Starlink - rural internet

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Discussion

Oliver Hardy

Original Poster:

2,983 posts

80 months

Friday 2nd December 2022
quotequote all
Possibly wrong forum but it was On the news tonight, and in some news papers a couple of dayss ago, Elon Musk is will be using the Lake District to test new technology to bring faster internet speeds to rural locations.

https://www.lancs.live/news/local-news/elon-musk-l...

My relatives in Poland live in the middle of nowhere and have been getting internet via satellite for years, at least 5! They watch TV through it, surf the net, make phone calls, ask how much it costs, the answer was not much.

eharding

14,099 posts

290 months

Friday 2nd December 2022
quotequote all
Oliver Hardy said:
Possibly wrong forum but it was On the news tonight, and in some news papers a couple of dayss ago, Elon Musk is will be using the Lake District to test new technology to bring faster internet speeds to rural locations.

https://www.lancs.live/news/local-news/elon-musk-l...

My relatives in Poland live in the middle of nowhere and have been getting internet via satellite for years, at least 5! They watch TV through it, surf the net, make phone calls, ask how much it costs, the answer was not much.
Starlink has been operational in the UK for getting on for two years - had it down here in Devon since early last year. I think the "news" part of the article is the UK Government are considering using it as part of a subsidised rural internet programme, in places firms like Gigaclear admit they can't reach.

As it happens, Gigaclear dug up the end of my driveway as they routed fibre into the village last October, and had me thinking I could ditch the Starlink connection and get something cheaper and faster.....but despite signing me up for a service in March, the blithering feckwits have yet to actually make the connection - their telephone support people are nice but dim and ineffectual, the online chat staff are stroppy, dim and ineffectual, and the actual technical staff they've sent out don't seem to have the slightest clue about what's going on. It therefore doesn't surprise me that Starlink - say what you like about Musk - is being viewed as an alternative.

No idea what your relatives in Poland are using, but if it's a 5 year old satellite service, it won't be fast or cheap if it is indeed a real internet service. I suspect it's probably the sort of package that Sky offer in the UK - Satellite TV plus a bundled ADSL or FTTC offering.


Edited by eharding on Friday 2nd December 23:47

Oliver Hardy

Original Poster:

2,983 posts

80 months

Friday 2nd December 2022
quotequote all
eharding said:
Oliver Hardy said:
Possibly wrong forum but it was On the news tonight, and in some news papers a couple of dayss ago, Elon Musk is will be using the Lake District to test new technology to bring faster internet speeds to rural locations.

https://www.lancs.live/news/local-news/elon-musk-l...

My relatives in Poland live in the middle of nowhere and have been getting internet via satellite for years, at least 5! They watch TV through it, surf the net, make phone calls, ask how much it costs, the answer was not much.
Starlink has been operational in the UK for getting on for two years - had it down here in Devon since early last year. I think the "news" part of the article is the UK Government are considering using it as part of a subsidised rural internet programme, in places like Gigaclear admit they can't reach.

As it happens, Gigaclear dug up the end of my driveway as they routed fibre into the village last October, and had me thinking I could ditch the Starlink connection and get something cheaper and faster.....but despite signing me up for a service in March, the blithering feckwits have yet to actually make the connection - their telephone support people are nice but dim and ineffectual, the online chat staff are stroppy, dim and ineffectual, and the actual technical staff they've sent out don't seem to have the slightest clue about what's going on. It therefore doesn't surprise me that Starlink - say what you like about Musk - is being viewed as an alternative.

No idea what your relatives in Poland are using, but if it's a 5 year old satellite service, it won't be fast or cheap if it is indeed a real internet service.
Could be an illusion I guess, maybe we are not surfing the net or watching TV just think we are!


off_again

12,815 posts

240 months

Friday 2nd December 2022
quotequote all
A friend has it over the hill from where I live. I have 1Gbps cable and they struggle with a knackered old ADSL service from AT&T that most of the time struggles to work, never mind actually deliver any bandwidth. They got Starlink a few months ago and it works a treat, even for online gaming. Great. But its $599 for the equipment and $110 a month. Hughesnet is another satellite service that is $100 a month for their all-you-can-eat with free install and a $100 Visa card if you sign up now.

