Starlink now available to order

[docderwood]

FYI,

You can now pre-order on their website. For my location (SE US) it says mid to late 2021. $99 deposit (refundable) and $500 for equipment/99$ month.

I signed up for the beta a long time ago but heard nothing.

[MattB29]

Price is too high for what they offer. I can not imagine they will find many takers. The only way I might be interested is if they got their price down under $50/mo, with equipment costs under $200 or free as part of the service.

[docderwood]

Unfortunately for me, it is likely to be a better option. I've got 3 LTE connections bonded together with MPTCP and my local towers are saturated in the evenings. The beta testers are getting good to great latency and often 100 down (which is what I can get at 3AM).

Price is too high for what they offer. I can not imagine they will find many takers. The only way I might be interested is if they got their price down under $50/mo, with equipment costs under $200 or free as part of the service.

[radec]

Unfortunately for me, it is likely to be a better option.

Yeah that's the thing. For a lot of people it is actually a really good option. I know plenty of people have been getting essentially scammed by dsl and satellite internet that provides maybe 1Mbps-3Mbps down and still end up paying $60-$90 dollars a month. With satellite you also usually have data caps.

While I agree it internet shouldn't cost that much, if you've got very few other options it starts looking like a pretty good deal. My bet is that they will get a lot of takers.

[shwaba]

Yep, ours is on the way a few weeks out. Our last Ipad plan just got axed on Monday right after AT$T renewed it.
All we have left now is our Tmo home internet. Which is great at 3am but usually not so great at 7pm(only 10Mhz Bandwidth in my area). So I have a sim coming for the AT$T $20 tablet plan, to supplement until Starlink arrives, they are saying 2-4 weeks due to high demand. Then we'll dump Tmo and keep the tablet plan as backup for any outages. Yes sir $120 per month for both is going to suck, but what are you gonna do? Spectrum wanted $17,000 to run through a flat farm field for 500ft. After all the equipment I've bought over the last 2 years I probably put a big dent into that amount to, but oh well.

My full time hobby of keeping internet to my Home is so rewarding.(said no one ever)

[docderwood]

My full time hobby of keeping internet to my Home is so rewarding.(said no one ever)
[/quote]

^^^ Ha! No doubt.

ATT wanted 120K to run fiber to me. LTE has been fun and all to figure out, but it would be nice to have an option that doesn't need so much TLC.

[plympton]

2nd that hobby sentiment!! I signed up for a pre-order, even if it's just to get in the queue.

My load-balanced dual-LTE Visible ($25*2/month) has been pretty stable the last 2-3 months since I started it, but on the weekend it's abysmal (as expected - tourists come in to town and flood the towers). At least it's Zoomable during the week if we decide to stay over past the weekend, and I'm rsync-ing content during the week so there's no need to stream while we're there.

But it's a pain. I pretty much have to fiddle with the Internet every time I'm there to some degree or another, and I'd prefer not to have to.

$99/month a lot? HELL YEAH! But I'm already paying $60/month just to poop so if I had to choose, well, a bear can go in the woods...

[BillA]

2nd that hobby sentiment!! I signed up for a pre-order, even if it's just to get in the queue.

My load-balanced dual-LTE Visible ($25*2/month) has been pretty stable the last 2-3 months since I started it, but on the weekend it's abysmal (as expected - tourists come in to town and flood the towers). At least it's Zoomable during the week if we decide to stay over past the weekend, and I'm rsync-ing content during the week so there's no need to stream while we're there.

But it's a pain. I pretty much have to fiddle with the Internet every time I'm there to some degree or another, and I'd prefer not to have to.

$99/month a lot? HELL YEAH! But I'm already paying $60/month just to poop so if I had to choose, well, a bear can go in the woods...

With Tmobile/SimpleMobile I'm consistently getting 100Mbps in the daytime and over 200Mbps at night (from 9pm till 9am) using a Quectel EM16 CAT-16 modem. On my second router with a 5G Simcom SIM8200EA-M2 modem it's close to 1,000Mbps (https://wirelessjoint.com/viewtopic.php?p=15158#p15158). Best of all it's only $50 bucks per month.

