Be a Starlink Beta Tester

[Ben]

Frontier (or whoever they became) is currently the best we can get.  When I do a speedtest (granted over WiFi) I usually get something in the 300 KB range with latencies over 500ms.  If I hardwired into the router I might get 1MB and 100ms.

One of the reasons I'm routing for Starlink to succeed is situations like yours. Even if 80 miles from Seattle, that should be "close enough" that some fixed wireless company would want to invest in towers and infrastructure. There are just a ton of "rural" locations that seem to be out of whatever formula ISPs use to decide where to offer service.

Also data through cell providers. I have in the past looked into maybe just using data through Verizon Wireless, but it would end up costing me like $400/mo for the amount of data I use, which isn't even a really large amount.

[Fly320s]

Check again, Ben.  Many, maybe even most, cell providers have unlimited data plans now that are pretty cheap.

My wife and I have two phones with T Mobile.  Each gets unlimited calls, text, and data, including international for $100/month for both.

[Ben]

Check again, Ben.  Many, maybe even most, cell providers have unlimited data plans now that are pretty cheap.

My wife and I have two phones with T Mobile.  Each gets unlimited calls, text, and data, including international for $100/month for both.

I may be mistaken, but I think that's only if all the data passes through your phone. Every time I've looked for a home device / hotspot plan, the charges have been outrageous. Example - I just now looked at Verizon. A 40GB home plan is $150/mo with a $10/gig overage charge.

[cordex]

I may be mistaken, but I think that's only if all the data passes through your phone. Every time I've looked for a home device / hotspot plan, the charges have been outrageous. Example - I just now looked at Verizon. A 40GB home plan is $150/mo with a $10/gig overage charge.

I've got a Sprint (I know) unlimited plan which costs about $100/mo for two lines.  It comes with 50GB per line of hotspot.

[Ben]

I've got a Sprint (I know) unlimited plan which costs about $100/mo for two lines.  It comes with 50GB per line of hotspot.

But (Boomer here) that's using the phone itself as the hotspot, right? Not a dedicated hotspot or 4G modem or whatever? My issue with a phone as a hotspot and main gateway to the webz is that the phone then always has to be in the vicinity of your devices. So if I take off on vacation and want to check the house cameras or adjust the thermostat or whatever, I can't because I took my hotspot with me.

I have like 5gb of hotspot data included with my phone, but I only use it if my fixed wireless blips for any reason, or when I'm traveling, in lieu of the unsafe hotel (or McDonalds or whoever's) wireless.

If I were to use a 4G hotspot, I would want it dedicated to the house, and that's what I look at when I say it's too rich for my blood. Especially for the little data you get. When I first started using my phone as a hotspot when traveling, I recall one time watching like three episodes of The Office on Netflix and then getting the 75% warning on my phone, which then meant I was rationing my internet for the rest of the week and I still had to buy a gig or two of data to get through the week.

[sumpnz]

Don't most of those "unlimited" data plans throttle your connection after so many GB?

[cordex]

But (Boomer here) that's using the phone itself as the hotspot, right? Not a dedicated hotspot or 4G modem or whatever? My issue with a phone as a hotspot and main gateway to the webz is that the phone then always has to be in the vicinity of your devices. So if I take off on vacation and want to check the house cameras or adjust the thermostat or whatever, I can't because I took my hotspot with me.

You're correct.

[WLJ]

Don't most of those "unlimited" data plans throttle your connection after so many GB?

Depends on your plan and carrier.
I'm on Sprint, no throttling except on hot spot usage (can't remember the number) but they do have plans where even that is removed.

[kgbsquirrel]

Orbital inclination of 51°.  Guess the polar regions gotsta wait for the third cloud.

[Ben]

Some updated info on Starlink and user equipment.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/07/details-on-spacex-starlink-beta-emerge-along-with-photos-of-user-terminals/?comments=1

I guess they are rapidly moving forward and seem to be looking for higher resolution data on people who signed up for the emails. I got an email the other day asking for address info vs just the zip code.

[sumpnz]

Me too.

[dogmush]

Me three

[Ben]

Me too.

I'm actually curious if they are asking for high rez data on everyone who signed up, or if they have parsed out zip codes above a certain latitude.  I would then expect population density to be next.

