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Child Item

Starlink now open for pre-orders.

Marlow

Starlink is now open for pre-orders worldwide.

Current tests in the american northern hemisphere show speeds of 130 Mbit/s down, 25 Mbit/s up at 34ms.

Elon Musk stated himself, that it would double to approx 300 Mbit/s before the end of the year. Also, they will have global coverage by the end of the year. He also stated, that it's intended for low to medium density population areas.

Pricing is 499 EUR + 60 odd EUR shipping for the equipment, 99 EUR/month. (99 EUR deposit to preorder)

This will not compete with the likes of FTTH, DSL and fixed wireless broadband on pricing. But it will give professionals who need a backup or a faster connection a seriously usable option and it will bring FTTH speeds to rural areas, that have nothing else. World wide !! And it certainly blows all other satellite products out of the water. Especially in speed and latency.

Link to Starlink: https://www.starlink.com/

Link to the tweet discussing speeds and rollout: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1363763858121256963

/M

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Messer1

social butterfly 2020 wrote: »

Because contracts have already been signed

The contracts need changing to take account of disruption caused by Covid-19 and Government's wish to speed up delivery. The Government could avail of this opportunity to encourage market entry by Starlink specifically to target more remote rural areas likely to be waiting years for fibre.

This case is made in a detailed "Plan B for NBP" which I compiled and circulated to ministers etc. last month. Summary at <https://bit.ly/3cyDb1A>.

social butterfly 2020

plodder wrote: »

Fibre broadband is much better than satellites.

Starlink satellites are at a much lower orbit compared to traditional satellite broadband suppliers.

Latency is lower and speeds of between 250mbps to 400mbps are achievable. Far eclipsing some fibre bb providers.

To compare this to previous satellite bb is void.

plodder

corazon wrote: »

SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet in talks for a place in the UK’s $6.9 billion ‘Project Gigabit’
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/22/elon-musks-spacex-starlink-in-talks-with-uks-project-gigabit.html

Why not do the same in Ireland?

Fibre broadband is much better than satellites.

social butterfly 2020

corazon wrote: »

SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet in talks for a place in the UK’s $6.9 billion ‘Project Gigabit’
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/22/elon-musks-spacex-starlink-in-talks-with-uks-project-gigabit.html

Why not do the same in Ireland?

Because contracts have already been signed

corazon

SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet in talks for a place in the UK’s $6.9 billion ‘Project Gigabit’
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/22/elon-musks-spacex-starlink-in-talks-with-uks-project-gigabit.html

Why not do the same in Ireland?

Marlow

The satellite map at https://satellitemap.space/ now lists 2 european groundstations:

Villenave d’Ornon, France and Gravelines, France.

/M

The Cush

joe123 wrote: »

Think I'd just pay someone to install it on the roof for me + wire the cable down through then. Might be tricky in the initial stages getting someone who knows what they are at and understand the tech. Probably another reason to hold off until more installs take place.

Wonder could we see some professional installers for this type of thing pop up.

Any satellite installer worth his salt after watching a few online install videos will have no problems with this technology, basically plug and play, remembering the the dish auto aligns northish and getting the correct adapter between dish and pole.

joe123

Think I'd just pay someone to install it on the roof for me + wire the cable down through then. Might be tricky in the initial stages getting someone who knows what they are at and understand the tech. Probably another reason to hold off until more installs take place.

Wonder could we see some professional installers for this type of thing pop up.

Spocker

Marlow wrote: »

I wouldn't fit it on the chimney though, if it's in use. Not sure, how that dish deals with heat.

/M

Me neither - it'd need to be high enough to clear the cap, and still allow full motion, and my chimney is in use.

It'll either be a standoff pole, or a couple of K brackets with a large enough pole. Looks like the weight of the dish plus (all the) cable is 15.6 pounds or just over 7 kilos

Marlow

Spocker wrote: »

On a semi related question, how are people planning to mount their dish? It seems the supplied tripod is for a flat surface, does it have to be flat?. If mounting on a roof I'd guess the apex would be best, but would a custom fitting be needed?

The tripod foot that comes with the dish literally has a round pole mount for the dish and pole to fit into.

All you'd need is a pole coupler, lashing kit on the chimney or traditional L bracket on the wall and some U-bolts, to bolt it on.

