People have been asking for an update on how I like the Starlink system. It will probably take a year to get all the data to make an educated report, but I\u2019ll talk about the pros and cons that I\u2019ve noticed so far.\u00a0
The biggest pro is the high speed unlimited data. I get speeds close to 100 Mbps whenever I do a test. That\u2019s better than some home broadband connections. It\u2019s pretty easy to setup and booting only takes a few minutes. If I turn it off at night it start back up in just a couple minutes.\u00a0\u00a0I like that all my devices can be connected at once. The hotspot on my phone\u00a0\u00a0seemed to be problematic to connect devices, but the Starlink works great with phone, tv, computer, and PlayStation all at once if I want. I like the idea I can stream HD video too, something my Visible cellular won\u2019t allow.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The major con is the fact you have to have an open sky for it to work well. I\u2019ve been camping up in the National Forest in northern AZ, and finding an open sky is almost impossible. I found that a few trees scattered around my campsite will still let me get a pretty good signal most of the time. When a satellite is blocked by a tall mountain or trees, I get skips in video where the picture will hang for a few seconds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The second major con is the cost. Starlink started out charging $99\/month, then they raised it to $110 as it cost more in fuel to launch satellites, then they added another $25 a month if you wanted the ability to roam around the country. With my cellular plan still in affect, I\u2019m shelling out $160 every month to stay connected. It takes a big chunk of my fixed income. I still subscribe to two streaming services and I may have to decide if it\u2019s worth keeping them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Starlink won\u2019t work while in motion but that\u2019s not a big deal to me. It takes about 35 to 40 watts to power the router and dish but I have enough solar and battery that that\u2019s not a problem for me either. Some people with small solar and battery might have a problem powering it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As with all new data systems, the more people jump on board and the more the bandwidth gets shared, slowdowns in speed are sure to happen. Slowdown are most likely to happen in metro areas and near big cities. I\u2019m usually in a rural area so I\u2019m hoping I won\u2019t get throttled much. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I should get good service this winter. I spend a lot of time in southern AZ where tall trees are fairly scarce. Before I purchased Starlink, I used the App to check a place in Quartzsite for obstructions. The App announced that this would be a good place to set up Starlink. I\u2019ll let you know.
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People have been asking for an update on how I like the Starlink system. It will probably take a year to get all the data to make an educated report, but I\u2019ll talk about the pros and cons that I\u2019ve noticed so far.\u00a0 The biggest pro is the high speed unlimited data. I get speeds […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-outdoors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2825"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2827,"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2825\/revisions\/2827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}