As with any satellite based data service, when it works, it works great.  However, there are several issues to consider, such as congestion, once they sign up a bunch of customers it could slow speeds down. Weather related issues like heavy rain or snow, both can wreak havoc with high frequency low power satellite signals.

My biggest concern is its performance during bad weather such as heavy rain, snow, and even the wind blowing/flapping the antenna around. Also, once they sign up millions of customers, congestion (slow down and higher latency) might become an issue.

Having higher latency than traditional internet may not work for gaming, VOIP, and other timing sensitive applications .  Also, currently the monthly cost is double that of cellular data including the equipment cost, which hopefully will come down in time.
Understandably some folks have no other choice but satellite, so it's definitely a viable option.
Let us know your experience with it after using the service for about a month or so, then in a year.

[shwaba]

With Tmobile/SimpleMobile I'm consistently getting 100Mbps in the daytime and over 200Mbps at night (from 9pm till 9am) using a Quectel EM16 CAT-16 modem. On my second router with a 5G Simcom SIM8200EA-M2 modem it's close to 1,000Mbps (https://wirelessjoint.com/viewtopic.php?p=15158#p15158). Best of all it's only $50 bucks per month.

As with any satellite based data service, when it works, it works great.  However, there are several issues to consider, such as congestion, once they sign up a bunch of customers it could slow speeds down. Weather related issues like heavy rain or snow, both can wreak havoc with high frequency low power satellite signals. Having higher latency than traditional internet may not work for gaming, VOIP, and other timing sensitive applications .  Also, currently the monthly cost is double that of cellular data including the equipment cost, which hopefully will come down in time.
Understandably some folks have no other choice but satellite, so it's definitely a viable option.

First off thank you BillA for all the knowledge you provide to this Forum,
Secondly, The same thing can be said about any of the cellular carriers, Everything is not equal, the $50 dollars you spend for service gets you anywhere from 100Mbps to 1,000Mbps, but the $50 I spend gets me 50Mbps to 0.2Mbps on Tmobile. It's all about location, location, location. My neighbor who uses the beta Starlink, in thunderstorms or a 16 inch snow storm averages 100Mbps down. Has He had down time? Absolutely! But It's no different then the down time that everyone trying to use cellular data to provide internet to their home has encountered. It works perfectly until the Monopoly carriers decide it shouldn't. It's my opinion that It's a great thing for everyone if there is competition against the cable and cellular companies. It will force the price down and make service better for everyone. I have no problem paying for the equipment or the $120 per month for starlink and At$t, because at the end of the day when I'm watching something I don't care about that extra $50-$70 dollars when I don't see a buffering sign on my TV. I digress..

[BillA]

First off thank you BillA for all the knowledge you provide to this Forum,
Secondly, The same thing can be said about any of the cellular carriers, Everything is not equal, the $50 dollars you spend for service gets you anywhere from 100Mbps to 1,000Mbps, but the $50 I spend gets me 50Mbps to 0.2Mbps on Tmobile. It's all about location, location, location. My neighbor who uses the beta Starlink, in thunderstorms or a 16 inch snow storm averages 100Mbps down. Has He had down time? Absolutely! But It's no different then the down time that everyone trying to use cellular data to provide internet to their home has encountered. It works perfectly until the Monopoly carriers decide it shouldn't. It's my opinion that It's a great thing for everyone if there is competition against the cable and cellular companies. It will force the price down and make service better for everyone. I have no problem paying for the equipment or the $120 per month for starlink and At$t, because at the end of the day when I'm watching something I don't care about that extra $50-$70 dollars when I don't see a buffering sign on my TV. I digress..

Absolutely, as I said previously "it's definitely a viable option", no such thing as one size (service) fits all.
But hey, if Starlink fails, their low orbit satellites make for great a target practice in the night sky... get that shotgun out! lol jk

[toddw]

I ordered it, I plan to run it to one of the wan ports on my ubiquiti and keep rocking LTE as well. I'm all for redundancy. We will see how it fares reliability wise. I also ordered a RM500Q-GL for my tmobile router, with some boltons, let the speed tests begin....

