Starlink......again.....

Jim K

Jim K

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Getting sick of our home internet disconnecting multiple times per day. Speed is good enough, and generally the outages are fairly short, but it's annoying. When they first came into the area, speed was great, uptime was near perfect, and I was paying $50/mo for unlimited data. Now it's up to $66. The lowest tier of Starlink (unlimited, but lower priority than the $120 plan) is down to $80.

Is anybody on the $80 low priority plan? Does it ever slow down enough to be an issue? Does it ever disconnect?
 
I have a Starlink mini roam with a 50GB plan ($65/mo) for in flight use as well as ground use during travel. I used it at my home, that has excellent fiber, when my service was interrupted. I didn't perform a speed test but it was reliable enough to stream LSU baseball seamlessly, powered by a USB power pack that I keep handy. I though it was the cat's pajamas.
 
AV8R_87 said:
What is the max flight speed for that one?
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I’m getting about 120mbps with the mini, if the orientation is wrong (such as on a moving vehicle), I’ve seen it drop to 10-15mbps. I think it has a sweet spot for faster speeds.

For a fixed location, probably the normal starlink is better (faster) but less forgiving with changing orientation of the satellite.
 
Without living in your area but knowing a thing or two about internet, respectively:

1) not an issue in your area. But yes, they halted deployment in metros
2) yes. But I’d expect 99.9% uptime in your area. Which is likely less than your terrestrial ISP.
 
Standard SL:
Besides the speed, it Never Has Outages. It just works, I’m not ever calling in for help, or messing with it.

IMG_4262.jpeg
 
Jim K said:
Getting sick of our home internet disconnecting multiple times per day. Speed is good enough, and generally the outages are fairly short, but it's annoying. When they first came into the area, speed was great, uptime was near perfect, and I was paying $50/mo for unlimited data. Now it's up to $66. The lowest tier of Starlink (unlimited, but lower priority than the $120 plan) is down to $80.

Is anybody on the $80 low priority plan? Does it ever slow down enough to be an issue? Does it ever disconnect?
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I was looking again myself last week as someone was dicking with the Verizon and Tmobile towers over this way causing instability. Thankfully its clearing up.
But it didn't look like Residential Lite was available in IL when I looked last week. I'm not getting that option when clicking order.
 
Jim K said:
Getting sick of our home internet disconnecting multiple times per day. Speed is good enough, and generally the outages are fairly short, but it's annoying. When they first came into the area, speed was great, uptime was near perfect, and I was paying $50/mo for unlimited data. Now it's up to $66. The lowest tier of Starlink (unlimited, but lower priority than the $120 plan) is down to $80.
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What kind of service do you have???? Are you on some 5G plan??? That's your problem.

If you're in a town or city where you can get a HARD WIRED service from Xfinity or someone like that you're going to have a much stabler connection. Sure in some areas if you're by a solid Cell Tower you may never see an issue with 5G Data. But a lot of people have the same issue you're talking about. So look into the other options available to you.
 
M20K said:
What kind of service do you have???? Are you on some 5G plan??? That's your problem.

If you're in a town or city where you can get a HARD WIRED service from Xfinity or someone like that you're going to have a much stabler connection. Sure in some areas if you're by a solid Cell Tower you may never see an issue with 5G Data. But a lot of people have the same issue you're talking about. So look into the other options available to you.
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It's wireless, but not cellular. Specifically, a telephone cooperative out of Ohio called "watch communications". Believe me when I say I've exhausted all the options. We're far enough from town that DSL runs at about 2 maps, no cable or fiber available. I was using cellular, which in spite of being line of sight to a 5g tower, never worked well. I was just about to sign up for starlink 2 years ago when this company came in. As I said, it started great, but as with the similar services we've had at other house, as they add more subscribers, the speed and reliability drop.
 
baboss said:
I was looking again myself last week as someone was dicking with the Verizon and Tmobile towers over this way causing instability. Thankfully its clearing up.
But it didn't look like Residential Lite was available in IL when I looked last week. I'm not getting that option when clicking order.
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They offered me the service at my address, but not the free receiver. $300ish bucks for that.
 
M20K said:
What kind of service do you have???? Are you on some 5G plan??? That's your problem.

If you're in a town or city where you can get a HARD WIRED service from Xfinity or someone like that you're going to have a much stabler connection. Sure in some areas if you're by a solid Cell Tower you may never see an issue with 5G Data. But a lot of people have the same issue you're talking about. So look into the other options available to you.
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Or not...we have xfinity, the cabled "HARD WIRED" kind. We have nowhere near the base plan: aside from some perusion of youtube, we don't stream things and we are continuously throttled (at least once a day for up to an hour at a time) to the point I can't load simple, text-based webpages without waiting at least 45 seconds and the internet just ...quits working three to four times a week with no explanation and then comes back about half an hour later, also with no explanation. We have never had worse internet than with hardwired xfinity.
 