But the issue is that Starlink is a Musk company and its 'cool'. You get a fancy heated dish and a smartphone app. But its more expensive and there is currently no guarantee that it will still be in business in a few years time. There are alternatives and they have been around for years, so yeah, this isnt new just higher total capacity and wider coverage - and with shiny packaging.

Leithen

11,928 posts

273 months

Friday 2nd December 2022
quotequote all
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Have been using it in Perthshire and Edinburgh for over a year now. Very good. Price now £75/Month.

eharding

14,099 posts

290 months

Friday 2nd December 2022
quotequote all
Oliver Hardy said:
eharding said:
Oliver Hardy said:
Possibly wrong forum but it was On the news tonight, and in some news papers a couple of dayss ago, Elon Musk is will be using the Lake District to test new technology to bring faster internet speeds to rural locations.

https://www.lancs.live/news/local-news/elon-musk-l...

My relatives in Poland live in the middle of nowhere and have been getting internet via satellite for years, at least 5! They watch TV through it, surf the net, make phone calls, ask how much it costs, the answer was not much.
Starlink has been operational in the UK for getting on for two years - had it down here in Devon since early last year. I think the "news" part of the article is the UK Government are considering using it as part of a subsidised rural internet programme, in places like Gigaclear admit they can't reach.

As it happens, Gigaclear dug up the end of my driveway as they routed fibre into the village last October, and had me thinking I could ditch the Starlink connection and get something cheaper and faster.....but despite signing me up for a service in March, the blithering feckwits have yet to actually make the connection - their telephone support people are nice but dim and ineffectual, the online chat staff are stroppy, dim and ineffectual, and the actual technical staff they've sent out don't seem to have the slightest clue about what's going on. It therefore doesn't surprise me that Starlink - say what you like about Musk - is being viewed as an alternative.

No idea what your relatives in Poland are using, but if it's a 5 year old satellite service, it won't be fast or cheap if it is indeed a real internet service.
Could be an illusion I guess, maybe we are not surfing the net or watching TV just think we are!
If you go outside and cut the phone line, can you still connect the the internet? (If you do so, and we never hear from you again, we'll know what's going on...)

Edited by eharding on Friday 2nd December 23:57

eharding

14,099 posts

290 months

Friday 2nd December 2022
quotequote all
off_again said:
A friend has it over the hill from where I live. I have 1Gbps cable and they struggle with a knackered old ADSL service from AT&T that most of the time struggles to work, never mind actually deliver any bandwidth. They got Starlink a few months ago and it works a treat, even for online gaming. Great. But its $599 for the equipment and $110 a month. Hughesnet is another satellite service that is $100 a month for their all-you-can-eat with free install and a $100 Visa card if you sign up now.

But the issue is that Starlink is a Musk company and its 'cool'. You get a fancy heated dish and a smartphone app. But its more expensive and there is currently no guarantee that it will still be in business in a few years time. There are alternatives and they have been around for years, so yeah, this isnt new just higher total capacity and wider coverage - and with shiny packaging.
Hughesnet is however a geostationary satellite solution - so hideous round trip times and very limited bandwidth. The "all you can eat buffet" sounds great until you realise that you have to eat it with a teaspoon and they only put out a couple of yoghurt cartons worth of food to start with - and if you think Hughesnet is going to be around for much longer...good luck.


Oliver Hardy

Original Poster:

2,983 posts

80 months

Saturday 3rd December 2022
quotequote all
eharding said:
Oliver Hardy said:
eharding said:
Oliver Hardy said:
Possibly wrong forum but it was On the news tonight, and in some news papers a couple of dayss ago, Elon Musk is will be using the Lake District to test new technology to bring faster internet speeds to rural locations.

https://www.lancs.live/news/local-news/elon-musk-l...

My relatives in Poland live in the middle of nowhere and have been getting internet via satellite for years, at least 5! They watch TV through it, surf the net, make phone calls, ask how much it costs, the answer was not much.
Starlink has been operational in the UK for getting on for two years - had it down here in Devon since early last year. I think the "news" part of the article is the UK Government are considering using it as part of a subsidised rural internet programme, in places like Gigaclear admit they can't reach.

