Community Forums

gsgriffin · 10-29-2020, 07:43 AM

I will admit to this group that I am currently not at home in Montana. They allowed me to ship the kit anywhere I wanted. So, I chose to start the beta and have the package sent to me where I am currently parked in New Mexico. I'm hoping that I will intermittently get a signal from the satellites to test and use.

Currently, there is a problem where I'm at where my Internet signals are jammed during the workday (we are not far from high-security research and development companies that we suspect are jamming our Visible service). Either that or the area we are in gets overwhelmed and in the "pipe" going in and out of our area isn't able to provide much.

Either way, this thread is about installation on RVs and use for RVers...not home use. Of course, we can comment on how it works wherever you install, but this thread will become (hopefully) very useful for folks down the road as people share how they mounted the antennas or plan to use them with their RV and while traveling. I'm hopeful that the specs will state that they have a high wind tolerance and could survive sitting on the roof of the RV while driving down the highway and perhaps with headwinds. I'm interested to see how others install or use.

Don/Lou · 10-29-2020, 08:14 AM

Has anyone in Canada been able to order yet ??

gsgriffin · 10-29-2020, 08:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Don/Lou

Has anyone in Canada been able to order yet ??

Good question. Don't know if they are starting with US only or doing international shipping on the kits. They stated a while back that initial testing would be for the far northwest US.

Isaac-1 · 10-29-2020, 08:52 AM

Keep in mind when testing away from home that the satellite needs to see you and a ground station at the same time to function, which means it needs to be within about a 300 mile radius of a functioning ground station, we currently don't know the location for all the ground stations, or if they are all up and running yet. Though the last I saw a few months ago, showed the licensed locations of the ground stations that had been issued by that date, and the one big gap in US ground station coverage at that point in time was central New Mexico.

gsgriffin · 10-29-2020, 12:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Isaac-1

Keep in mind when testing away from home that the satellite needs to see you and a ground station at the same time to function, which means it needs to be within about a 300 mile radius of a functioning ground station, we currently don't know the location for all the ground stations, or if they are all up and running yet. Though the last I saw a few months ago, showed the licensed locations of the ground stations that had been issued by that date, and the one big gap in US ground station coverage at that point in time was central New Mexico.

While that is possibly true for beta testing, which this is, that is not the design behind the Starlink network...at least from everything I've seen and read. Perhaps you have a link to an article that explains it differently. Seems like a lot of what is written is possibly conjecture or assumptions. Not sure it is all explained or turning out the way they planned.

What is unique about their design is that the satellites are designed to transmit between each other (I believe by laser) and potentially over very large areas. Light travels faster in space, which makes this interesting to see how it could be possible to have a faster internet connection around the world using this with fiber optics on Earth.

This way someone in the middle of the ocean could in theory connect to a satellite that relays between many others to eventually get back down to a base station. That's the way I've read it, but I could be wrong. Would be interesting if someone chimes in who has been given the option to join the beta who is not within their initial base stations.

smiller · 10-29-2020, 01:12 PM

I live way too far south to expect a phone call from them yet, but fare-thee-well you early adopters and please keep the reports coming. What I've read so far is that speeds aren't so great (more like 15 than 50-150 mbps) but personally I would consider that plenty acceptable for low-latency 'anywhere' internet. A great development for boondockers in any event.

mike625 · 10-29-2020, 01:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gsgriffin

What is unique about their design is that the satellites are designed to transmit between each other (I believe by laser) and potentially over very large areas. Light travels faster in space, which makes this interesting to see how it could be possible to have a faster internet connection around the world using this with fiber optics on Earth.

But the last thing I read was the Laser communication between the satellites was not installed on the initial ones. Have not see anything stating it is one the current ones - just an FYI - hoping your works well.

