There is so much Starlink information online that it can be hard to discern the useful details... Most of this post is just a 'for fun personal story' - but if you considering a Starlink system and are here for info the tldr quick details I can offer are below, ymmv:
- Not only do you need an obstruction free view of the sky but you need a view in a specific direction (basically North in North America I believe)... In retrospect this seems obvious but in my first round of research I missed the part about the specific direction - I hadn't considered that our generally rather open view of the sky might not look the right way... (Thankfully it does!)
- The Starlink cable is proprietary and has connectors permanently attached on both ends - you'll want a 3/4" hole thru your wall for the cable - this is larger than anything I have ever wanted to pass thru a residential wall. For most people this is a non-issue involving enlarging or creating a hole in your wall - but if you are in a rental, end up with some special circumstance or, like me, just have a deep dislike of holes in your house this is probably worth knowing in advance...
- Upload speeds are not impressive - if this rather vague statement concerns you at all be sure to look at reported speeds online and confirm the upload speeds will work for you...
- We are happy with the service so far, but a friend 1.5 miles away who started service a few weeks before us is unhappy with network interruptions causing streaming videos to freeze and VOIP calls to drop, why? Who knows... And for reference we are fairly 'easy' internet consumers (no games, not so picky about streaming quality, we have remote work meetings but on the order of a few week max... )
- Getting an invite to start service was the 'hardest' part of the whole process for us. (We waited for and are on a residential service plan.)
- If you want to do anything interesting with your router (or maybe just don't want to re-setup various devices around your house) just order the Starlink Ethernet Adapter immediately...
The long version:
In the summer of 2021 my wife and I moved to Vail, AZ - the property isn't tremendously remote, but it is much more rural than our homes in Central Tucson (where we lived for two decades). When we moved we tried to ask all the right questions - and had a friend who lived in the area to consult - but in retrospect, regardless of amount of time and research, I just don't think we would have ever understood the differences moving 45 minutes away would mean - Internet service is one of those slightly interesting details...
In the early 2010s we switched to using mobile hotspots for internet - at first because we had problems with a DSL connection, later because it just worked and it was great to travel with. For many years this was directly thru carriers like Verizon, for the two of us and our internet usage the data caps generally weren't a problem. But the addition of the NordicTrack iFit Treadmill (which essentially streams video while you workout) and COVID making our long time patronage of Casa Video less attractive data caps became a problem. Rather than switch to a wired connection in 2019 we tried an unlimited AT&T data plan thru OTR Mobile, great for awhile but we had problems as the company grew, and later from Unlimita Wireless.
Our Nighthawk MR1100 4G LTE Mobile Router and Unlimita Wireless Plan made it to our new house and sometimes worked better than it did in town (thanks, I think, to a hillside location with a great view). But with our new location things changed - we started working remotely more often (during the Covid shutdowns we were physically in the office - part of a radically slimmed down staff doing 'everything' in order to keep the business going) and with a longer commute, gas prices soaring and inflation cutting into our budget we started to think about a more remote future - more remote work? Remote education opportunities? Maybe other things ... ?
So in 2022 when the opportunity for Starlink Residential Service came up we said yes! Basically at our location Starlink seems like the only reasonable chance for any considerable improvement in our internet connection. We don't have any options for 'wired' internet - other options we looked at: Simply Bits, Rincon Wireless and HughesNet - I'm grateful to have all these choices at our location but considering connection quality, price, speed and data caps Starlink seems like the most interesting option atm.
The gen 2 system that we received has a dish (rectangular), mount, long cable and router. With a largely unobstructed view of the sky to the West/North/East our setup was pretty simple - put the dish on the mount, set it in the yard (eventually we used the Starlink Pipe Adapter to attach it to a mount on the roof), enlarged an existing hole from outside to inside the house and plugged it in. For us it 'Just Worked' and so far the app has reported speeds between 40-160 Mbps down (seems like 75 is typical) and 7-20 up (often on the lower side of that...). The downloads are much improved from our previous setup! The upload speed is basically the same, or sometimes a little slower than our hotspot setup. Too bad the uploads haven't improved, but for us it has not been a huge problem and for the most part the download speeds mean more for our current internet usage.
Probably the only install detail of note is that we had to enlarge an existing hole thru the wall (to 3/4") to accommodate the Starlink cable. The cable has custom connectors at either end (apparently ethernet with custom power - see Hacking the Rectangular Starlink Dishy Cable) that you aren't intended to detach. (Btw if you are passing the connector directly thru the wall (not thru a nice cable pass thru) consider taping the connector - the cable enters the connector near the mid point and if things go wrong and you need to pull the cable back the connector can catch and pivot into a shape that is quite like a wall anchor making getting it out of the wall frustrating...)
Now that the system is setup and running it seems like the biggest challenge was getting a dish/service - our timeline: email interest June 2020, deposit February 2021, changed address (different Starlink zone I believe) May 2022, subscription opportunity end of May 2022.
I'm excited that Starlink is working well for us so far - but have been concerned by my close by friend's report of issues. The investment in the equipment is admittedly a bit of a gamble, who knows if Starlink will be around in 5 years and if they are what the quality/price/details of their service will be...