As it happens, Gigaclear dug up the end of my driveway as they routed fibre into the village last October, and had me thinking I could ditch the Starlink connection and get something cheaper and faster.....but despite signing me up for a service in March, the blithering feckwits have yet to actually make the connection - their telephone support people are nice but dim and ineffectual, the online chat staff are stroppy, dim and ineffectual, and the actual technical staff they've sent out don't seem to have the slightest clue about what's going on. It therefore doesn't surprise me that Starlink - say what you like about Musk - is being viewed as an alternative.

No idea what your relatives in Poland are using, but if it's a 5 year old satellite service, it won't be fast or cheap if it is indeed a real internet service.
Could be an illusion I guess, maybe we are not surfing the net or watching TV just think we are!
If you go outside and cut the phone line, can you still connect the the internet? (If you do so, and we never hear from you again, we'll know what's going on...)

Edited by eharding on Friday 2nd December 23:57
There is no phone line!

eharding

14,099 posts

290 months

Saturday 3rd December 2022
quotequote all
Oliver Hardy said:
eharding said:
Oliver Hardy said:
eharding said:
Oliver Hardy said:
Possibly wrong forum but it was On the news tonight, and in some news papers a couple of dayss ago, Elon Musk is will be using the Lake District to test new technology to bring faster internet speeds to rural locations.

https://www.lancs.live/news/local-news/elon-musk-l...

My relatives in Poland live in the middle of nowhere and have been getting internet via satellite for years, at least 5! They watch TV through it, surf the net, make phone calls, ask how much it costs, the answer was not much.
Starlink has been operational in the UK for getting on for two years - had it down here in Devon since early last year. I think the "news" part of the article is the UK Government are considering using it as part of a subsidised rural internet programme, in places like Gigaclear admit they can't reach.

As it happens, Gigaclear dug up the end of my driveway as they routed fibre into the village last October, and had me thinking I could ditch the Starlink connection and get something cheaper and faster.....but despite signing me up for a service in March, the blithering feckwits have yet to actually make the connection - their telephone support people are nice but dim and ineffectual, the online chat staff are stroppy, dim and ineffectual, and the actual technical staff they've sent out don't seem to have the slightest clue about what's going on. It therefore doesn't surprise me that Starlink - say what you like about Musk - is being viewed as an alternative.

No idea what your relatives in Poland are using, but if it's a 5 year old satellite service, it won't be fast or cheap if it is indeed a real internet service.
Could be an illusion I guess, maybe we are not surfing the net or watching TV just think we are!
If you go outside and cut the phone line, can you still connect the the internet? (If you do so, and we never hear from you again, we'll know what's going on...)

Edited by eharding on Friday 2nd December 23:57
There is no phone line!
Well, I'm intrigued. Who is the provider? If you're feeling up to it, can you run a test at http://speedtest.net and post the results?

FWIW - this is what I'm seeing from Starlink tonight - reasonable latency, good download, upload acceptable.


pi@starlink-pi:~ $ date ; speedtest --interface=eth0
Fri 2 Dec 23:42:58 GMT 2022

Speedtest by Ookla

Server: Community Fibre Limited - London (id = 30690)
ISP: Starlink
Latency: 27.96 ms (16.00 ms jitter)
Download: 214.78 Mbps (data used: 364.8 MB )
Upload: 19.90 Mbps (data used: 21.1 MB )
Packet Loss: 1.0%
Result URL: https://www.speedtest.net/result/c/05e13686-d973-4653-b01e-7dbe2caf506f


As I've said, 900mbps from Gigaclear would bet better and cheaper, but it turns out they can't reach their own corporate arse with both hands, let alone reach 30 metres or so from where they dug their own fibre across the drive. I had NTL back in the day, who were at that time the pinnacle of god-awful incompetence, but Gigaclear make them look like Nobel prize laureates in comparison.


Edited by eharding on Saturday 3rd December 00:15

catso

14,844 posts

273 months

Saturday 3rd December 2022
quotequote all
Leithen said:
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Have been using it in Perthshire and Edinburgh for over a year now. Very good. Price now £75/Month.
Although we're only a mile or so from a decent internet connection, due to it coming through phone lines and being at the end of the line, (so to speak) the service here has always been poor and with several people using at the same time plus TV streaming/kids gaming etc. we were struggling with internet speeds.

Got Starlink a few weeks back and it's a revelation with download speeds approaching 300 mbps and upload in the 20's.

As above not cheap but everything just works now as it should.