The tripod foot is a seperate part. You don't have to fit it. That's at least what I gather from the unboxing I've looked at.

I wouldn't fit it on the chimney though, if it's in use. Not sure, how that dish deals with heat.

/M

Spocker

J poles seems to be a common enough solution https://www.ubersignal.com/surecall-j-pole-antenna-mount.html

The Cush

Spocker wrote: »

On a semi related question, how are people planning to mount their dish? It seems the supplied tripod is for a flat surface, does it have to be flat?. If mounting on a roof I'd guess the apex would be best, but would a custom fitting be needed?

Any solutions I've seen over in Reddit were from north American subscribers and these were for shingle roofs. Pole mount on a gable end with the dish clearing the roof.

There are a few installed in the UK, they may have posted solutions.

ilovespudss

Cheers for the info.

That'll work

The Cush

Marlow wrote: »

The cable from the dish to PoE unit isn't easy to replace. That cable is approx 100ft / 30 metres. You'd need a power point at that point, but you don't have to place the router there.

From the PoE power supply to their router, you could in theory go another 60-70m, if you replace that cable.

The maximum cable run from the dish to the router should not exceed 100m.

There is a very recent post over on the Starlink reddit forum where to clear dish obstructions they placed the PoE in a waterproof box and ran a length of Ethernet from the house to the box as a temporary solution to get the system up and running.

Spocker

On a semi related question, how are people planning to mount their dish? It seems the supplied tripod is for a flat surface, does it have to be flat?. If mounting on a roof I'd guess the apex would be best, but would a custom fitting be needed?

Marlow

ilovespudss wrote: »

Can anyone tell me if there is an restriction on distance from dish to router?

The cable from the dish to PoE unit isn't easy to replace. That cable is approx 100ft / 30 metres. You'd need a power point at that point, but you don't have to place the router there.

From the PoE power supply to their router, you could in theory go another 60-70m, if you replace that cable.

The maximum cable run from the dish to the router should not exceed 100m.

The cable from the dish to the PoE power supply is outdoor grade Cat6. The cable from the PoE power supply to the router can be standard cat6 or cat5e.

/M

ilovespudss

Can anyone tell me if there is an restriction on distance from dish to router?

Currently in the middle of a new build house in rural location and like others on the thread I'm looking for a solution while waiting on NBI. House well insulated so standard solution of 4g router is not going to work.

At 1st fix electrics stage so trying to figure out the logistics of Starlink as an option. I'm having a comms hub in the attic where I'll place router and switch and from there I'm running Cat6 to all rooms as well as a couple of wifi spots around the house.

From a look at the website, the general setup is a ground/roof mounted dish that then runs to a router within the house? Would there be a limit to the distance of the cable run from Dish to Router?

Marlow

The Cush wrote: »

This map only lists the GTT Express submarine cable to Brean, UK and Halifax, NS, Canada. What are the other two?

You are right. The ones, I was on about are Esat-1, Pan European and Solas. But they're more like Waterford terminated. The GTT one is a good option though.

/M

The Cush

Marlow wrote: »

Well positioned, too. 3 submarine backbone fibres coming out of Cork in direction UK/France.

This map only lists the GTT Express submarine cable to Brean, UK and Halifax, NS, Canada. What are the other two?

https://www.submarinecablemap.com/#/submarine-cable/gtt-express

Marlow

The Cush wrote: »

Big golf balls spotted at Elfordstown
https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-40232972.html

Well positioned, too. 3 submarine backbone fibres coming out of Cork in direction UK/France. 2 more along the coast down there.

/M

The Cush

Big golf balls spotted at Elfordstown
https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-40232972.html

listermint

Marlow wrote: »

They are limiting the amount of subscriptions based on capacity per geographical area.

Also oversubscribing Starlink will be less likely than oversubscribing FTTH. Scaling Starlink is a lot easier than scaling FTTH. Well .. sort of.

/M

We will disagree on this this point entirely.

I'm still of the firm opinion that rural network broadband is being used to obtain some income for this project whilst it's ultimate goal and original inception was to provide worldwide network for driverless vehicles . I believe that home connections will come secondary to that end goal. Vehicle telemetry especially in the US is patchy due to poor 4G coverage and middling 3G in places. This is to fix that . But get money in the door with home broadband in the meantime.

