Starlink helping in New Zealand due to cyclone.
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dhanson865
Well-Known Member
Rwanda is live now, little blob east of Congo.
So now in oversold, congested service areas with poor service prices are going up to $120/month, while those with the best service in the undersold areas get a discount to $90/month. What a business model. Pay the most for the worst. I know, supply and demand, but that only works when you have product for everyone. Now we pay extra for less product. They need a CEO.
I dunno, seems like Starlink is profitable and has little competition. I agree that it sucks for congested areas. I think Starlink has decided it wants to reach as many people as possible - those that don't like the slower service are free to choose other services...
The problem is that Starlink was supposed to be for folks that are rural and had no other options. They are bring fiber in pretty fast up here now, so hopefully when they get a new CEO they will come to their senses, or they are free to fail.
They can stop over selling it in oversold areas. They are far beyond capacity around here. Pixelation, fuzzy pictures, frozen pictures. Fiber is the answer. Let Starlink sell to the luxury yachts, airplanes and trucks. Crazy business model. But a new CEO (a professional who doesn’t need money to buy entertainment and annoy customers with high cost terrible service) can fix this.
But for someone who truly has no alternative, that level of service is fine. They can browse the Internet and access social media just fine. It wasn’t that long ago that I had an 8 Mbps Internet connection. I rarely watched videos. Yes I am totally spoiled now with my fiber connection, and my household watches multiple 4K video streams at the drop of a hat, but I wouldn’t expect that level of service from a last resorts kind of connection.
I do realize Elon promised more. And maybe when the constellation is fully built out, congested areas will actually be able to deliver good resolution video. In the meantime, SpaceX is looking to service anyone who wants it, which means a connection that isn’t great for video, but a lot of people are fine with that. Afterall, they have no alternative (other satellite is worse).
There were tons of complaints from people saying they couldn’t get Starlink before … now there are complaints from people saying the service isn’t as good as fiber. Sounds to me like SpaceX can’t win either way. Meanwhile they keep launching satellites, almost every week.
You have to remember that in places like where I live the only options are DSL ( 3 mb/s) and geostationary satellite internet. No fiber, no cable, no cellular. Neither of those two options are sufficient to work from home, video call, etc. Just going from 3 mb/s to say 20 mb/s is a huge advance and opens the doors to the rural community to have access to services not previously available. I was one of the first in my area to get starlink (signed up the day it came live) and the speed has slowed (and I just got a notification they are raising my rate since I'm in a congested area) but I'm still at 50+ mb/s and I am working from home today. Better to get many people basic functionality than a few with high functionality. People are literally begging for Starlink here, even if it slowed to only 20 mb/s it will change lives.
What is this "around here" of which you speak?
Wisconsin is (mostly) not yet in active service.
dhanson865
Well-Known Member
You are misreading the color scale.
Light blue is in active service (with no wait list if someone wants to be added), med blue is in active service (with a wait list for anyone that wants to be added). All of Wisconsin is in active service for anyone that has service already.
Also wait lists don't apply to RV Mode, Best effort Service, Business Service, Aviation, or any other mode not called Residential.
The only places in the United States without active service are radio quiet zones near massive telescopes.
The difference between the first two is the light blue now gets the $90 price and the med blue now gets the $120 price.
The darkest blue is a radio quiet zone where using Starlink is prohibited forever (or a Great Lake or Sea or Ocean where you need to use Maritime or Aviation service).
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Incredulocious
LEAF → RAV4EV → Model 3 → Model Y
Just got this message regarding my “Starlink for RV” account (for our camper van):
Medium blue is wait list, which is coverage but not available for new service. I live in this color and had to get an RV system (best effort, low capacity) while waiting for my Dishy I ordered in Feb 2021.
AFAIK, the eastern US has never been shown as active and isn't being sold into now, so I really don't understand the "They can stop over selling it in oversold areas" complaint.
Normal map:
RV map:
dhanson865
Well-Known Member
You keep using the word "active" in a way that is objectively wrong. Starlink service is "active" in all of the US that isn't a radio quiet zone.
True, my residential service is not active, nor are they actively adding res customers, but the correct term for coverage is available (even if it isn't).
Point remains, SpaceX is not (over)selling into that market.
I only have 2mb wireless service as an option. Should have looked at musks history of selling stuff he doesn’t have. Now I have to subsidize folks with good service and get much worse. Fiber and a new CEO are the answer. But if everyone Is happy but me, more power to all of you. Wisconsin is for the most part overcapacity. They have put folks online with their “best effort” even though they don’t have the capacity for it. I guess best effort is by taking away from the rest of us suckers (And charging us extra for the privilege).
I am one of those whose price is going up this year. When I look at the availability map at Starlink, I am in a cell with waitlisting, presumably "congested" (I believe I was the first home in that cell). Roughly 2 miles away is the next cell, with availability. I assume that the price in that cell went down.
The funny thing is I am aware of only one other house within 2 square miles that has Starlink, and they only visit on weekends. There may also be no more in a much larger area, I am just not sure. So, does Starlink consider one or two homes per 2 square miles congested? It seems a little strange. I get good speeds (200 mbps) and virtually never have problems with streaming, etc.
Further, when I hover on the map over my cell, it says "Expanding in 2023". I really hope that means that once my extremely rural, spread out, unpopulated area gets "expanded" service, my pricing will fall to the lower tier. It would be nice to know.
The funny thing is I am aware of only one other house within 2 square miles that has Starlink, and they only visit on weekends. There may also be no more in a much larger area, I am just not sure. So, does Starlink consider one or two homes per 2 square miles congested? It seems a little strange. I get good speeds (200 mbps) and virtually never have problems with streaming, etc.
Further, when I hover on the map over my cell, it says "Expanding in 2023". I really hope that means that once my extremely rural, spread out, unpopulated area gets "expanded" service, my pricing will fall to the lower tier. It would be nice to know.
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