[shwaba]

2021-02-23-Your Starlink Order has Shipped.png

FYI, for anyone who cares. I ordered on February 8

[docderwood]

I'm jealous.

Where are you at in the world, roughly? Doesn't seem like it has made it far south yet for me!

2021-02-23-Your Starlink Order has Shipped.png

FYI, for anyone who cares. I ordered on February 8

[shwaba]

Wisconsin

[shwaba]

And FedEx found a way to screw this up! My Starlink Kit went from CA to PA right over me in WI and my roof mount is in TX now.
So much for being here tomorrow

[MattB29]

As curiosity, and after today's T-mobile Home internet failure, I decided to see if Starlink was available in my location. Their website requires your address and a request to order before giving you any information. It says it is slated for mid 2021 in my location but they would happily sign me up with a deposit of $99. That is against the total price of the $500 device, $38 shipping, plus tax. Um, no thanks.

Remote locations like mine do not get much options for reasonable price usable internet.

[crazysteve]

As curiosity, and after today's T-mobile Home internet failure, I decided to see if Starlink was available in my location. Their website requires your address and a request to order before giving you any information. It says it is slated for mid 2021 in my location but they would happily sign me up with a deposit of $99. That is against the total price of the $500 device, $38 shipping, plus tax. Um, no thanks.

Remote locations like mine do not get much options for reasonable price usable internet.

I've been using third party Tmo plans + DSL for the last 4+ years. T-mo has been down maybe a handful of times and half of those were due to inclement weather. The service has been solid but speeds are progressively getting slower, bordering on shitty, and I'm done emailing / calling T-Mobile and asking when they are going to support their home internet service here, which, I heard is a POS anyway. It seemed, for a time, that T-Mobile was going to get serious about supporting rural internet, but all I see anymore is waning interest and lack of communication. There's obviously something going on that has soured their early optimism.

As far as cost goes, plenty of folks have spent more than $538 for their LTE rigs in remote areas that require antennae on top of whatever modem and other equipment they are using. I've spent almost $1000 over the last 4 years jacking with LTE internet. I think Starlink may be a bargain for some people.

[MattB29]

...
As far as cost goes, plenty of folks have spent more than $538 for their LTE rigs in remote areas that require antennae on top of whatever modem and other equipment they are using. I've spent almost $1000 over the last 4 years jacking with LTE internet. I think Starlink may be a bargain for some people.

No question it may be a option for some even at the high cost. The big question is how reliable of a service they will actually provide for that cost and if they can be a viable business down the road. Having a high cost limits how many people will choose to adopt it. Many simply can not afford it. Something is only a bargain if you can not do without it and there are no other options.

[shwaba]

Starlink_2021-02-27 16_45_16-.png

I've only had it for literally an hour but I've never had a test like this on LTE at 5PM. So far testing the worst test was 68mbps down.

[gscheb]

I've been using third party Tmo plans + DSL for the last 4+ years. T-mo has been down maybe a handful of times and half of those were due to inclement weather. The service has been solid but speeds are progressively getting slower, bordering on shitty, and I'm done emailing / calling T-Mobile and asking when they are going to support their home internet service here, which, I heard is a POS anyway. It seemed, for a time, that T-Mobile was going to get serious about supporting rural internet, but all I see anymore is waning interest and lack of communication. There's obviously something going on that has soured their early optimism.

As far as cost goes, plenty of folks have spent more than $538 for their LTE rigs in remote areas that require antennae on top of whatever modem and other equipment they are using. I've spent almost $1000 over the last 4 years jacking with LTE internet. I think Starlink may be a bargain for some people.

Hello,

We all been on T-Mobile for like three years. (Three separate houses) Have even referred to it to other people on this site. But for the last 7 months or so slowly getting slower and slower worse and ping getting higher. So we been moving away from it.
Think to do allot with changes with 5G and the Sprint thing.
Don't get me wrong not terrible just not as good as it was.
Funny thing they basically beg you not to cancel it! Even told them what I was doing still didn't want me too. Can see that never placed a phone call or text in like three years. Obvious what is going on.
Think these carriers are getting desperate for customers. Specially as they spend more and more on this silly 5G race. Don't understand why anyone needs 5G speeds on a phone! 1000 mbps on a phone. Why?

