# Starlink Info/Beta



## GDN

If you are signed up for Starlink info and get information about beta testing, rollout dates, costs, please share what you can. I don't know if it would come with an NDA, but interested to hear when it starts rolling out and where.

https://www.starlink.com/


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## TomT

Yes, there is an NDA...



GDN said:


> If you are signed up for Starlink info and get information about beta testing, rollout dates, costs, please share what you can. I don't know if it would come with an NDA, but interested to hear when it starts rolling out and where.


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## [email protected]

musk has indicated starlink uplink/downlink reception is poor, so far, at the boca chita spacex facility.
people living in the states along the canadian border may be the earliest to be offered a chance to be beta testers. the already reported very early users in washington state included fire departments in/near burned out communities. there are already starlink ground stations in washington state. it was reported a couple months ago the fcc granted permission for stations to be operated in california, minnesota, idaho, alabama, georgia and montana. (that authorization may have run out in september.) but see this too.
heard rumour there may be a pre-beta tester in central vt. there is a planned ground station in beekmantown ny. (a person perhaps associated with tesla or spacex or starlink?) if the rumour has any truth the tester likely signed an nda.
the agency of the canadian government responsible for licensing services offered by entities like starlink has not yet given permission for people in canada to receive a starlink signal.


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## TrevP

I signed up some time ago but haven't heard anything back. I was on the lower end of the latitude they were covering


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## GDN

Interesting to hear about Boca Chica as that is South of DFW even by over 500 miles. Interesting to know they are getting any signal there. Must be some sats above us, just not many. It will continue to fill in fast. 

The ground stations were something new I just heard about last week. Either I haven't followed as closely as I thought or they've just started talking about them. Anyone know how they play a part? Is the ground station where the sats will connect to the wired world back here on earth? If I end up being 3 miles from a ground station, my signal would go up and hit a sat, transfer to the appropriate sat and then back to the ground station?


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## [email protected]

i signed up by providing starlink with an email address a while back. shortly after received an email asking for a physical address. sent that and nothing seen since.
the satellites are relay stations, operating like telephone poles with wires, but instead wirelessly linking homes/offices to ground stations which send the signals on to data centers. there have been reports the eventual intention is for the satellites to commuinicate directly with one-another, the idea being to keep the signals moving at light speed, twice the speed as through even fiber optic cables. 
the service will be most useful to people too far from cable or dsl services to provide them with profits. musk has said they're looking for public beta testers with a clear view of the sky.
here is a link to a near real time representation of the somewhat more than 700 starlink satellites circling the planet. you can see the several 'trains' of dots which represent newly launched satellites which have not completed their 2 -3 month long transfers into their more spread out orbit locations necessary to increase signal reach and coverage.
there have been 13 launches of starlink satellites but most if not all of the first 60 satellites were to demonstrate and experiment with their communication capability. they are now being 'deorbited', burning up as they speed through the atmosphere. apparently they were never intended to be part of the starlink service.
here is a reddit forum dedicated to all things spacex


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## JWardell

Right now they are only calling on beta testers at the latitude of Seattle and north. it will take a few more launches to bring coverage south.
But I'm sure Santa's loving it!


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## GDN

Per PC Magazine, the Starlink beta is expanding. A SW update is allowing speeds at 2.5 times allowed previously and latency is down to an average of 30 ms, with worst latency at 42 ms. Sounding promising. https://www.pcmag.com/news/spacex-indicates-more-beta-testers-are-receiving-access-to-starlink


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## JWardell

I was very impressed to hear they are actually using their optical satellite to satellite links, but at the moment only between four satellites...just a proof of concept. I hope they add it to all future satellites. Meanwhile, just waiting for more launches to bring coverage a bit more south.


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## victor

_"initial Starlink service is priced at $99 a month - plus a $499 upfront cost to order the Starlink Kit. That kit includes a user terminal to connect to the satellites, a mounting tripod and a wifi router."_

_"Expect to see data speeds vary from 50Mb/s to 150Mb/s and latency from 20ms to 40ms over the next several months as we enhance the Starlink system. There will also be brief periods of no connectivity at all."_

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/27/spa...ed-at-99-a-month-public-beta-test-begins.html


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## victor

More info


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https://www.reddit.com/r/Starlink/comments/jitefj


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## iChris93

victor said:


> More info
> 
> 
> __
> https://www.reddit.com/r/Starlink/comments/jitefj


They're making people pay $99/month to beta test? This isn't even competitive with my ISP.


