a gateway--in other words, to have service without ISLs a user AND the gateway need to be in the same ground track circle.

Nice! And very useful with those gateways shown.

 

[Vines]

I'd be happy to pay just $99 for my internet. I am in the silicon valley but just out of any coverage from internet cable, or anything.

We are currently paying about $200 per month for pretty crappy service.

I signed up for the Public Paid Beta but never heard from Starlink that I could join. I did join the mailing list.

Anyone know if I can reach out to someone specific to get on the Beta?

 

[DMC-Orangeville]

I'm running Netflix on a 7ish Mbs DSL phone line ok (guess I don'tkniw what I'm missing there yet). Worst part (beyond mutli-gig Steam downloads) is working remotely and needing to upload files.

Exactly the same as me....9 down .7 up. My wife works in Autocad......uploading a drawing is painful. I'm not really in the boonies (60 miles N/W of Toronto, 3 miles from a city of 30,000), but have spotty cell service, and no fiber coverage. 500 yards north of us, DSL is useless, line of sight microwave is spotty (hilly area), and satellite is latent and expensive....so yes, we're all waiting on Starlink; I'm hoping to be a Canadian Beta tester

 

[MP3Mike]

I signed up for the Public Paid Beta but never heard from Starlink that I could join. I did join the mailing list.

Anyone know if I can reach out to someone specific to get on the Beta?

I don't think the beta is available in California yet. There are currently only enough satellites available much further north in Washington.

 

[carguy84]

I’ll be real curious if there is a plan to disrupt the marine industry with this as well. $850 a month for 2GB of 10mbps from the only provider out there will surely shake things up.

 

[Vines]

I don't think the beta is available in California yet. There are currently only enough satellites available much further north in Washington.

That is what I thought too, then I read an article about a school in Texas which was just granted Starlink Beta.

I'll keep waiting semi-patiently. This microwave network is getting old in the land of PSPS. Any single point of failure takes us down and there are many jumps before it hits a wire.

 

[JohnSnowNW]

Well this $99 price point is way to rich for me. I currently pay $30 for DSL service that is adequate for me. I don't do movies although I do watch Space X launches and you tube videos and my DSL works fine for that. I was hoping it would be cheap enough so I could replace my DSL and take the dish with me when traveling in my RV 2 to 4 months at a time and also use it at my beach cabin.
I guess I will just continue using my mobile hot spot when I am not at home.

Thinking about how we'd manage with 3 kids, distance learning, and my wife accessing image/video content on her company's servers while using DSL...man, oh man.

 

[bmah]

That is what I thought too, then I read an article about a school in Texas which was just granted Starlink Beta.

If you mean this:

Elon Musk to give away free SpaceX Starlink internet access to rural TX families

It's not the beta service and it's happening sometime in 2021 (according to the article). I was wondering that about that too until I read the article.

Bruce.

 

[Vines]

Early 2021 sounds good to me, I am just being impatient. Ector county being in mid Texas seems to me that the constellation must be moving southward pretty quickly.

My 5 Powerwall system is nearly PGE approved but work from home without stable internet is pretty frustrating. Even if it was only up 95% of the time that would be better than what I have now.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

If you mean this:

Elon Musk to give away free SpaceX Starlink internet access to rural TX families

It's not the beta service and it's happening sometime in 2021 (according to the article). I was wondering that about that too until I read the article.

Bruce.

An article from the local rag with some more details.

ECISD to pilot SpaceX internet

Donation-funded. Free to the families for now. Will be interesting to see what happens.

 

[1965Falcon]

Thinking about how we'd manage with 3 kids, distance learning, and my wife accessing image/video content on her company's servers while using DSL...man, oh man.

Doing that today (well, maybe a little Tesla Forum break every now and then) and it's pretty rough. If I need to do a call I have to use my cell phone but even my cell coverage is pretty spotty. If both kids are on a zoom call at the same time my wife and I have to be off the internet all together.

 

[Bipo]

I’ll be real curious if there is a plan to disrupt the marine industry with this as well. $850 a month for 2GB of 10mbps from the only provider out there will surely shake things up.

Current satellites are used as mirrors in the sky, without communications between them. That means Starlink will only be able to offer connection of you have a ground station nearby (under the same horizon viewed from the satellite).

Phase 2 of Starlink will have those laser beams between the satellites to provide true global communication.

 

[mongo]

Current satellites are used as mirrors in the sky, without communications between them. That means Starlink will only be able to offer connection of you have a ground station nearby (under the same horizon viewed from the satellite).

Phase 2 of Starlink will have those laser beams between the satellites to provide true global communication.

Not sure what you are calling Phase 2, at least a couple of the recently launched sats have laser links.
SpaceX Starlink 'space lasers' successfully tested in orbit for the first time