[MattB29]

Starlink_2021-02-27 16_45_16-.pngI've only had it for literally an hour but I've never had a test like this on LTE at 5PM. So far testing the worst test was 68mbps down.

Looks good. Especially the low ping numbers. Speed not all that great though I would love to have it instead of the numbers I get at my location.

Starlink will have to do better speeds if they want to compete in areas that have 5G. I notice that Verizon's 5G Home Internet is talking about 300Mbs speeds as a minimum for their offering. Looking through the Verizon 5G gateway manual I am impressed with just how much things you can control on the device. It is not all locked down like the T-Mobile gateway is.

Would you give a review on your Starlink Gateway for what it offers?

[Jordan2020]

Thanks to this forum i've been using the PagePlus $55 a month plan which has worked pretty well.

My Starlink is being delivered this Thursday. I'd be happy to provide some data once I have it.

Installation was super painless. Currently getting 30ms ping 60-100mb/s up and 10-20mb/s down on Starlink.

[mjholbert]

With Tmobile/SimpleMobile I'm consistently getting 100Mbps in the daytime and over 200Mbps at night (from 9pm till 9am) using a Quectel EM16 CAT-16 modem. On my second router with a 5G Simcom SIM8200EA-M2 modem it's close to 1,000Mbps (https://wirelessjoint.com/viewtopic.php?p=15158#p15158). Best of all it's only $50 bucks per month.

As with any satellite based data service, when it works, it works great.  However, there are several issues to consider, such as congestion, once they sign up a bunch of customers it could slow speeds down. Weather related issues like heavy rain or snow, both can wreak havoc with high frequency low power satellite signals. Having higher latency than traditional internet may not work for gaming, VOIP, and other timing sensitive applications .  Also, currently the monthly cost is double that of cellular data including the equipment cost, which hopefully will come down in time.
Understandably some folks have no other choice but satellite, so it's definitely a viable option.

Hi BillA - Brand new to LTE. Moved out the country here in central California. Can you point me in the direction of the hardware you're using currently to obtain these speeds? I know you listed the modem models but can you give a newb like me a breakdown of your setup from top to bottom? I purchased a Mofi4500 and am quickly seeing there are other options out there better than this. Thank you for your time!

[shwaba]

Would you give a review on your Starlink Gateway for what it offers?

Things I've seen so far is the GUI seems to made for troubleshooting by tech support it's filled with stats and such, but nothing you can fiddle with.
The supplied router has a very good Wifi signal, but I ditched it because it would not play nice with my Edge routers DHCP. I ended up just plugging in my Edge router to Starlink's POE injector(the white side of it)
and it works fine that way.
I load balance Starlink with my AT$T post paid tablet. I've only had one noticeable outage that lasted less than a minute, but my wife's VPN at work has not interacted well with Starlink. I initially had the load balance set at 90/10(Starlink/AT$T) and my wife had constant drops and freezing on her zoom calls.
I switched it to a 50/50 load balance and decreased the unreachable ping time to 10 seconds and she has been fine ever since.
Overall I'm happy with Starlink and I think over time things will improve and I believe the price has to come down if Musk wants to be a thorn in the side of the monopolies. I'm averaging 125Mbps right now from what I've been documenting.

This is my fastest speed test to date

Starlink_2021-03-11_2-.png

[MattB29]

Thanks for the information.

[BillA]

Hi BillA - Brand new to LTE. Moved out the country here in central California. Can you point me in the direction of the hardware you're using currently to obtain these speeds? I know you listed the modem models but can you give a newb like me a breakdown of your setup from top to bottom? I purchased a Mofi4500 and am quickly seeing there are other options out there better than this. Thank you for your time!

For mobile router equipment I would recommend contacting Richard (Didneywhorl on Wireless Joint)
He runs the thewirelesshaven.com shop, and carries a good selection of routers and modems at reasonable prices.

