Missed this thread until now. Ive been following starlink development. I have DSL out in the woods, and it is decent considering we are 20 miles from town. We are just 3500feet from one of the DSLAM's so we are able to get 50mbps down / 4mbps up. I would take Starlink over it though I think as it would more than double our download and upload speeds. The kicker with satellite internet however, and where Starlink is a massive game changer, is in latency. Wolfman showed the latency in the traceroute (id like to see a traceroute to Google's DNS if you wouldn't mind posting it. it is at IP number 8.8.8.8) and 23ms on a traceroute is absolutely phenomenal. That is better than many cable options. I would like to see if it sits around that same figure to google's DNS.
I had to go the first 3 years out at my house after I bought it with no internet because DSL wasnt available there yet, and I refused to use hughsnet or exede and I know how bad they suck. They are good for browsing internet and checking email and thats about it. They tend to have massive latencies of over 700ms, often over 1000ms, and the download speed is shotty. Latency is important to me as I actually game online a lot in my free time. Online gaming requires a low latency connection.
The fact that starlink has pulled off satellite and is doing so at pings that rival traditional ground based wired solutions is just mind blowing. They do this by using low orbit satellites and communications in the 12ghz frequency space. There are some issues with the 12ghz space that are being contested at the FCC. To put it short, some companies are opposing starlinks use of the 12GHZ band, so there is some risk that the FCC "could" squash starlink, or severely limit their use of the frequency band. I hope they dont. Starlink could be a MASSIVE game changer for rural property owners. 100mbps+ download speeds with 30ms latencies is just insane. There are many developed cities that cant match that on their wired solutions. The real test however will come when starlink has to provide that same speed and latency to thousands or potentially millions of users. They have plans to take the speed up to 1gbps even. If that were to happen..........It would be the biggest game changer in internet solutions since the internet was founded.
Im in florida so I cant join the beta yet, but Ive been watching it.
EDIT: Also for those concerned about the space clutter, the starlink satellites are much smaller than traditional satellites, and have built it thrusters. Each satellite can be made to de-orbit where they disintegrate in earths atmosphere.
