Starlink

[ponytug]

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?

Lucky you!

I would agree with @bdhsfz6; start with Verizon, and ask for 5G home internet to see if they will offer it to you. If not the 4G should be fine. Check out https://calyxinstitute.org/ as well as a price comparison.

All the best,

Peter

 

[TheMan419]

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?

T mobile has a home internet plan for $50 a month no caps. However you have to see if your address qualifies. Also word is if the web says your address does not qualify go into an actual store. They can often "make it work" and get you signed up. I need to do that next to see if I can get their service.

 

[Cougsfan]

Little Bill, we have excellent cell service anywhere we go on our property.
I checked out the Verizon LTE site, They say our address does not have service available (I should mention our address shows up at the wrong place by a couple miles on google maps).
I went to T-Mobile's Site. It may as well be written in Chinese. I don't have a clue what they are offering or what is available, or what to ask for or how to even find out.
I also went to that Calyx site that you mentioned, Ponytug, I saw a lot of stuff there (including "This domain is for sale"), but nothing about internet service.

 

[ponytug]

@Cougsfan My bad! https://calyxinstitute.org/ is what you want. I corrected the original.

All the best,

Peter

 

[Alan W.]

My son just changed from crickett to reliable-internet.com for no data caps.
He sent me his speeds tonight. Using AT&T tower.

 

[lman]

Lucky you!

I would agree with @bdhsfz6; start with Verizon, and ask for 5G home internet to see if they will offer it to you. If not the 4G should be fine. Check out https://calyxinstitute.org/ as well as a price comparison.

All the best,

Peter

It looks like Calyx Institute will provide VPN service for $50/month, but you stiil would need to get data from a cell provider.

About The Calyx Institute - Calyx Institute

calyxinstitute.org

 

[ponytug]

It looks like Calyx Institute will provide VPN service for $50/month, but you stiil would need to get data from a cell provider.

About The Calyx Institute - Calyx Institute

calyxinstitute.org

Their website isn't the most obvious, I agree. You need to click through to the internet membership page. They have a historic right to some unlimited internet data plans through an equal access program that has been grandfathered along.

They have several offerings, one of which is that when you become a member, they send you a hotspot with unlimited data for $400-500/yr https://calyxinstitute.org/membership/internet
For @Cougsfan, the highest level of membership is a 4G/5G hotspot that in a prime location, e.g. adjacent to a 5G cell tower, should give @Cougsfan pretty darn high speed internet access.

They also offer an operating system for (some?) android phones that is purportedly more secure.

Caveat: I researched this heavily for us, but haven't used it as the upfront cost to us to build a tower tall enough to get cell signal, run power and fiber up the hill and through the woods to that tower, seemed too high for a "short term" use. However, that was when I was thinking that we would get Starlink in 2021. It may be time to have another rethink about that, if I find reasonable T-Mobile 5G signal up there.

All the best,

Peter

 

[plowhog]

Well, here is another dimension ...

Elon Musk tells SpaceX employees that Starship engine crisis is creating a 'risk of bankruptcy'

Elon Musk is angry with the lack of progress SpaceX has made in developing the Raptor engines that power its Starship rocket.

www.cnbc.com

 

[plowhog]

From the article:

"But, while SpaceX has launched about 1,700 Starlink satellites to orbit so far, Musk said the first version of the satellite “is financially weak.” The company has been steadily growing Starlink’s user base, with about 140,000 users paying for service at $99 a month.

Earlier this year SpaceX outlined improvements for the second version of the satellite, with Musk saying in his email that “V2 is strong” but can only be launched effectively by its Starship rockets."

 

[Jchonline]

From the article:

"But, while SpaceX has launched about 1,700 Starlink satellites to orbit so far, Musk said the first version of the satellite “is financially weak.” The company has been steadily growing Starlink’s user base, with about 140,000 users paying for service at $99 a month.

Earlier this year SpaceX outlined improvements for the second version of the satellite, with Musk saying in his email that “V2 is strong” but can only be launched effectively by its Starship rockets."

