First things first, the hook. See a screenshot from the test I just ran on my phone a few minutes ago.
Key points of this post:
- Starlink is very quick, almost laughably faster compared to other Satellite providers
- Starlink is super easy to set up and has been very reliable
- Starlink’s cost makes it crazy affordable (in my area) compared to other providers
Let’s talk SPEED
Pictures are worth 1000 words or in this case, once glance at the picture above and the article writes itself. To put this in context out here in the mountains where I live I have access to only two Satellite service providers, they are both highly expensive and speeds are/were abysmal. I was paying almost $300/month for download speeds of roughly 5mbps which made my internet barely usable. Add to that data caps and in some months where I would attempt to stream or have video calls my bill approached $400. Super frustrating but what do you do, call customer service? All they would tell me is that I had too many devices connected or that I should be transferred to another department, only to get no resolution. Most Youtube videos would buffer constantly, attempting to stream Netflix or similar was the same, video calls often were blurry as were Facetime calls, Wifi calling (almost zero cell service here) was impossible.
Enter Starlink, the equivalent of my internet speeds being shot out of a cannon. All the things I had issues with in the past were now fixed. My cell phone worked at the house, I could stream things (we don’t pay for Direct TV or similar), Youtube didn’t buffer, calls with family were crisp! What a difference, welcome to 2022.
Setup is EASY and it’s RELIABLE
My Starlink setup arrived in a small box which had incredibly simple instructions printed on a piece of paper. Something like: open box, download app, follow prompts. Now imagine waiting for a technician from XYZ Satellite service to come out in his truck, mount this dish, align it, all the things which with Starlink you are perfectly capable of doing yourself. I downloaded the app and went on the roof, it made sure I had good coverage with the appropriate satellites and gave me the thumbs up on mounting location. I secured the dish to the top of my roof, ran the cable down and followed the other prompts and was up and running within 15 minutes. Very simple to do yourself as long as you do not mind climbing on the roof. I will say that in this picture what you cannot see is the silicon that I squeezed into the holes so no water leakage would occur.
As far as reliability goes we have had zero issues in all sorts of weather. Heavy clouds and rain have not been an issue. It has yet to snow but the system does have a built in way to generate heat in order to deal with accumulation on the dish should that occur. This versus me opening an window trying to knock the snow off of my previous other setups.
COST Savings
My other providers ranged from the high $200’s to even $400 a month at times because of regular monthly service plans and data caps. Starlink prices have gone up $10/mo for a total of $110/mo but the system is saving me quite a bit compared to before, AND the speeds are incredible. As of this writing Starlink is unlimited with no data caps.
The Bottom Line
There is one downside to this: the wait to get the system. It took me 7 months from the time I placed the order until my unit arrived and it should be noted at the time I did place the order Starlink said the service was not available in my area. Outside of that things have been fantastic. If you live like I do in an isolated / rural location by choice than this system is definitely something to consider. It’s cost effective, speeds are amazing and the entire setup process is very user friendly.
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