Isaac-1 · 10-29-2020, 05:01 PM

Same here no satellite interlink lasers on the version 1.0 Starlink satellites which are currently being launched, they keep hinting at coming soon, but until that gets functional they must relay to local ground stations.

p.s. my personal guess is we will not see the laser interlink feature until at least when they start the second orbital shell level, which will not likely happen until they finish the first shell, which will be at the 1,400 satellite point (current count is about 890, all of which have been launched in the last 11 months). As it does not make much sense for some satellites in a given shell level to have the features and others not have it.

lemodrop9344 · 10-29-2020, 06:03 PM

I signed up to be a beta tester some time ago.
I'm further south than the beta testers up north & further north than the folks in Texas.
Have more money tied up in IOT goodies for the RV than any sane person should. While I am anxious to be a beta-tester, more IOT expenditures for Starlink is going to be a tough sell to the BOSS.

In the meantime............ would really appreciate you early adapters allowing me to live vicariously through your Starlink adventures.
Good luck!

smiller · 10-29-2020, 06:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gsgriffin

My one concern that is not possible to answer until we try is whether or not they will care about the physical location changing. The purpose of Starlink is NOT to provide Internet for everyone in the world but to provide for underserved areas. While I would consider this remote locations I can drive in my motorhome, I don't know if Starlink sees it that way. With phased-array antennas, there is the possibility of them having a better idea of where I am located...perhaps almost exactly where I am. It will be a question to answer as to whether they will allow me to have service when not at my home.

This part will be very interesting. They could embed GPS functionality into the user equipment such that it would be just about impossible for the end user to circumvent, that is if they really want to enforce the restriction. Or they could conceivably decide to charge more for mobile use? That would still be better than denying it entirely.

At $99/month for 50-150 mbps (if the system really achieves that) and $500 for user equipment the service isn't at all price competitive to other options in populated areas. That leaves only underserved rural areas or mobile, and if they prohibit mobile then there goes a large part of their initial appeal. There is a demand for rural service of course but they have to offset the cost of operating many thousands of satellites and associated ground stations and infrastructure, and this won't be cheap and won't come close to being supported by sales to underserved rural markets alone... they will need millions of subscribers to make it profitable, much less a cash cow for Mars missions. Plus they will soon have 5G services to compete with along with landline. For that reason I expect pricing and service terms will change radically over time, in a downward direction.

That all said, it is what it is now and what it is would be a boon for remote RV travel so I sure hope it works in that application.

mike625 · 10-29-2020, 08:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by smiller

At $99/month for 50-150 mbps (if the system really achieves that) and $500 for user equipment the service isn't at all price competitive to other options in populated areas.

Sorry but have to disagree, a new Netgear MR1100 hotspot are going for 250 to 300 & the new 5G is 400 or more - so 500 for a dish and box is not out of line. So if it can work in an RV - I will try it out.

If your comparing to comcast etc. for home, then yes it higher - but it's lower that wireless internet access for home at least in my location.

docj · 10-29-2020, 08:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by smiller

At $99/month for 50-150 mbps (if the system really achieves that) and $500 for user equipment the service isn't at all price competitive to other options in populated areas. That leaves only underserved rural areas or mobile, and if they prohibit mobile then there goes a large part of their initial appeal.

I live in a semi-rural small town about ~30 miles from a city of 350k people. I would gladly pay $100/mo plus $500 to get 50-150Mbps. All I can get at the moment is 5-15 Mbps on a good day!

smiller · 10-29-2020, 09:00 PM

I didn't say that it wasn't competitive in a rural market. What I said was that fact alone will never pay for the system and that it will need to be attractive in urban areas as well since that's where the vast majority of subscribers are.

Isaac-1 · 10-29-2020, 11:11 PM

They don't have enough bandwidth per satellite footprint to market to high population urban areas, any incidental customers they get in a high population density area will likely have the satellite at near capacity. Remember these satellites are only about 340 miles up, and only transmit to a certain angle, so each one only serves a swath of ground maybe 200-250 miles wide as it passes overhead.