Here in sparsely-populated rural Saskatchewan, in a town of 600, we recently got fiber-optic phone and internet into the town and directly to the house. Amazing speed, and if we needed a landline it would be fed by that, too. They took the copper cable away altogether.
 
Jim K said:
We're far enough from town that DSL runs at about 2 maps, no cable or fiber available.
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Sounds like Starlink may be in your future. :)

And I'm guessing you've also looked at Hughesnet. ($50 & $60 plans)
 
SkyChaser said:
Or not...we have xfinity, the cabled "HARD WIRED" kind. We have nowhere near the base plan: aside from some perusion of youtube, we don't stream things and we are continuously throttled (at least once a day for up to an hour at a time) to the point I can't load simple, text-based webpages without waiting at least 45 seconds and the internet just ...quits working three to four times a week with no explanation and then comes back about half an hour later, also with no explanation. We have never had worse internet than with hardwired xfinity.
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So every time it chokes do a Speed Test, get a Screen Grab and send it to Support asking for a Credit for that day.

It probably won't take all that long to get resolved if you keep sending in proof that you're not getting the speed you're paying for and requestion that Credit.
 
M20K said:
And I'm guessing you've also looked at Hughesnet. ($50 & $60 plans)
Click to expand...

Please don't. My phone number is one digit off of the Hughesnet "executive team" customer service number. You wouldn't believe how often hayseeds call me at the wrong number irate with their rotten internet, seldom pausing for breath for me to deliver a scathing "Ma'am this is a Wendy's" style wtf.

I have to assume the real complaint hotline number is a free-concert-tix grade busy signal.
 
M20K said:
Sounds like Starlink may be in your future. :)

And I'm guessing you've also looked at Hughesnet. ($50 & $60 plans)
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yeah...data caps. Not interested. We stream a LOT. I am surprised to see that they claim to have their speeds up. Last I looked at them they were single digit mbps.
 
I've been on almost every rural broadband solution out there at one point or another. Starlink beats every one of them and it isn't even close.

We got Starlink as soon as it was available- at the time I signed up they didn't have all these different plans. I just have the basic residential service plan which I believe runs $120/mo. Speeds vary with time of day- at the lowest maybe 30mb/s down and at the highest somewhere past 150 down. Average is probably around 80 or so.... but just from doing different tests I suspect they're doing some sort of traffic shaping that makes speed test results questionable... my real world download speeds seem to be way faster than the internet speed tests would make you expect. Bottom line though any sort of normal or even above average internet user is going to be happy. I can stream 4k video, software/app updates are speedy, etc. Latency is good enough for voip calls or gaming. It's like having real modern internet... which used to be impossible where I live.
 
schmookeeg said:
You wouldn't believe how often hayseeds call me at the wrong number irate with their rotten internet
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I've never used them, but considering how many subscribers they have, if the phone isn't ringing non stop, then my guess is they're actually not doing that bad of a job. :)
 
Jim K said:
yeah...data caps. Not interested.
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The prices I showed are apparently "unlimited" per their website.

But Starlink is probably better service. (From what I've heard.) I'm actually going to reach out to them to see if they do anything for Search & Rescue groups. Would be nice sometimes to have a connection when way out in the boonies.
 
schmookeeg said:
My phone number is one digit off of the Hughesnet "executive team" customer service number. You wouldn't believe how often hayseeds call me at the wrong number irate with their rotten internet, seldom pausing for breath for me to deliver a scathing "Ma'am this is a Wendy's" style wtf.
Click to expand...
Our phone number when I was a kid was “DIAL MTV” without the 800. I would believe.
 
M20K said:
So every time it chokes do a Speed Test, get a Screen Grab and send it to Support asking for a Credit for that day.

It probably won't take all that long to get resolved if you keep sending in proof that you're not getting the speed you're paying for and requestion that Credit.
Click to expand...
Just for the heck of ot, I ran a speed test right now. Apparently, I should just send them a screenshot every day, considering we're supposed to be getting "over 300 Mbps"...color me completely unimpressed.

Screenshot_20250520-183641.png
 
M20K said:
The prices I showed are apparently "unlimited" per their website.

But Starlink is probably better service. (From what I've heard.) I'm actually going to reach out to them to see if they do anything for Search & Rescue groups. Would be nice sometimes to have a connection when way out in the boonies.
Click to expand...
You're correct. The data cap is for "priority" data, then unlimited "standard" data after that. Lot's of fine print...$15/mo equipment lease or buy it for $300 + $200 installation. 24 month contract required, price increases $25/mo after 12 mo. +$5 unless you use autopay. Very reminiscent of the old cable TV "deals".

I really thought Starlink would kill them, but apparently they were REALLY gouging their customers before. Supply and demand I suppose. I do wonder how that got their speeds up so much. I think Starlink is still a better deal even assuming all their claims are true.

Wasn't Bezos supposed to be launching a Starlink competitor? He seems so much less productive since he ditched MacKenzie and married Duck Lips Lauren.
 