I guess if people like AZRedhawk or Dogmush say they got an address request too, then they're likely still in the "broad scope" stage.

EDIT: Dogmush posted while I was typing. That answers that. Or it's just Musk and SPECTRE collecting data on everyone. 

[cordex]

My notice was stuck in spam.

[charby]

Me three

Moi quatro

[fifth_column]

According to the Ars Technica article, the system is capable of providing service "between 44 and 52 degrees north latitude."  That's pretty far north.  I live in southern WI and I'd still have to drive a couple of hours north to get in that range.

[MillCreek]

Another address request here.

[Ben]

According to the Ars Technica article, the system is capable of providing service "between 44 and 52 degrees north latitude."  That's pretty far north.  I live in southern WI and I'd still have to drive a couple of hours north to get in that range.

Yes, that was a bit disappointing. I'm at 43.5N.

[lee n. field]

Some updated info on Starlink and user equipment.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/07/details-on-spacex-starlink-beta-emerge-along-with-photos-of-user-terminals/?comments=1

I guess they are rapidly moving forward and seem to be looking for higher resolution data on people who signed up for the emails. I got an email the other day asking for address info vs just the zip code.

ditto

[charby]

Yes, that was a bit disappointing. I'm at 43.5N.

I'm at 43.1N

[sumpnz]

48.53N here.   And rural.

[Ben]

It appears some leaked numbers are coming through from initial beta testing. Makes me say, "meh".

Obviously these are leaked, and the full service isn't yet deployed, so numbers may not be really accurate and can definitely change for the better. However right now, the numbers are equivalent to what I can get with fixed wireless, so price would be one of the more important factors for me. As well as stability. My current fixed wireless is solid.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/08/spacex-starlink-beta-tests-show-speeds-up-to-60mbps-latency-as-low-as-31ms/

[sumpnz]

I'd pony up for those speeds.

[Hawkmoon]

One of the reasons I'm routing for Starlink to succeed is situations like yours. Even if 80 miles from Seattle, that should be "close enough" that some fixed wireless company would want to invest in towers and infrastructure. There are just a ton of "rural" locations that seem to be out of whatever formula ISPs use to decide where to offer service.

I'm late, but I just noticed this. I'm not "rural." I'm right in the heart of the Washington-Boston megalopolis, and my house is less than ten miles from a real (albeit small] city. My Internet from when I first got Internet was DSL service from AT&T. A few years ago, AT&T sold their landline telephone and Internet service to Frontier Communications. Frontier made all sorts of promises to the state regulatory agency about improving the Internet infrastructure, yada yada, and the deal was approved. And then, of course, Frontier did nothing to upgrade the infrastructure. In fact, they apparently also did nothing to even maintain it, because speeds kept getting slower, and outages became more frequent. My typical specs with Frontier DSL (I just looked up a log from 2018) we 40 ms ping, 2.62 Mbps download, and 0.66 Mbps upload.

By mid-2018 the service was so degraded that the Internet connection would randomly drop about once every fifteen minutes. That's not an exaggeration. Three to five times every hour, no matter what time of day, it would just disconnect, then come back maybe five or ten minutes later. Their tech support couldn't help. When they sent a field technician, he said the problem was the SLIK at the end of the road, where all the lines to my neighborhood split off. He said that piece of equipment was an AT&T relic, that it was obsolete before AT&T sold out to Frontier, and that as far as he knew Frontier had no plans to replace or upgrade it.

So, as much as I loathe and despise the cable company that serves my town, I jumped to cable Internet in late 2018. I'm paying for "up to" 200 Mbps dpwnload speeds but, of course, I never see that. Typically, I'm getting on the order of 18 to 20 Ms ping, 80 to 90 Mbps download, and 30 to 35 Mbps upload. Not great, but significantly better than the DSL, even without the dropouts. I can watch most YouTube videos without having to wait for buffering every few minutes, and load speeds for most web pages is good enough that there's no perceptible lag.

But ... the cable company is a sleazy operation, and I truly wish there were another option available.

[Hawkmoon]

Check again, Ben.  Many, maybe even most, cell providers have unlimited data plans now that are pretty cheap.

A few years ago Verizon had an unlimited data plan. They dropped it, and I don't think they've brought it back.