Starlink

[buckeyefarmer]

I just signed up for 300Mbps fiber at $40 month. Could get 1.2Gbps for $65

 

[JRH02]

I just signed up for 300Mbps fiber at $40 month. Could get 1.2Gbps for $65

Cool. Two different solutions for two different needs.

 

[ultrarunner]

I just signed up for 300Mbps fiber at $40 month. Could get 1.2Gbps for $65

Wow… not seeing these kind of deals unless tied to a low income program…

 

[dfkrug]

Wow… not seeing these kind of deals unless tied to a low income program…

My Frontier fiber continues to work fine (500M/500M) and costs only $45/mo. I am just a few miles from town, but it has been a long battle to get decent internet up here in the mountains. Plus the VZ acquisition of FTR so far seems to be a good thing.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Wow… not seeing these kind of deals unless tied to a low income program…

They literally circled my house putting up fiber. On telephone poles along the front and 1 side, then behind me on electric poles than meet where it’s on the telephone poles down from my neighbor. They put a big box with equipment on my neighbor.

They had other options, like up to 8 Gbps.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Cool. Two different solutions for two different needs.

They had lots of speed / price options. I’ll run both for awhile, then decide what to do with Starlink

 

[ponytug]

They had lots of speed / price options. I’ll run both for awhile, then decide what to do with Starlink

Personally, if you need the internet connection, e.g. work from home or emergency calling, I'd keep Starlink or something on hot standby. I think fiber is great, but based on long experience with fiber, it does seem to attract accidents and interruptions, resulting in outages. YMMV.

All the best, Peter

 

[gsganzer]

Before we moved from our old place, we did the Line-of-site radio, then an AT&T brick, then Starlink and finally fiber was installed 2 months before we moved.

We moved to our new place and the previous owners had a 60' antenna with NextLink Line-of-site. So, we signed on with Next Link. It's awful and buffers every few minutes for both streaming and internet. It really irks me, because I was with the technicians in the attic and when they had the home base monitor the connection, they said it was sporadic and to change their patch cord. Apparently, they never resolved it but said it works and left.

As much as an improvement Starlink was over LOS and cell, fiber is the ultimate answer. Tomorrow, I have NorTex Communications coming out to look at connecting fiber. I have a box at my driveway and my neighbor, further down the lane has it. They're coming out to map the 600-700' it will take to get it from that box to the house and give me a price. Apparently, it's something that's negotiable. Any idea what a reasonable installation cost is? My thoughts are that my cost should be what the actual cost is from the contractor, no markup from NorTex. NorTex should be making their money on the internet service.

 

[WM75Guy]

I would hold out for free, the cable is probably the most expensive part. I didn't pay anything for Spectrum to lay down 2 fiber cables to the house and shop, 800' - 900' of cable each. The Spectrum techs laid it on the ground, terminated it in a box on the outside wall, ran fiber through the wall, mounted a modem inside each building, and connected the modems. A contractor came out a few days later and buried the cables about 6" down with a walk behind vibrating plow. I already had 2 Cat 5e cables to plug into the modem in the house to run internet and phone signals to my utility closet. In the shop I sat the mesh router and the wireless phone base on a shelf and plugged them into the modem.

 

[lman]

Nope, there bringing fiber to entire area for free. Free install, free modem, free install fiber direct to home. Part of government funded rural internet system.

They have dozens of crews working the area. They have hooked thousands of homes up in past year or 2. They did our underground thru development this summer, but frozen ground halted service to house. They said they could lay above ground temp if requested, but can’t for me as it goes over driveway.

Will have 500x500 service for $65/month. My friend had his installed a few months back….amazing speed.

We got that a couple years ago. It's not free though, we pay monthly.

 

[ultrarunner]

I’m all in conduit with several nodes along my driveway and it was direction bored.

Offered several options after years of making a fuss.

5 year commitment to business internet was one with the least upfront cost to simply paying 13-14k at time of install…

 

[dfkrug]

Many of the ISPs laying fiber got grants from that federal infrastructure spending bill a few years ago. So that means they had to use it to build out rural internet, and that made many of the long cable installs "free".

I got about 1200 aerial feet of fiber (done twice by contractors who damaged it the first time), plus some burial in conduit. That included going underneath my private road using a pneumatic hammer.

I was hoping they could use my old DSL conduit, but I could not pull out the old wires.

 

[gsganzer]

My old neighbor, who works for Frontier, said it costs them $1.40/ft to bury fiber. That gives me something to work with.

 

[ponytug]

My old neighbor, who works for Frontier, said it costs them $1.40/ft to bury fiber. That gives me something to work with.

That is a great start, and might be true, but that doesn't include the value of having a revenue generating customer.

If you can, it might be good to see if you can find out what others near to you have been paying. It would not surprise me if many got the whole install for free. The capital costs on an ISP side are getting the main fiber installed, the servers and routing equipment up and running, so each extra customer reduces that cost, and comes at a low running cost

All the best,

Peter

 

[buckeyefarmer]

my install is free. They just pushed it back 2 weeks since they have to bury the fiber, won't lay it on the ground like they did my neighbors, since mine has to cross a driveway.

 

[B7510HSD]

I'm lost as usual came here for info on Star Link and all I see now is Fiber is Star Link now offering Fiber?

 

[ponytug]

I'm lost as usual came here for info on Star Link and all I see now is Fiber is Star Link now offering Fiber?

No, but some rural areas are getting it and folks are switching.

What were you looking for about Starlink?

All the best, Peter

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I'm lost as usual came here for info on Star Link and all I see now is Fiber is Star Link now offering Fiber?

plenty of starlink info. not much to starlink, power it up, if it's not obstructed, it generally just works. I'm currently only getting 68 Mbps, sometimes it's 300 Mbps for $120 month. Fiber will be 300 Mbps for $40.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

I'm considering Starlink at my place. There is really no reliable wired or fiber internet available for my location. I currently get it over the air with a line-of-site receiver on the side of my house. I usually get between 40-50 MBPS but it drops out often enough that it's annoying. My biggest concern is with it being installed on the roof. I really don't want any holes through my shingles, but it sounds like that's the only option. Do any of you have any input on that?

 

[B7510HSD]

Mostly about different plans and cost. I hear some talk about free equipment now but not sure.