It's important to get a modem which can bypass the carrier restrictions in order to avoid getting your service disconnected, such as the Quectel EM12 CAT-12, EM16 CAT-16, EM20 CAT-20, RM500Q-AE 5G, or SImcom SIM7912 CAT-12, SIM7920 CAT-20, SIM8200EA-M2 5G. While Sierras seem to work, I prefer the above brands. If you need more info on antennas and services including setup, click on the contact bubble icon below my profile pic, I'd be happy to help.

[mjholbert]

For mobile router equipment I would recommend contacting Richard (Didneywhorl on Wireless Joint)
He runs the thewirelesshaven.com shop, and carries a good selection of routers and modems at reasonable prices.

It's important to get a modem which can bypass the carrier restrictions in order to avoid getting your service disconnected, such as the Quectel EM12 CAT-12, EM16 CAT-16, EM20 CAT-20, RM500Q-AE 5G, or SImcom SIM7912 CAT-12, SIM7920 CAT-20, SIM8200EA-M2 5G. While Sierras seem to work, I prefer the above brands. If you need more info on antennas and services including setup, click on the contact bubble icon below my profile pic, I'd be happy to help.

Thank you! Sending you a message now

[docderwood]

So, I have two Starlink dishes on the way (Have a house with adjoining rent house). Plan on using OpenMPTC to bond together with LTE connection.

[crazysteve]

I'm actually considering cancelling my Starlink preorder. T-mobile service here has gotten an upgrade in the last few weeks and getting ~45/20. I love the upload speeds and I'm using a free line Tmobile gave me with grandfathered $25 unlimited international. Maybe check it again out after beta is over.....

[gscheb]

I'm actually considering cancelling my Starlink preorder. T-mobile service here has gotten an upgrade in the last few weeks and getting ~45/20. I love the upload speeds and I'm using a free line Tmobile gave me with grandfathered $25 unlimited international. Maybe check it again out after beta is over.....

Tmobile phone or home internet?

[crazysteve]

Tmobile phone or home internet?

TMobile phone line with grandfathered International Unlimited Tethering via MOFI4500.

[gscheb]

TMobile phone line with grandfathered International Unlimited Tethering via MOFI4500.

Used to use the exact same thing. Now got T-Mobile home internet unit. It is cheaper per month and faster. When I say faster like the down load is 2x plus as fast. Upload about the same.

[crazysteve]

Used to use the exact same thing. Now got T-Mobile home internet unit. It is cheaper per month and faster. When I say faster like the down load is 2x plus as fast. Upload about the same.

That's STILL not available here. I just keep being told to be patient, but..... What I have is essentially free since I have NO PLANS to drop this NLA plan. Nothing out there compares. Did I mention this is a FREE line Tmo gave me?

[docderwood]

So....I received Starlink last week. Very happy with is so far. OpenMPTCP page consistently shows similar throughput to this:

https://i.imgur.com/dBTWObT.png

[Dr-BroadBand]

hay docderwood what state are you in?

[docderwood]

hay docderwood what state are you in?

Located in NW Alabama.

[Tgdc1978]

Docderwood, when did you place your deposit? Was it in Feb when you started this thread or before? Just curious to see where I might be in line; I made my deposit in early March. Thanks

[mtl26637]

Hey docderwood, just out of curiosity, what are you using to run your 'OMR' setup? I originally was using an rpi4 but didn't like the thought if all comms in and out running through a single ethernet port so I moved to a netgear wrt32x router running OMR. Had many issues for 6-9 month with that to come to find out the best speeds I could push through it was around 200Mbps so am now using a Protectli Vault 4 device which i've had no issues with so far. Wondering what device you are using to aggregate to hit those speeds?

[docderwood]

Hey docderwood, just out of curiosity, what are you using to run your 'OMR' setup? I originally was using an rpi4 but didn't like the thought if all comms in and out running through a single ethernet port so I moved to a netgear wrt32x router running OMR. Had many issues for 6-9 month with that to come to find out the best speeds I could push through it was around 200Mbps so am now using a Protectli Vault 4 device which i've had no issues with so far. Wondering what device you are using to aggregate to hit those speeds?

I've been using Qotom I7's one each end.

I'm about to transition to a Peplink Balnce 310X for a variety of reasons with a 6 port Protectli running Fusion.