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SpaceX says Starlink internet has ‘extraordinary demand,’

cnbc.com

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Re: SpaceX says Starlink internet has ‘extraordinary demand,’

#61

Post by nicolaslem »

jlokier wrote: post #58
dumbfoundded wrote: post #26

I have a house on a farm. I only have relatively high speed internet (25mb/s) b/c someone set up a line of sight system pointing at a mountain as a co-op. My neighbors' house about half a kilometer away is blocked by a hill so they can't use it. When it's cloudy, I have to use my phone as a mobile hotspot. Coming from San Francisco, I didn't realize how many people face this reality of poor connectivity. I don't care…

My mother's house gets an extraordinary 0.25 Mbit/s download rate. I didn't measure the upload. 50 metres uphill, there's a 4G signal which gets >20 Mbit/s download. But ADSL is only 0.25 Mbit/s, and that's what you're getting in the shadows. It's sold as "up to 8 Mbit/s".

Isn't it possible to install a mast with a pair of directional antennas on the house to get this 4G signal? Plug the antennas in an all-in-one modem/router/access point and enjoy great Internet in the house.

4G is amazing these days, I recently moved from a big city (coax 500 Mbps) to a house that only gets 4G and I barely feel the difference.

Re: SpaceX says Starlink internet has ‘extraordinary demand,’

#62

Post by kalleboo »

justinclift wrote: post #55

Wonder if it'd work for off shore sailing craft? eg ships, yachts, and that kind of thing Guessing the in-built motors the user terminals come with for correcting orientation wouldn't know how to cope with waves. So maybe need some kind of gimbal thing for added stabilisation?

Starlink has talked about supplying cruise ships and airplanes, not sure about smaller maritime craft

Re: SpaceX says Starlink internet has ‘extraordinary demand,’

#65

Post by nickik »

justinclift wrote: post #55

Wonder if it'd work for off shore sailing craft? eg ships, yachts, and that kind of thing Guessing the in-built motors the user terminals come with for correcting orientation wouldn't know how to cope with waves. So maybe need some kind of gimbal thing for added stabilisation?

It can adjust itself in principle and orient itself. But maybe the motion of the boat might be to much.

Re: SpaceX says Starlink internet has ‘extraordinary demand,’

#66

Post by nickik »

josefx wrote: post #51
jeffnappi wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With zero advertising spend I'd say that it is pretty impressive.

So the marketing department of SpaceX works for free?

You have any numbers on the marketing department and how much time they spend trying to sell Starlink?

Re: SpaceX says Starlink internet has ‘extraordinary demand,’

#67

Post by orost »

nickik wrote: post #65
justinclift wrote: post #55

Wonder if it'd work for off shore sailing craft? eg ships, yachts, and that kind of thing Guessing the in-built motors the user terminals come with for correcting orientation wouldn't know how to cope with waves. So maybe need some kind of gimbal thing for added stabilisation?

It can adjust itself in principle and orient itself. But maybe the motion of the boat might be to much.

Isn't it a phased-array antenna? It can adjust itself at the speed of electronics, without moving parts, so that should not be an issue in any reasonable scenario if the software supports it.

A larger problem for use on sea might be that first generation Starlink sats do not have satellite-to-satellite links, so the boat and a ground station would have to be within range of the same satellite.

Re: SpaceX says Starlink internet has ‘extraordinary demand,’

#68

Post by uwuwuwu »

dumbfoundded wrote: post #26

I have a house on a farm. I only have relatively high speed internet (25mb/s) b/c someone set up a line of sight system pointing at a mountain as a co-op. My neighbors' house about half a kilometer away is blocked by a hill so they can't use it. When it's cloudy, I have to use my phone as a mobile hotspot. Coming from San Francisco, I didn't realize how many people face this reality of poor connectivity. I don't care…

Why not just use 4G all the way?

If it's the price tag, this is something companies could fix.

Re: SpaceX says Starlink internet has ‘extraordinary demand,’

#69

Post by 7952 »

onetimemanytime wrote: post #49

5 million times, say, $50 means $250 Million a month or 3 billion a year. Not sure if they can get people to switch from optic cable to satellite and while the world is large, very few outside rich countries can afford to pay $50 a month. Nice side business

But you don't have to sell it at $50 everywhere. The marginal cost of an additional subscriber is very low, particularly when the inter satellite link is enabled. If people can only afford $10 per month that is better than having no revenue at all in a particular area.
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