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## JWardell

$99/mo and $500 for hardware isn't competitive for a normal ISP, but it blows away other satellite data options. 
I would love to see a pay-per-use plan that charges per gig, for those who would either just be testing it or using occasionally in their travels.
But I think this is just the beginning, and we will see more affordable pricing as starlink expands, and probably hardware price reductions when volume increases


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## garsh

iChris93 said:


> They're making people pay $99/month to beta test? This isn't even competitive with my ISP.


If you live in a city or suburb that already has good internet options, then Starlink isn't for you. Starlink is targeting all those people in rural areas that don't have any good options.

And damn, I guess my current ISP is expensive. My normal price is $95/mo (for 300Mbps down, 20 Mbps up).


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## iChris93

garsh said:


> If you live in a city or suburb that already has good internet options, then Starlink isn't for you. Starlink is targeting all those people in rural areas that don't have any good options.
> 
> And damn, I guess my current ISP is expensive. My normal price is $95/mo (for 300Mbps down, 20 Mbps up).


Still seems outrageous to charge $100/month to beta test.

$50/month for same speeds as you currently.


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## garsh

iChris93 said:


> Still seems outrageous to charge $100/month to beta test.


And that's why I chose to NOT be a beta tester. 

But if I still lived where I grew up, I would be stuck with 3Mbps DSL for $70/month as my only choice.
Well, internet is $40/month, but Verizon won't sell it to you without also adding a phone line, so add another $30/month.

I would QUICKLY and GLADLY give Starlink $100/mo. to be a beta-tester and escape that kind of purgatory.


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## iChris93

garsh said:


> And that's why I chose to NOT be a beta tester.
> 
> But if I still lived where I grew up, I would be stuck with 3Mbps DSL for $70/month as my only choice.
> Well, internet is $40/month, but Verizon won't sell it to you without also adding a phone line, so add another $30/month.
> 
> I would QUICKLY and GLADLY give Starlink $100/mo. to be a beta-tester and escape that kind of purgatory.
> 
> View attachment 35902


Point well taken.

I was optimistic that Elon would use this to take on the ISP industry to give people more and better options everywhere, but for now you've made it clear it's not for that.


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## GDN

I was also optimistic that I might ditch my local services for Starlink, at least maybe be a beta tester. If they can deliver the performance they are targeting it will be great, but regardless, prices will have to come down. Many of the same folks they claim to be targeting can't afford those prices. Many can and many will buy at those prices, but that is not a "For all" service. It seems a typical Musk plan is to be expensive up front to help pay and to keep the service "limited". I'm guessing that once most sats are up and they perfect the communication it will come down and those of us with other options will still choose Starlink. 

I could see this being a $199 puchase and $49/month. If they can keep the latency down they could be putting other ISP's out of business. I know it won't likely go this way, but just don't understand why not.


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## victor

A-ha-ha. I just leave it here.


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1321265188524281857


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## JWardell

Between Starlink and cheap Tesla solar, suddenly living off grid away from all the insanity is becoming reasonable


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## lance.bailey

I know an medium sized island that is for sale for about the same price as house prices in this area... big enough for a house and pacing space, but really negates the need for a car.


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## [email protected]

JWardell said:


> Between Starlink and cheap Tesla solar, suddenly living off grid away from all the insanity is becoming reasonable


+1


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## JWardell

lance.bailey said:


> I know an medium sized island that is for sale for about the same price as house prices in this area... big enough for a house and pacing space, but really negates the need for a car.


Unless your car can be used as a boat!


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## lance.bailey

Elon says it can. with no exhaust or air intake Teslas are more floaty than a block of ICE (see what I did there  )

but then a 1960's VW bug also floated... so we might want to adjust our goal bar.


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## GDN

https://www.yahoo.com/news/spacexs-starlink-internet-public-beta-114240670.html

They'll soon move to the lower states. Really would like to see some prices about 1/3 less than advertised. I want to dump my cable modem so bad.


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## victor

Some news regarding Canada.