Yay more spacejunk!

 

[ponytug]

Elon Musk sent out a "strongly worded" email to the starship team over Thanksgiving;

https://spaceexplored.com/2021/11/29/spacex-raptor-crisis/

 

[locknut]

Little Bill, we have excellent cell service anywhere we go on our property.
I checked out the Verizon LTE site, They say our address does not have service available (I should mention our address shows up at the wrong place by a couple miles on google maps).
I went to T-Mobile's Site. It may as well be written in Chinese. I don't have a clue what they are offering or what is available, or what to ask for or how to even find out.
I also went to that Calyx site that you mentioned, Ponytug, I saw a lot of stuff there (including "This domain is for sale"), but nothing about internet service.

If a T-Mobil store is nearby go to the store and ask them about the Gateway wireless router.We had one and used it up north last spring and it worked great-untill all the trees leaved out and killed the reception.Only service that would work and only 1.3 miles from town.Bummer.

 

[Rob41]

My daughter just got her Starlink hooked up today. She lives out in the styx outside of Newberry Mi. She says it's working amazing for her so far.

She sent me these pics of her antenna.

 

[IXLR8]

Little Bill, we have excellent cell service anywhere we go on our property.
I checked out the Verizon LTE site, They say our address does not have service available (I should mention our address shows up at the wrong place by a couple miles on google maps).

I checked out the Verizon LTE site, it also indicated no service available at my home. I went to the local Verizon store, they said, no problem. I got the service and am getting 32Mb/s down and 12Mb/s up. This is LTE service, there is no 5G service in my county, or the next county over.

 

[Rob41]

I had to do something unexpected to get ATT wireless at my new place and I don't even remember how I figured it out.

I had called ATT and also went online and gave my address (the actual/official address) and found out nothing was available at my location. Really bummed I'd have to get satellite.

I then changed only the city in my address from Cheboygan to Inverness Township. I am in Inverness Township but for some reason ATT has my address with my Township instead of my city.

There are two major cell towers so I get five bars even a half mile back on my property. I'm so glad I was able to get it while folks in the cities might not think it's fast, it's by far the fastest I've ever had. When the kids and grand kids are here for the holidays everyone is streaming or playing games and it never slows.

Just tested it at Speedtest.net and I'm getting 70Mb/s down and 30 Mb/s up.

 

[LouNY]

Well an interesting email Friday, my turn came up for starlink.
So, I've paid the full amount and it is supposed to be shipping now, we shall see.
It was a pleasant surprise seeing as how I had gotten the maybe next year email just recently.

 

[Jchonline]

Speed test yesterday. 200mbps download, 25 mbps upload. In past 12 hours I had 33 seconds of outage. Dishy is mounted on the ground, there are some tree obstructions. Once this things gets mounted on the house we should be golden.

 

[cqaigy2]

My daughter just got her Starlink hooked up today. She lives out in the styx outside of Newberry Mi. She says it's working amazing for her so far.

She sent me these pics of her antenna.

If it's not too much of a problem, could someone take a pick of the "dish" when setup? I'm interested to see the orientation of the wide axis. Thanks!

 

[WM75Guy]

Decided not to wait for StarLink as deployment anytime soon to my area is sounding iffy based on the website and the leaked email. Went with Verizon LTE 4G to replace my Centurylink DSL. Cost is $60/mo as I have AT&T for cell service, if I had Verizon cost goes down to $40/mo. My neighbor also went with Verizon and cancelled his Starlink reservation.

Speed increased from 4 down/.25 up to 50 down/6 up, which is max speed as the gateway is throttled. A Verizon phone gets 200 MB down at our place. The 50/6 is plenty for our needs. Also the Verizon Gateway has AX Wi-Fi capability which matches the Wi-Fi on our new desktops we treated ourselves to for Christmas. Bought 2 Lenovo computers with i7 processors, 16 GB RAM, and 512 GB SSD drives. That also made a big difference.

 

[ernemats]

Starlink train sighted over S W PA over the weekend. Picture was on wtae tv.