Starlink

[ernemats]

Will storms effect it the way they do Dish or Direct tv ? I know 20 years ago I had satallite internet and it was constantly lost during even mild rain or snow storms

 

[BoylermanCT]

Exactly...I would pay $125/mo for unlimited HS for internet, and TV use.

I am getting ready to call Charter Spectrum and cancel my cable TV because I think $125 is too much to pay for high speed internet and cable TV! I'm keeping my high speed internet (100MB) but I think the TV is overpriced. Especially when we pay for Hulu, Netflix, Disney+ and CBS All Access!

 

[otlski]

The Starlink constellation is in low earth orbit (LEO) whereas the others are in geosynchronous orbit, much high and much further away. This is the theoretical reason why Starlink latency can be so much lower. Whether or not SX achieves it remains to be seen.

 

[rekees4300]

Will storms effect it the way they do Dish or Direct tv ? I know 20 years ago I had satallite internet and it was constantly lost during even mild rain or snow storms

Time will tell with public beta testing across the northern USA and southern Canada. If the "UFO on a stick" can handle those conditions this Winter then it can handle anything. You're correct about Directv. We have it and it stops with snow on the dish or moderate rain in the clouds. The snow problem is easily solved with a broom but the rain problem is unsolvable.

 

[ChuckT]

There will be many variables involved when we make the switch decision. In a few months we should know Starlink's marketing strategy and prices. Personally I feel like I've been ripped off for years by greedy rural ISPs so I'm willing to pay more for a service that is actually worth more. A service with reliability, high speed, no data cap, and a reasonable price would be a dream come true. :cloud9:

Yes!
My current ISP, Spectrum, is garbage and I'm only 2 miles from the Verizon cell tower and the cell Service is just as bad.
Funny Starkink is only a today copy of something proposed by Asimov or VanVogt in the early 50s. Ain't we modern.

 

[mikester]

Will storms effect it the way they do Dish or Direct tv ? I know 20 years ago I had satallite internet and it was constantly lost during even mild rain or snow storms

Yes absolutely! The laws of nature don't yield to Elon Musk no matter what the fan boys say. A hard wired network connection is always more reliable than any wireless connection and isn't affected by weather, vegetation, structures and geography.

 

[Diggin It]

A hard wired network connection is always more reliable than any wireless connection and isn't affected by weather, vegetation, structures and geography.

Other than wind blowing trees over and/or heavy ice accumulation breaking wires. And there are backhoes, excavators and other digging machines.

 

[mikester]

Other than wind blowing trees over and/or heavy ice accumulation breaking wires. And there are backhoes, excavators and other digging machines.

In the past 20 years my buried land line was down 3x due to backhoes/excavators etc. Satellite/wireless goes down every time there a rain or snow storm either at my place or the uplink center which can be up to several times a month.

 

[Diggin It]

^^ Those types of signal fade outages tend to be temporary, often no more than a few minutes, maybe a couple of hours in more widespread storms. Trees downing wires due to wind or ice can cause multi-day long outages. Twice in the past 10-15 years, we've had 10+ day power outages and several other multi-hour long outages. In many areas the TelCo or cable lines were also down and took days or weeks to restore. Those that had generators were back online as soon as a few minutes or as soon as the clouds cleared or they got the ice off their dishes.

Every systems has advantages and disadvantages.

 

[cqaigy2]

My wireless Internet has never been down since i've used it. My telephone land line has never been down either. We have numerous power outages from overhead lines getting knocked out from trees mostly, some ice and rarely vehicles hitting poles. Longest without power, just over two weeks, long enough for cell towers to go down too.

That said, if someone comes to me and says they want to put some sort of networked gear someplace, they usually want to use wireless, i ask them how reliable do you want it to be, and they almost always say, very reliable, it can't go down. I tell'em, they got to pay for a hard connection then, not wireless.