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Starlink is now Accepting General Pre-orders

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Re: Starlink is now Accepting General Pre-orders

#251

Post by mike_d »

syedkarim wrote: post #139
AlexDanger wrote: post #103

I'm a big believer in Starlink and SpaceX generally. It annoys me that I can not invest in these big bold innovations directly. Has anyone thought about how to invest indirectly on the belief that Starlink will succeed? For instance, are there satellite equipment suppliers or other upstream supplier who stand to profit with Starlink's success? Likewise, who might fail based on Starlink's success? Should I be shorting…

There are dozens of custom ICs from STMicroelectronics in each terminal. ST is a public company; NYSE:STM The terminal is also using a large amount of high-frequency substrate. That could be Rogers, but maybe one of the much cheaper Chinese materials. But I don’t think a position should be taken based on what’s inside of a terminal. The real play is in shorting the entire satellite industry. Every existing satellite…

Iridium and Global Star make the majority of their money from governments supporting custom use cases and working with OEM partners. Starlink might be a viable alternative in 10 years on the next-gen bidding cycle, but not before.

Re: Starlink is now Accepting General Pre-orders

#252

Post by BelenusMordred »

AdamJacobMuller wrote: post #177
cromka wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Your Starlink is assigned to a single cell. If you move your Starlink outside of its assigned cell, a satellite will not be scheduled to serve your Starlink and you will not receive internet. This is constrained by geometry and is not arbitrary geofencing." I like how technical they still are. Probably a matte of time before they have to dumb-down everything there.

This seems very much like a beta-only limitation though.

> beta-only limitation though

There's no way you are crossing borders with it and transmitting from a country where it's not approved.

Re: Starlink is now Accepting General Pre-orders

#253

Post by kortilla »

geerlingguy wrote: post #119
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems like this has to be giving dwindling returns with so much of the web being on https these days.

One thing my current ISP still does is returns an ad-laden search page any time you visit a domain that doesn't resolve.

Super annoying. FYI every ISP I’ve had that does this has some setting buried somewhere that lets you turn this off.

If not that, you can usually bypass this by setting your router (or computer directly) to use 8.8.8.8 (Google dns) or 1.1.1.1 (cloud flare dns) as a resolver.

I’ve only heard of a couple of cases where ISPs sniff all dns and rewrite NXDOMAIN responses, and the answer for those is some kind of unpleasant tunneling.

Re: Starlink is now Accepting General Pre-orders

#254

Post by itronitron »

walrus01 wrote: post #40

I have been using a starlink beta terminal for 3 months now, ask me whatever you want. Day job is senior network engineer for a regional-sized (4 US states) fiber based ISP. My most important message to everyone reading this is that it's not intended to compete with properly implemented wireline based services. It's going to absolutely blow away consumer-grade highly oversubscribed, bottom of the barrel ku and ka ban…

How much does it cost?

Re: Starlink is now Accepting General Pre-orders

#255

Post by sgtnoodle »

shaklee3 wrote: post #203
6nf wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Taat makes sense, with a small number of users they are not likely to spend CPU time doing fast Fourier transforms and whatnot for areas with zero subscribers

They don't use cpus. They use fpgas, and the signal processing is done regardless of whether a user is there.

Are you sure about that? I see there's an article from a couple years ago talking about quad-core A53 CPUs with FPGAs. That's most likely used for the satellite avionics, rather than for the starlink radios. While it's possible the avionics and the radios are tightly coupled, I would be surprised if they were. They're probably mostly separate for fault tolerance reasons.

I suspect FPGAs wouldn't be fast enough to do the RF magic. I figure they likely partnered with a company like Qualcomm to develop some custom silicon, or adapted some existing cell tower silicon, since those chipsets are largely "software defined" these days anyway.

Re: Starlink is now Accepting General Pre-orders

#256

Post by nuker »

dragonelite wrote: post #238
supernova87a wrote: post #85

Note, it says you cannot take your Starlink to a different address (or I suppose, put it on a boat, plane, RV, etc): https://www.starlink.com/faq "Can I travel with Starlink, or move it to a different address? Starlink satellites are scheduled to send internet down to all users within a designated area on the ground. This designated area is referred to as a cell. Your Starlink is assigned to a single cell. If you mov…

Maybe it has to do with regulation, don't think states and nations would like a company bypass this.

ICBM telemetry, spy stratosphere drones, emmm... russian sumbarines!

Re: Starlink is now Accepting General Pre-orders

#257

Post by unionpivo »

starpilot wrote: post #131
walrus01 wrote: post #40

I have been using a starlink beta terminal for 3 months now, ask me whatever you want. Day job is senior network engineer for a regional-sized (4 US states) fiber based ISP. My most important message to everyone reading this is that it's not intended to compete with properly implemented wireline based services. It's going to absolutely blow away consumer-grade highly oversubscribed, bottom of the barrel ku and ka ban…

Musk said that Starlink won't work in dense areas. This is a broader business question, but do you think there are there enough remote villagers and oil rig workers that can subscribe and eventually give Musk enough money to fund a trip to Mars? He has said that is the endgame for creating Starlink.

yes, if you look globally. Just usa ? Not sure.

But i think that they would have to become ISP and comply with local law with most jurisdictions if they want to have local ground stations. Not sure how that will go.

Re: Starlink is now Accepting General Pre-orders

#258

Post by awaaz »

Curious to see how this plays out in a country like mine (India) where the government loves [1] to shut off Internet access on the flimsiest of excuses. Everything from entire states (like Kashmir), to few localities (farmer protests around Delhi) have had their mobile Internet access switched off because the government likes to curtail communication when it suits them.

[1] https://www.indiatoday.in/diu/story/more-than-400-internet-l...

Re: Starlink is now Accepting General Pre-orders

#260

Post by MinorTom »

disiplus wrote: post #250
mike_d wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a consumer internet eyeball service. Having an assigned routable address is not a thing in many countries, and you really shouldn't expect it as a "feature" in the future. Eventually the Comcasts of the world will sell off the majority of the IPv4 they hold to the AWSs of the world.

> Having an assigned routable address is not a thing in many countries citation needed

> increasingly uses CGN technologies (90% for mobile internet and 50% for fixed line)

https://www.europol.europa.eu/newsroom/news/are-you-sharing-...

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