OzzyR1

5,892 posts

238 months

Saturday 3rd December 2022
quotequote all
Monday this week, 8.30pm my dog barked because someone stuffed a scruffy piece of A4 through the letterbox.

Was from Gigaclear; "we will be working in your road soon, sorry for any inconvenience" etc.

Said to my wife, strange they've not given any indication of dates.

7am the next day they pitched up, 4 trucks strong. Plastic barriers everywhere, blocking people into their drives, digging up pavement and road seemingly at random.

Still here today. They managed to breach a gas main which needed the whole road to be shut on Weds. Also broken through a sewer pipe further down from me which has caused huge problems for several neighbouring houses.
Where they have patched up the pavement, it looks like a kid has been let loose with a My First Tarmac kit. Poor quality doesn't come close.

Heard from a neighbour they have been door-knocking too. Promising the fastest speeds in the area at £10/month.

Slight catch is that if you sign up for 12 months, the first 3 are at £10, then it goes to £89.99/month for the other 9.

Assume that's to get them out of any cool down period.




Ridgemont

7,024 posts

137 months

Saturday 3rd December 2022
quotequote all
OzzyR1 said:
Monday this week, 8.30pm my dog barked because someone stuffed a scruffy piece of A4 through the letterbox.

Was from Gigaclear; "we will be working in your road soon, sorry for any inconvenience" etc.

Said to my wife, strange they've not given any indication of dates.

7am the next day they pitched up, 4 trucks strong. Plastic barriers everywhere, blocking people into their drives, digging up pavement and road seemingly at random.

Still here today. They managed to breach a gas main which needed the whole road to be shut on Weds. Also broken through a sewer pipe further down from me which has caused huge problems for several neighbouring houses.
Where they have patched up the pavement, it looks like a kid has been let loose with a My First Tarmac kit. Poor quality doesn't come close.

Heard from a neighbour they have been door-knocking too. Promising the fastest speeds in the area at £10/month.

Slight catch is that if you sign up for 12 months, the first 3 are at £10, then it goes to £89.99/month for the other 9.

Assume that's to get them out of any cool down period.
I can only imagine the investment gigaclear is making. Trashed our village over the summer but no service yet.
Many of the yokel locals are terribly excited by their promises. I keep pointing them at their customer service reviews which are truly appalling.

OzzyR1

5,892 posts

238 months

Saturday 3rd December 2022
quotequote all
One of their operatives reversed a mini-digger from an excavation in the road today, swung it round & caught the side of my neighbour's car.

It wasn't a big hit, but enough to put a dent in the door panel, scraped the paint down to the metal and the same on the rear part of the wing.

I didn't see it happen, but was alerted by the noise of my neighbour coming out to "gently remonstrate" with the fellow that caused the damage to his car.

They flat out denied it, despite being caught on 3 different CCTV cameras. He is phoning Giga head office tomorrow, don't know if that will get him anywhere.

franki68

10,619 posts

227 months

Saturday 3rd December 2022
quotequote all
I had a 1gb connection but moved to somewhere with no
Internet ,bought starlink and it is fantastic ,cannot recommend it enough (although it is not cheap )

eharding

14,099 posts

290 months

Saturday 3rd December 2022
quotequote all
OzzyR1 said:
One of their operatives reversed a mini-digger from an excavation in the road today, swung it round & caught the side of my neighbour's car.

It wasn't a big hit, but enough to put a dent in the door panel, scraped the paint down to the metal and the same on the rear part of the wing.

I didn't see it happen, but was alerted by the noise of my neighbour coming out to "gently remonstrate" with the fellow that caused the damage to his car.

They flat out denied it, despite being caught on 3 different CCTV cameras. He is phoning Giga head office tomorrow, don't know if that will get him anywhere.
The Gigaclear contractors dinged my fence with a digger when they were laying the cable duct into the village - promised to contact their managers and have it put right, I never heard another thing and fixed it myself in the end.

As has been noted, installing a cable network is hugely expensive, but Gigaclear's problem at least in part seems to be that they're attempting to economise by using the cheapest utter bumblefork contractors they can find to do the work, or at least to pretend to do the work.