SkyChaser said:
Just for the heck of ot, I ran a speed test right now. Apparently, I should just send them a screenshot every day, considering we're supposed to be getting "over 300 Mbps"...color me completely unimpressed.

View attachment 141246
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Run a second test. Every time I do this the first test is very meh, second is a lot faster.

I generally see lower speeds in the evening when people are home from work. Highest after midnight.
 
SkyChaser said:
Just for the heck of ot, I ran a speed test right now. Apparently, I should just send them a screenshot every day, considering we're supposed to be getting "over 300 Mbps"...color me completely unimpressed.
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Yes! Let them come show you it is working or fix it for you.

NOTE: Are you connected directly to their Modem or do you have any network gear in between and are your wired or WiFi? Connect directly to their device with an Ethernet cable and run the Speed Test to confirm.
 
cowman said:
Run a second test. Every time I do this the first test is very meh, second is a lot faster.

I generally see lower speeds in the evening when people are home from work. Highest after midnight.
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That was my third, and even tried two different testing sites because I couldn't believe it was so slow.

ETA: Sorry, @Jim K - didn't mean to hijack your thread!
 
AV8R_87 said:
I meant ground speed at which it stops working for the 50GB plan.
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I recently bought a Starlink Mini for a flight from Atlanta to Glacier NP in Montana in my DA40. Works fantastic! The Local Priority 50GB plan is $65/mo, and $25 per additional 50GB. You can start/stop on a monthly basis. This plan works up to 250mph ground speed, which is more than enough for my DA40. Rarely had any dropout and download speeds were up to 200Mbps, uplink > 20Mbps. When I got to Montana, I threw it into the rental car, and got great service in the middle of nowhere (except when trees blocked the sky). It's an incredible asset for flight safety.
 
I have Starlink in a nearby rental house as there's not even DSL available there. Since the roof is flat, for testing I just through the dish on the roof. We got a wind storm before i could get back and mount it properly and the thing blew off the roof.

Two things I observed:
1. It survived a three story drop and still works fine after i put it back up on the roof.
2. The router that comes with it has some really slow back channel to the satellite even with the dish not connected. I was getting little Ring camera alerts (no video, but motion alerts) even with the dish disconnected.
 
M20K said:
I've never used them, but considering how many subscribers they have, if the phone isn't ringing non stop, then my guess is they're actually not doing that bad of a job. :)
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Based on my experience I'd bet the actual service number is either off the hook or completely jammed to the point of meltdown. The service people that finally brought fiber to our business hut in the wilderness are heroes.

When Starlink was the only alternative at our residence it was a lifesaver. When a local provider was finally goaded into running fiber to that location we got >2x the speed at 1/3 the cost and so far (<6 mos) have no complaints.

Nauga,
fibrous
 
Jim K said:
I really thought Starlink would kill them, but apparently they were REALLY gouging their customers before. Supply and demand I suppose. I do wonder how that got their speeds up so much. I think Starlink is still a better deal even assuming all their claims are true.
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I can't speak to whether or not they were "gouging". Geosync is expensive and isn't scalable. I'm sure they were making money though.

They got their speeds up with a new generation of technology they call Jupiter 3. The total throughput is 500gbps. Launched in 2023.

Jim K said:
Wasn't Bezos supposed to be launching a Starlink competitor?
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First launch was about three weeks ago. Early customer roll-out expected before end of year.
 
Jim K said:
I really thought Starlink would kill them, but apparently they were REALLY gouging their customers before. Supply and demand I suppose. I do wonder how that got their speeds up so much.
Click to expand...
I think they (Hughesnet) bundle their internet for Dish Network customers now and my in-laws have a crafty Dish repairman/salesman that was trying to push it on them. Thankfully they asked their tech support guy (me) before signing up. I've read way too many horror stories about Hughesnet in my rural internet journey of the last 10 years to even entertain them. It's been bad enough dealing w/ the cellular companies and I halfway know what I'm doing w/ network equipment/antennas/cell tower research, etc. I can't imagine non tech people trying to deal with it.

Starlink is a no brainer and if I wasn't a cheap ass in the short run I'd already have it. I'm sure I'll be kicking cussing myself when they raise the prices on the kits back to normal. I've been threatening to buy one and put it in the closet for when I've finally had enough w/ Tmobile and Verizon.
 
I have starlink at my warehouse and a mini for the hangar/plane

We ended up getting a 5g Verizon as a main source for our warehouse as the starlink there was sub 100mbps. The starlink is the backup now.
 
Dixiebluesky said:
What do folks use them for in the plane, watching movies?
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Getting much more detailed weather info in remote areas was my motivation. I can pull up Windy or any other online resource immediately. I can also make phone calls with Wifi calling enabled. And yes, you can stream movies or anything you want. At $0.50 per gigabyte, it's not bad. Kept me up to date on the NBA playoffs ;-)
 
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