I’m not saying anything about StarLink per se, really. I don’t know enough about it to discuss its technical characteristics. At a practical level, you do what you can to get the connectivity you need, and if Musk’s company offers that, you go for it if it’s the best solution at the time. My point is really that our broadband situation in the US is a good example of how total reliance on the market to solve every problem ends up screwing over lots of people and delivers an inferior product overall (if you consider the product here the extent and quality of high-speed internet access on a national level).
I wasn’t being serious. It was just “what would the GOP say” snark.
Update:
Why isn’t Google in this race? Didn’t they discover “negative latency” when developing Stadia?
I’m still salty that the Google Fiber project was killed off in the Phoenix area due to Cox complaining about the deal Google was getting.
Relevant.
Yes but they weren’t competing with a thousand kids streaming k-pop videos.
Is Starlink going to have data caps?
The instructions seem pretty clear. The mount does not seem suitable for any place with actual weather, though, and the fine print seems to confirm that. Also, I’m surprised there’s not a ton of legalese warning about climbing up on your friggin’ roof.
Why do you say that?
It says that the mount should not be used in any place with high winds. That, and the fact that the ballast is forty pounds a side, self weighed and installed (and probably sand), indicates that if you live like where I do, with high winds, extreme cold, and lots of snow and ice, the dish thing will probably at the very least shift around some, if not worse. I suspect this is a good solution for some places, but I’m not sure northern New England is one of them.
That wouldn’t fly in Michigan either.
Do they have an option to screw it into your roof?
I’m pretty sure Elon Musk is always up for a screw.
I would like an OTA antenna but I’m not climbing on any damn roof.
They’ll really need a professional installer option for this. That’s really the only thing that makes Dish and DirecTV viable as an alternative to cable.
I was hoping to be selected for the Beta but nothing in my inbox so far.
One key issue I see here is that they want the dish mounted on the peak of the roof. Unless that dish is heated, that’s going to be a bit of an issue. I do live in Michigan, and when you get a wet snow it tends to accumulate on the dish. For other mounting systems it’s not too much of an issue to go out with a broom and brush the snow off (even if it’s on the lower part of one side of the roof). But I’d rather not climb up on the top of the roof to do so during a snow storm. That can be pretty treacherous.
Still, a grizzly death might be worth the risk to be rid of Hughesnet.
Can they have heated wires in the dish to melt the snow?
Hmm, I’m no engineer, but I would be skeptical. One, heating things that way requires some good design and manufacturing to insulate the wiring enough to avoid things like shorts or what not. Two, melting ice or snow means you have to keep melting it, constantly, or it will just freeze up worse than before. This means a constant power drain. Three, this would add complexity to what is right now sort of a basic thing, and complexity in general is always worthy of skepticism.
De-icing cables for roofs and gutters have been around for ages, and satellite dish heaters are very much a thing. You wouldn’t have to run it all the time; just when snow or ice was actually building up on the dish. I’m guessing they just didn’t think about this when designing their mounting system, and they’re probably going to get a few complaints from their northern testers this Winter.