41–50 of 340 posts
The service is expensive, but it's been a fun way to "participate" with all the exciting stuff SpaceX is working on.
The prices aren’t competitive for metros.. what am I missing?
It would be interesting if they had a plan to promote using them as a redundant path, where the cost was lower unless you actually used it.
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That this works on most of the planet. If you can get fibre or good DSL for a reasonable price, take that. But even in the US large parts don't have fibre available, especially in rural locations. Many countries don't have any networking infrastructure. It will be a total game changer once mobile versions (airplanes, ships, yachts) become available.
The question is: will this stall development of more scalable fibre optic infrastructure and municipal fiber - to support a proprietary single corporation solution?
Is this cell limitation a billing thing, or is it maybe more fundamental? Perhaps the unit needs to be pre-programmed on where to look for satellites in a way that changes when the unit is moved?
If they didn't lock you to a location, folks would say they were going to use it out in the boondocks, and then acutally use it somewhere it's already at the capacity limit they've set.
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4G does not require as dense a cell network as 5G.
My in laws live In the middle of nowhere. Their option for many years was 3G and eventually 4G. Having to visit them, 4G was just unbearable. Eventually ATT said they could just barely get 1.5Mbps down service. That was superior to the 4G service they got. Just because it is 4G doesn’t mean it is services well and not overloaded even in rural areas. Starlink will be the first real viable high speed connection they wi…
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Metro areas aren’t the target. There is a large, underserved market that doesn’t have access to broadband internet, and for those customers this is a breakthrough.
It’s sad that it is even necessary in the US. Telcos were given massive amounts of money by the government with promises they would do this and then they simply didn’t and said cell phone service was good enough. I would posit that a populace educated on cell phone internet is largely responsible for the rise in intense anti-science stupidity and lack of fact checking we are experiencing. People on phones are too eas…
Isn't it fantastic? The system of (mostly) free enterprise has created an affordable high speed service product that can be accessed anywhere on the planet.
> It's powered through PoE++ (using around 100W of power continuously) Not familiar with Sat gear, but this number seems extremely high to me for just powering an antenna (and some motors occasionally)
Power consumption could probably be a bit lower, but there are limits. Keep in mind that this is a phased array maintaining a relatively high bandwidth and high SNR link with the satellite. This is complicated microwave electronics design, a whole different ball game than old grandpas bragging about how they made a contact with someone across the ocean with 5W on their homebuilt HF radio. Starlink may have also made a conscious decision to make the user terminals "overpowered" so they can use a less sensitive receiver on the satellite, saving SpaceX weight, power usage, construction costs, and launch costs. The cost of more power usage is paid for by the user with an extra penny per month in their electric bill.
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Isn't starlink a service aimed at areas that can't easily get the sort of internet service that's cheap to provide to metro areas (i.e. rural areas)?
Wouldn’t it be cheaper and more cost effective to cover those areas by 4G mobile phone network?
> It's powered through PoE++ (using around 100W of power continuously) Not familiar with Sat gear, but this number seems extremely high to me for just powering an antenna (and some motors occasionally)
Teardown showing PCB at: https://youtu.be/iOmdQnIlnRo?t=2152
And more detailed RF analysis at https://youtu.be/h6MfM8EFkGg
The prices aren’t competitive for metros.. what am I missing?
That this works on most of the planet. If you can get fibre or good DSL for a reasonable price, take that. But even in the US large parts don't have fibre available, especially in rural locations. Many countries don't have any networking infrastructure. It will be a total game changer once mobile versions (airplanes, ships, yachts) become available.