Edited by eharding on Saturday 3rd December 08:49

Timothy Bucktu

15,596 posts

206 months

Saturday 3rd December 2022
quotequote all
Gigaclear customer here bowtie
The customer service critique above are so accurate. It's a case of when it's working (which to be honest is pretty much all the time) it's great...the best speeds and latency there is, bar a very expensive corporate provider. We are very lucky.
HOWEVER. God help you if you need to call customer services, or attempt to change your package. They just completely fail. Unable to push changes, get the billing hopelessly wrong, nice but useless customer service. The thing about the chat service being stroppy is so true.
It's a case of if it works, leave it alone.

eharding

14,099 posts

290 months

Saturday 3rd December 2022
quotequote all
Timothy Bucktu said:
Gigaclear customer here bowtie
The customer service critique above are so accurate. It's a case of when it's working (which to be honest is pretty much all the time) it's great...the best speeds and latency there is, bar a very expensive corporate provider. We are very lucky.
HOWEVER. God help you if you need to call customer services, or attempt to change your package. They just completely fail. Unable to push changes, get the billing hopelessly wrong, nice but useless customer service. The thing about the chat service being stroppy is so true.
It's a case of if it works, leave it alone.
Very much like the NTL service I had back in Bracknell - when it worked it was fine, when it broke you offered up a prayer that whatever it was that was borked was properly big-time shagged and that half the county was offline, meaning they would find someone competent to fix it - if the problem was yours and yours alone, then be prepared to wade through an endless swamp of cackwittery, incompetence and cranial excrement dealing with their support comedians in order to get it fixed.

rscott

15,202 posts

197 months

Saturday 3rd December 2022
quotequote all
There are worse altnet providers out there - County Broadband for example..
They dug up a private road to install cable without permission.
Blocked a dead end road for 3 days, laying a duct for cable, but never got a wayleave to connect from the end of the duct to their network, so the ducting remains unused.
Multiple instances of blocking people's driveways by digging them up without permission.

I was the parish councillor liaising with them for this village, so had to deal with multiple complaints. To make it worse, I live down the dead end road and was trapped by their contractors, but still can't even get the service because of their incompetence over the wayleave.

When it works, their connection is great (apparently) but it also has many single points of failure. One drunk driver hit a telegraph pole, taking 8 villages out for a week.

eharding

14,099 posts

290 months

Saturday 3rd December 2022
quotequote all
rscott said:
There are worse altnet providers out there - County Broadband for example..
They dug up a private road to install cable without permission.
Blocked a dead end road for 3 days, laying a duct for cable, but never got a wayleave to connect from the end of the duct to their network, so the ducting remains unused.
Multiple instances of blocking people's driveways by digging them up without permission.
I suspect that a lot of UK fibre providers rely on the same pool of high-muppet-factor contractors to do the installation work, and then to a greater or lesser degree add their own unique brand of customer service incompetence on top.

To return to the original topic however, what *is* interesting is that Starlink appear to be getting a foothold in UK government-funded rural internet projects - I'd guess that previously the government thinking was that OneWeb would be the LEO internet provider of choice (having spent a cheeky $500 million on a 33% stake in the company), but for various reasons they're nowhere close to providing a viable service. It'll be interesting to see what the UK actually gets for that $500 million though.

The Wookie

14,031 posts

234 months

Saturday 3rd December 2022
quotequote all
Don’t get me started, been trying to get Fibre to my parents in Reigate (not exactly the Outer Hebrides!) which until recently was only 8 meg (usually 2 and still flakey) ADSL. Finally they offered FTTP, apparently regular fibre wasn’t an option.

They installed the fiber to the corner of their garage in early 2020, it’s taken two years of repeat BT visits…

‘Oh no mate you need a cherry picker for that bit of the install’,

Cherry picker team comes 4 months later

‘oh no mate I’m not approved to make that sort of connection’

Guy who is approved guy comes with Cherry picker 6 months later

‘oh no mate I can make that connection and I have the cherry picker but I can’t do the connection on the cherry picker’

Absolute staggering, weapons grade jobsworthery and fkwittism

Eventually we paid someone to run the cable across to the house and into the basement where the switch is, BT came to do the install (another 4 months later) and it turned out they’d only run the FTTP to the fking garage from the fking telegraph pole across the road, the line they’d run wasn’t even fking connected to the fking cabinet down the road!!!

Tempted to just bin the whole shebang, give BT the finger and stick starlink in.