Starlink - Anyone get it yet?

I've left the meter on the Starlink for 9 days and it used 11.5KWh, which is 1.277KWh per day usage, which ties in with my initial 24 hour monitoring.

I highly doubt they will throttle in Ireland as they will be nowhere near capacity.

I'm not sure how to check usage on starlink, but I would be fairly certain I have gone over 1 tb and I haven't noticed any throttling.

hi folks,

currently have virgin media 1gb connection and no issues with it. Looking at starlink as an option. North county dublin. Paying virgin about 90 euro a month. I realise there's a upfront cost with starlink but monthly is bit cheaper. Also our virgin media doesnt work in a powercut. I have a backup power supply and Starlink should work? Would it be crazy to dump virgin media and go starlink? I know we'd be reducing speed by over 3/4 quarters but 200 mbps would probably be more than adequate. Usual tv streaming, 2 working from home with zoom calls. I have netgear orbi mesh in the house, so would run the starlink in bridge mode.

Anyone swapped from a dedicated broadband line to starlink? a lot of the use cases seem to be where there is no other option to go starlink. Curious of others experiences. I noticed the power usage there from another poster and it seems quite high to be honest. For our VM modem and Netgear router power us only about 24 watts.. seems a good bit more with starlink

Cheers,

Mick

Why not ring up Virgin Media and see if they'll give you a deal to stay with them assuming you are out of contract? They usually give you a discount for 6 or 9 months and then you pay full price again.

Are you on the 1GB package with them (which should be €80 on its own)? If so, do you really need it? Do you have other services with them?

You could always downgrade to the 5ooMb package

yeah its not so much a cost play.. i guess id like to decouple from a landline/cable/phone line.. i might trial it and see how it goes.. doesnt happen a lot but the flexibility to have internet in a power outage would be useful - our mobile phone reception dies when we have a power cut in the area.. i have solar with battery storage and a backup power supply

Virgin media have stated they intend replacing the old coax based network to fibre to the home on existing houses over the coming years.

Most Dublin home have option of phone line based internet, with phone to the local cabinet, fibre from cabinet onwards. Some homes have option of fibre to the home.

Starlink is a good product and very well priced. I suspect it's less likely to be overloaded on Ireland west coast compared to Dublin where you may end up sharing with nearby places like Belfast, Wales etc.

I would worry over time the network may slow as more users sign up as it's a shared networks. Data caps and price increases may come in time.

It will work in a power cut as long as everything is run from the backup power, virgin media may run if your cable modem is powered up too, but virgin media needs power at all boosters in your area and if it's a general storm power outage it's likely virgin media will go down. They do have teams on call 24/7 so outages are normally fixed within 6 hours.

If it's down to price I would try mobile phone based broadband first, then haggle with existing provider on price, then look at all options for your address including starlink and phone line based options. Some options are fibre run beside power cables too and it varies street to street.

I have one, but never used it. If you put on the wall afraid dish would hit roof if tilts that way. I prefer to be safe and use a 12 or 18'' bracket and pole (see FreeTV.ie) and clear the roof properly. And would be afraid to put the short mount on facia, 2 screws into 1'' timber..? Has anyone ever used the Starlink mounts in Ireland? Look at any installer photos and you will not see any starlink mount used. To be sure, the short mount on the facia looks super neat.

im thinking of mounting it on the shed wall in the garden.. cable should be long enough to make the house and means won't have to climb a high ladder.. should be free of obstructions as well

Giving up FTTH to go with starlink is a bit mad thb

Your location won't really affect the speeds. It's how clear your Dishy's view of the sky would be. If you have obstructions then that may degrade your service.

I have an unobstructed view of the sky - what can I expect at present or will it fall anywhere between the 50-250 mentioned on Google/Starlinks site?

The month trial is to see if I could live with it based on our internet usage compared to what we have. It can't be better that 1tb virgin in terms of speeds/latency but it might be good enough with no compromises for our usage patterns. 200mb virgin would probably be adequate for what we need. Either way I wont be ditching virgin for a couple of months and it would be pretty easy to re connect if we get fed up with starlink.

Here was a post from a couple of weeks ago showing my speeds:

Edit to add: I don't officially have a completely clear view of the sky. There is a chunk of sky to the North that is obscured by trees.

That is super! Thanks a million!

do small obstructions reduce speed or cause periods of no service?