Time will tell what over prescription means the ts and cs cover them to any change they wish to make either way

plodder

Orebro wrote: »

Point well made. I'd still take FTTH over Starlink any day though, even if it meant taking my chances with storm damage. Also if it got that bad chances are you'd be without electricity too!

I think the reliability point is a valid one up to a point. But, FTTH strung along poles is reliable enough for nearly all residential users and most business users. Been working from home the last year, and my OH long before that. I haven't noticed any outages in the last year or two. Capacity and bandwidth is much more important for most users, and there will be a big question mark over whether Starlink can sustain the bandwidth that they are offering initially (with limited numbers of subscribers per beam area). I think it's a great short term solution for those who can afford it though.

Marlow

The Continental Op wrote: »

The "sign up" is a bit weird though. If I use a general area address which the postman would cop on to and deliver then I can sign up but if I use my actual address or a Plus code then I can't.

You need the plus code, because they need your precise location to determine, if you have coverage or when you will have coverage. Obviously they created some sort of database for coverage, that is based on Plus codes.

That determines, when your dish is being shipped.

The plus code however is useless to the postman. So you need to enter your address. And that has to be done in an old fashioned manner, because not every country has GPS precise postcodes like Ireland.

This is not an irish company. This is a US company, that delivers internet world wide.

/M

The Continental Op

Marlow wrote: »

They are limiting the amount of subscriptions based on capacity per geographical area.

Also oversubscribing StarLink will be less likely than oversubscribing FTTH.

/M

Then it could become oversubscribed in a geographical area, if you are in an area where it is a good option then its likely you aren't the only one

The "sign up" is a bit weird though. If I use a general area address which the postman would cop on to and deliver then I can sign up but if I use my actual address or a Plus code then I can't.

Marlow

The Continental Op wrote: »

By that time it could be oversubscribed?

They are limiting the amount of subscriptions based on capacity per geographical area.

Also oversubscribing Starlink will be less likely than oversubscribing FTTH. Scaling Starlink is a lot easier than scaling FTTH. Well .. sort of.

/M

The Continental Op

joe123 wrote: »

True, but at the same time if I have a dish on my roof, I don't want to have to get on a ladder every time to try and remove ice. Anyways doubt we would even see extreme issues like that here.

Id be more curious to see how it fairs against heavy rain / fog. I also wonder would things like birds sitting on the dish have any impact?

As I'm out of contract soon on my current provider I'll likely have to renew with them for the time being so Im going to hold off on pre-ordering. By this time next year we should have a much better idea of how Starlink runs here in Ireland.

By that time it could be oversubscribed?

joe123

Marlow wrote: »

Yep. And that was the worst that happened. Not a bad outcome at all. And an easy fix to the issue.

/M

True, but at the same time if I have a dish on my roof, I don't want to have to get on a ladder every time to try and remove ice. Anyways doubt we would even see extreme issues like that here.

Id be more curious to see how it fairs against heavy rain / fog. I also wonder would things like birds sitting on the dish have any impact?

As I'm out of contract soon on my current provider I'll likely have to renew with them for the time being so Im going to hold off on pre-ordering. By this time next year we should have a much better idea of how Starlink runs here in Ireland.

Marlow

joe123 wrote: »

Not the video I watched on it, but he has frozen snow on his dish that he was unable to melt, which caused the speeds to drop. He had to manually clear the dish.

Yep. And that was the worst that happened. Not a bad outcome at all. And an easy fix to the issue.

/M

joe123

Marlow wrote: »

I still have power, when the power goes ... because I have already taken care of that backup.

Of course they have. And that's why they're continually are sending up more and replacing them on an ongoing basis. It's part of running that service.

That's already been tested extensively during the beta. Here is an example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPrrx4pM-lY

And in regards to space debris etc. Those issues can be fixed with repositioning. And you should always have more than one satellite in view at optimum. It doesn't take as long to reposition a satellite than it takes to physically get an engineer out and resplice a fibre.

/M

Not the video I watched on it, this one had frozen snow on his dish that he was unable to melt, which caused the speeds to drop. He had to manually clear the dish.

EDIT: Fair play if you have a generator for electrical outages but at guess youd be in the less than 5% that would have a backup like that (excluding business'). Unless there is an expectation that everyone in the country should also have back up generators for those 2 / 3 times a year electrical faults.