Starlink internet is going from rural savior to unreliable luxury

Starlink was designed for, and has always been intended for remote people who literally have no other connection option. No cable, no 3G or 4G.

If you can get those other options, Starlink is not a product designed for you.

Go remote, and Starlink is an absolute game changer without even a remotely close equal.

Starlink is a link in Elon's fragile chain of strategies. Elon, evidently, loves interlinked strategies. The first grand linkage was "How do we make reusable rockets valuable?" because, on their own, with non-reusable second stages, they're cool, but not financially impressive. But, with Starlink using almost all reused Falcon 9 capacity, it looks sexy af.

Elon, of course, can't stop there: How do you use the redonkulous payload-to-orbit capacity of Starship? You make satellites 5X larger that are no longer a "bent pipe" architecture and you make a "backbone-in-orbit" with laser links between satellites.

That might make Starlink make financial sense. But it looks like it is years away from being possible. Meanwhile Starlink "1.5" satellites are a PoC of laser links between satellites, but not anywhere near the scale of the big satellites that need Starship.

We have a cottage where we are considering getting starlink at. This service still seems like a game changer to me. If 4g is also available, running a router with dual-wan sounds like a great option to mitigate connection dropouts. We will try that. If you’re really serious about living in the back of beyond and your income depends on your ability to be on zoom calls, then it’s a small price to pay.

For those prices, traditional sat (geostationary) might not be as fast but it is at least reliable connectivity.

For anyone in the rual flatlands of america, look seriously at rural wifi bridges. Basic off-the-shelf wifi can bridge links over miles. All those cellphone towers have fiber lines. Setup a rural wifi collective and tap into that fiber. My parents ditched traditional sats a few years ago when a local company setup a local wifi tower, itself bridged to the nearest cell tower. Now they have faster internet then i do in my non-rural appartment.

Take a look at 5G extended range FWA. That's what Starlink is competing against. Proprietary versions of similar capability are well-proven, but 5G-based extended range FWA enables interoperation, standardization, and competition.