Starlink

[mrmikey]

It must be connected somehow to get emergency messages

It will also work for outgoing 911 calls as well. Friend of mine used to carry an old cell in his car just in case.

 

[ponytug]

Pardon the question, but I'm a little unclear, @JRH02 are you looking for a cheap plan to use your phones outside of your canyon, or something for better cellular in your canyon, beyond using WiFi calling over Starlink?

If you are looking for cell service outside, I would pick one of the more reliable MVNOs, e.g. Mint, or Visible or Red Pocket to lower the cost.
Whistle out has reviews for what they are worth;

https://www.whistleout.com/CellPhones/Guides/best-cheap-cell-phone-plans

All the best,

Peter

 

[JRH02]

Pardon the question, but I'm a little unclear, @JRH02 are you looking for a cheap plan to use your phones outside of your canyon, or something for better cellular in your canyon, beyond using WiFi calling over Starlink?

If you are looking for cell service outside, I would pick one of the more reliable MVNOs, e.g. Mint, or Visible or Red Pocket to lower the cost.
Whistle out has reviews for what they are worth;

https://www.whistleout.com/CellPhones/Guides/best-cheap-cell-phone-plans

All the best,

Peter

Thank you

 

[IXLR8]

I'm wondering how my old phone still gets emergency messages. WiFi and Bluetooth are off and there's no SIM card in it. I moved the SIM card to my new phone. I keep the battery charged since I still use it as a camera and a few of the Apps are handy. It's showing two signal strength bars but what are they? It must be connected somehow to get emergency messages.

I am not sure about emergency messages, but all functioning powered on cell phones, sim card or not, are required to be able to make 911 calls.

 

[JRH02]

If you HAVE A CELL SIGNAL. My gosh, stay on topic.

 

[NoTrespassing]

If you HAVE A CELL SIGNAL. My gosh, stay on topic.

The topic is Starlink by the way. Why so many caps? Are you yelling at people or is your cap lock messed up?

 

[JRH02]

The topic is Starlink by the way. Why so many caps? Are you yelling at people or is your cap lock messed up?

Cell phone through Starlink. Alternatives.

 

[ponytug]

Cell phone through Starlink. Alternatives.

Do you have any cell signal at all? I.e. would a cell amplifier work? If so, I can recommend the Wilson systems, but at low signal levels, you may need a more directional and harder to orient highly directional antenna. Getting directional antennas accurately aligned can be a bit of a process, e.g. pointing a highly directional antenna directly at a cell tower may not give you the best signal.

All the best,

Peter

 

[JRH02]

No cell signal. Period. From any provider.

We've been here 15 years+. We used to get 1 or 2 bars with 1x with a booster. Now that is gone and dead.

People are beating me but they aren't getting the issue. I MERELY want to use Starlink for the 95% of AT HOME communication via Wifi but still have an economical cell plan.

I only use caps when needed. Sometimes it matters not.

 

[LouNY]

Well HECK FIRE any Android or Apple, phone, tablet, or computer can be set to use a wifi signal to be a phone. There are numerous VOIP devices to make any old land line phone work on a wifi signal.

Edited to add; so even a very limited talk and or data plan would suffice.

 

[JRH02]

Lou, please explain. But if you have no cell signal.... Don't people understand/

 

[BigBlue1]

Lou, please explain. But if you have no cell signal.... Don't people understand/

He's referring to "wifi calling", which is a feature many cell phones and cell providers support. That allows you to make normal calls with your cell phone (and do SMS) with only a wifi signal and Internet connection. Check for details on your current cell phone model and with your cell provider to see if that feature is available with both.

It can also be done with a virtual phone number service such as Google Voice. With that you don't even need an actual phone... you could make a call from a PC with microphone and speakers or send & receive texts from a browser.

 

[LouNY]

Any cell phone can be set to use a wifi signal instead of a cellular signal;

Here's how to enable and make Wi-Fi calls on Android.

Note: these steps were taken on a Pixel 6 Pro — steps may vary slightly depending on the version of Android you're using, but should be similar.

How to make Wi-Fi calls on Android​

1. Go to Settings > Network and Internet
2. Tap Calls and SMS
3. Tap a network under Wi-Fi calling
4. Toggle Wi-Fi calling on

Read on to see full, illustrated instructions for each step.
here is a link,
How to make Wi-Fi calls on Android

Any cell phone service provider has lower cost plans with less data, all of those plans will use NO data while wifi calling.

And then there is the VOIP route;
such as,
Nationwide Calling Plans | Vonage for Home

 

[JRH02]

Vonage. Another one in the loop. That's kind of an old name.... Isn't it?

 

[LouNY]

Yes, they have been around for quite few years. I used their service for a few years when my landline got completely unusable.

 

[ponytug]

No cell signal. Period. From any provider.

We've been here 15 years+. We used to get 1 or 2 bars with 1x with a booster. Now that is gone and dead.

People are beating me but they aren't getting the issue. I MERELY want to use Starlink for the 95% of AT HOME communication via Wifi but still have an economical cell plan.

I only use caps when needed. Sometimes it matters not.

Ok. Mint, Visible, Red Pocket or any of the low cost MVNO should work. I don't hear great things about US cellular, but I don't have any personal experience.

All the best, Peter

 

[JasperFrank]

If you are dropping Century Link for another service, nail it down with a paper trail. Four frustrating hours today on phone, just to get them to admit I HAD disconnected/ended service with them two months ago. Seems the billing just kept going. And they go Oppzie.... We bad.... We missed the disconnect ticket and billing just kept running all on its own.

 

[JRH02]

If you are dropping Century Link for another service, nail it down with a paper trail. Four frustrating hours today on phone, just to get them to admit I HAD disconnected/ended service with them two months ago. Seems the billing just kept going. And they go Oppzie.... We bad.... We missed the disconnect ticket and billing just kept running all on its own.

Seems to be an issue with various services. Was this a direct account draw or a CC charge? To date the ONLY folk who get to directly hit a bank account is the home/property insurance. Another is my Ford Credit payment but I manage each month. Even though they, a vendor, may not be not trustworthy in other ways if they are consistent with access to direct billing all is good with me. From that I can budget.

 

[ponytug]

Anyone else having dropouts in the last week or so? Specifically Thursday through today? We've had 10-40 second drops of service, with no errors in our local network, and no outages on Starlink's outage list, but the Starlink ping pattern to outside servers show a dip that lines up with our services going away.

From here, it looks as if there is a Starlink ground station / Starlink ground internal server/router issue to the wide open internet.

Just curious...

All the best,

Peter

 

[ultrarunner]

Not with Starlink but with cellar data it’s dropping 10-40 seconds and repopulating.

Started about 10 days ago with Verizon and T-Mobile.

Wouldn’t surprise me to experience area wide outages when least expected…