Starlink

[Binx]

It’s a sad day. I was pushed out to mid-2022 also.

 

[BigBlue1]

I agree that it would be more frustrating to be promised a date and then another and then another, than to be given a date that is a long ways out but actually adhered to. Which may be my case, since the original promise was for mid to late 2021 and it may still happen. However what is just as frustrating or maybe more frustrating, is being told it is first come first serve and that turns out to be BS and there is no way to contact them to discuss the situation. In my case, I put down my deposit in February, therefore I should be served before anyone that applied after that. However the 2 neighbors on either side of me, both have systems in place and they work great. One neighbor ordered his about 7 months after I did and he got his setup in 2 weeks. He did use a service address different than his actual location and that is likely why he got his first. But we are neighbors with abutting property lines and if the dish works at his place it would obviously work at mine. The other neighbor grabbed a setup from their parents about 25 miles from their house and it works too. The neighbors on either side of me have operating systems even though I applied WAY before they did and there is no way to for me to contact Starlink to find out why. First come first served is BS, since there is obviously service available here and I applied before both neighbors. The only person I can vent to is my wife, since I can't talk to Starlink. At least you could vent to your dealer and Ford, lol.

I'm sure you wouldn't be happy if you and 2 of your neighbors ordered new Bronco's but they both got theirs months before you, even though you ordered yours months before them.

If my latest account information is correct, I should get mine next month and then all this will be forgotten.

Starlink maps geographies into 'cells', which are ~13 mile diameter hexagons covering the land. Availability and 'place in line' are on a per-cell basis. Sounds like neither of your neighbors that received Starlink after you pre-ordered used their actual address so that would seem to explain why they were able to get it before you. Likely if they hadn't 'cheated the system' they would not have them before you.

 

[Hilbilly]

Starlink maps geographies into 'cells', which are ~13 mile diameter hexagons covering the land. Availability and 'place in line' are on a per-cell basis. Sounds like neither of your neighbors that received Starlink after you pre-ordered used their actual address so that would seem to explain why they were able to get it before you. Likely if they hadn't 'cheated the system' they would not have them before you.

Agreed.

My point is that there is service to our specific area right now and there has been for months. I understand the cell issue and that Starlink is not likely to service someone that is on the fringe of a cell and may therefore get poor service. These people probably got lucky. The one neighbor used an address that is about 14 miles from his real location and the other got their system from their parents and they were located about 20 miles from them. The neighbor with their parents system, says they get a message that says something to the effect that the dish is not located within the service location and they may not get service but they do and it works fine. I guess they are very lucky. Plus they didn't have to pay for their dish.

It will all be a moot point once I get the dish and all the speed that comes with it. If Starlink delivers as indicated in my account info, it should be within the next month. Woohoo!

edit: forgot to say that if I could have been able to contact them, I could have told them that there is reliable service to my location and maybe I could have received the dish months ago.

 

[forgeblast]

Same with us pushed back to mid 2022, I am going to look at hiking up our "hill" and finding the nearest tower and try and see if i can connect to the tower. I know with the opensource app its a tmobile tower.

 

[ponytug]

Locally, I have found a number of issues with data on the opensource apps, including the "existence" of a T-mobile tower, complete with "breadcrumbs" that doesn't exist, purported reception in other areas with no signal. I think that some of it is an artifact of phones continuing to report coverage for some amount of time after losing signal.

Definitely a YMMV item, and checking with your own phone is a great idea. One cell phone amplifier site recommended power cycling your phone before checking signal strength as a way to "reset" the phone's RF modem. Do make sure your WiFi is off.

All the best,

Peter

 

[Cougsfan]

First, most of the things said on this thread are technically way above my head. I am not a techy in the least bit. That makes it hard to talk intelligently to most of you.

That being said, We live out in the sticks, but we have a cell tower on our property 750 feet from our house. We currently use a local company to get internet via microwave signal, but it is too slow to reliably stream video. So we depend on Dish for TV service. Our internet and TV service cost is well over $200/mo. Starlink is not going to be available anytime soon.

The tower has 5 sets of antennas for 5 different companies including TMobile, AT&T and Verizon. We currently have Verizon cell phones with 5 bars. TMobile just installed all new equipment on the tower one of their guys told me was for 5g service. Is there anyway we can get an affordable internet service from that tower that is fast enough to use Fubu or the like for TV and ditch our microwave internet?

 

[BigBlue1]

I would think pretty much any cell/LTE Internet solution would be totally capable of allowing you to stream video. We used to watch Netflix back when our only ISP was a sub-5Mb/s DSL option. I've used AT&T LTE hotspot as primary Internet for 4 years until Starlink arrived (it's still our backup).

If there is a 5G option for cellular-based Internet go for that, but any 4G LTE plans will be fine too. Your biggest consideration for choosing a provider/plan should be one with either high monthly data allowance or an unlimited data plan. Video streaming takes a lot of data volume.

Rob

 

[LittleBill21]

First, most of the things said on this thread are technically way above my head. I am not a techy in the least bit. That makes it hard to talk intelligently to most of you.

That being said, We live out in the sticks, but we have a cell tower on our property 750 feet from our house. We currently use a local company to get internet via microwave signal, but it is too slow to reliably stream video. So we depend on Dish for TV service. Our internet and TV service cost is well over $200/mo. Starlink is not going to be available anytime soon.

The tower has 5 sets of antennas for 5 different companies including TMobile, AT&T and Verizon. We currently have Verizon cell phones with 5 bars. TMobile just installed all new equipment on the tower one of their guys told me was for 5g service. Is there anyway we can get an affordable internet service from that tower that is fast enough to use Fubu or the like for TV and ditch our microwave internet?

there are maps that will tell you what tower that is. if you have a cell phone, and you go up that hill, do you have cell service?

 

[riptides]

First, most of the things said on this thread are technically way above my head. I am not a techy in the least bit. That makes it hard to talk intelligently to most of you.

That being said, We live out in the sticks, but we have a cell tower on our property 750 feet from our house. We currently use a local company to get internet via microwave signal, but it is too slow to reliably stream video. So we depend on Dish for TV service. Our internet and TV service cost is well over $200/mo. Starlink is not going to be available anytime soon.

The tower has 5 sets of antennas for 5 different companies including TMobile, AT&T and Verizon. We currently have Verizon cell phones with 5 bars. TMobile just installed all new equipment on the tower one of their guys told me was for 5g service. Is there anyway we can get an affordable internet service from that tower that is fast enough to use Fubu or the like for TV and ditch our microwave internet?

As someone noted, your cell tower has all the right players for streaming and internet. It is just a matter of finding a plan that has no data or throttling limits.

You are looking for a data plan, try the service providers sites for HOME based internet connectivity.

 

[bdhsfz6]

Since you currently have Verizon cellphones, a good place to start would be their wireless / LTE home internet. It's around $50/mo for existing customers. It isn't 5G but it gets you 45 mbps down and 8 up. We just got it and it's fast enough to stream 4K video.

Just because there is a tower nearby and you have good signal strength doesn't necessarily mean you can get wireless internet however. These towers will only provide service to a certain number of customers before the quality of service degrades. To prevent this, the cellular providers limit the number of customers per tower.

Even though we have the service, Verizon told my neighbor it wasn't available for this reason.

With 5 carriers on your tower, it's likely one will be able to provide the service.