_*In a series of emails with SpaceQ, Musk was candid about the Starlink service in Canada. He hopes that approval for their satellite spectrum license happens within 2 to 3 weeks, which means the beta program could begin in December. That's the good news. *_​​https://spaceq.ca/initial-spacex-starlink-service-in-canada-will-be-limited/


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## Klaus-rf

lance.bailey said:


> I know an medium sized island that is for sale for about the same price as house prices in this area... big enough for a house and pacing space, but really negates the need for a car.


 Enough room for helipad??


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## lance.bailey

already has a helipad installed. This is likely now off topic enough that we should take it off line  maybe move to the water cooler thread.


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## victor

_*Aerospace firm SpaceX has been granted a second round of government approval to provide high-speed internet to Canadians through a constellation of satellites. *_​​https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/spacex-clears-second-hurdle-launching-202755913.html


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## GDN

More good info coming in about performance in cold and snow. Seems it definitely has some heating capabilities.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/spacexs-starlink-satellite-internet-provides-140000629.html


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## victor

AMA on Reddit today at 3pm EST / 12pm PST.


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https://www.reddit.com/r/Starlink/comments/jybmgn


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## JWardell

Starlink teardown!


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## garsh

*SpaceX gets $886 million from FCC to subsidize Starlink in 35 states*


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## GDN

garsh said:


> *SpaceX gets $886 million from FCC to subsidize Starlink in 35 states*


Thanks for that update, I had not gone looking to see if they had been awarded any, but last night on the local news I saw huge amounts had been awarded here in TX and of course I just had to laugh. We know how those things end up in the long run. The end users will likely see almost no benefit or reduced bill. All companies including SpaceX should have to disclose and be audited to how they spend the money.

Interestingly SpaceX was not awarded any money for TX.


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## MelindaV

I climbed onto my roof with my little starlink receiver earlier today and currently posting from the new connection!
Speeds are all over the place - like download speeds ranging from just over 10Mbps to over 110Mbps from one speed to the next. Latency is in the 20s and 30s, so at least as good as I get with my Comcast cable internet. Upload is also at least as good as Comcast, and many Speedtest significantly better than Comcast.
i still need to finish routing the cable tomorrow and try out piggybacking my mesh Wi-Fi to the starlink router, but glad to see it is getting ok speeds compared to Comcast (which typically I have been getting 100-125Mbps with Comcast, sometimes dropping around 50Mbps)

Not sure how the IP location may mess with regional blackout things though (it shows I am in Sequim, WA - 200 miles from where I am actually sitting)


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## garsh

MelindaV said:


> Latency is in the 20s and 30s












Oh, you mean "twenties and thirties", not "20 seconds and 30 seconds".


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## MelindaV

Yeah ms, 20 seconds would be my office’s internet. 😂


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## garsh

Amazon and SpaceX are locking horns.

Elon Musk blasts Jeff Bezos' Amazon, alleging effort to 'hamstring' SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1353830521504210946
Amazon's response:


> "The facts are simple. We designed the Kuiper System to avoid interference with Starlink, and now SpaceX wants to change the design of its system. Those changes not only create a more dangerous environment for collisions in space, but they also increase radio interference for customers. Despite what SpaceX posts on Twitter, it is SpaceX's proposed changes that would hamstring competition among satellite systems. It is clearly in SpaceX's interest to smother competition in the cradle if they can, but it is certainly not in the public's interest," an Amazon spokesperson said.


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## victor

Got an e-mail today with an invitation to order. On Reddit a lot of people from Ontario are reporting the same thing.


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## Garlan Garner

Well, Well.

It looks like I can officially re-locate my Starlink.

I can take mine to my parents house and run it from there.

You Can Now Change Your Starlink Internet Service Address Online - TeslaNorth.com

I originally thought it was going to be geofenced.


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## garsh

This is huge.
Google has some phat pipes. Locating Starlink ground stations at Google datacenters should give Starlink users excellent connectivity across the world.
I would also assume that SpaceX is working on deals with other internet backbone providers as well.

https://www.teslarati.com/elon-musk-starlink-google-cloud-supply-deal/


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## lance.bailey

very interesting. I work for a province wide network and services provider and things like this can be seen as game changers. There is a great article about Starlink being used in Northern Ontario Indigenous communities to provide previously unheard of connectivity to entire towns. Peering relationships like this are a smart move by Starlink.


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