Star link
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@Snowy Yup I realise he asked for actual experience, I was putting in some background info about what you are paying for. If you can't get fibre then star link is the next best. But it is expensive. My personal experience is lots of people I know with it, and it's the best they can get, and also mobile trialling it at work. If you can't get fibre and can afford it, it is a no brainer
Starlink NZ is normally $1050 install (there is a rural deal ATM for $200 ATM) and $160 per month - my mistake I thought it was $190.
My current provider is My Republic, I pay less than this (89) as it is grandfathered but ~90 per month for gig broadband with no contract is normal. And no installation costs at all.
If I paid the same as starlink I'd get
No decision or discussion should be made in isolation. -
I'm on a rural property in Victoria so only shit NBN so went with Starlink. I get around 200MB Down and 15MB Up which is about 10 times faster down than what I was getting. Simple install and just works. I do wish up was a bit faster as I upload a fair bit but happy enough so far.
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@Hooroo I couldn't get fibre either. The VDSL was slow as a really fucking slow thing, if it even worked, did mobile for a while was as you say, average.
So yeah starlink has been really good. Streaming , working from home all doable now. It did cost me $1040 to set up (twice), so I am well pissed off about the price reductions for the kits, but I do have decent internet now so I live with it. If you can get it for $199 (kit) it is likely worth it for you. Actually it doesn't sound like you have much choice (and they look cool when they launch them too).
Edit: Noel Leeming are doing the kits for $199 and it doesn't even mention rural so you could be on a winner.
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Easily the best option if in a non-fibre area.
God send for us as it allows us to work in our Welly jobs while sitting in rural Central Otago.@Snowy , base fibre in NZ is now 300 to the ONT. If you are getting sub 100 it could be your wifi gear/mesh. Some only have 100 ethernet ports for the backhaul to the modem. I had the same but easily solved without replacing the whole kit if you have a mesh like Deco. just buy one unit with the 1gig port and turn that into your master. The wireless connection for the others will all run at that speed it is just the backhaul port that is limited.
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@Machpants said in Star link:
As an aside, ex Vodafone are going to be using starlink for 100% mobile coverage from next year
Media have jumped all over that in a PR dream for Voda.
It will be for SMS only for quite some time. Still better than being completely cut off if broken down in a dead spot area but not what the headlines say. Good they are heading down that road though. -
@Machpants said in Star link:
As an aside, ex Vodafone are going to be using starlink for 100% mobile coverage from next year
Media have jumped all over that in a PR dream for Voda.
It will be for SMS only for quite some time. Still better than being completely cut off if broken down in a dead spot area but not what the headlines say. Good they are heading down that road though.It's like the T-Mobile plan in the states, you can call for help no matter where you are. Huge.
And the new Vodafone entity have been pretty clear what the roll out plan is for the voice side of things, from memory Starlink needs the V2 satellites with the lasers to get that working.
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@Machpants said in Star link:
As an aside, ex Vodafone are going to be using starlink for 100% mobile coverage from next year
Media have jumped all over that in a PR dream for Voda.
It will be for SMS only for quite some time. Still better than being completely cut off if broken down in a dead spot area but not what the headlines say. Good they are heading down that road though.It's like the T-Mobile plan in the states, you can call for help no matter where you are. Huge.
And the new Vodafone entity have been pretty clear what the roll out plan is for the voice side of things, from memory Starlink needs the V2 satellites with the lasers to get that working.
Voda have been clear, absolutely. It is lazy journos that haven't.
Can't believe how many people said to me yesterday " I see that all our mobiles will be satellite connected next year" thinking they will be able to use them fully, everywhere. -
@taniwharugby said in Star link:
Starlink needs the V2 satellites with the lasers
sounds so absurd
Living in the future man!
Even better, they are waiting on the Starship with pez dispenser to launch those in bulk.
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Is the light pollution issue a real thing or a beat up?
I think it was a thing initially - but newer satellites are less bright. No idea of the current status though
Plus, astronomy should soon have multiple space telescopes for proper astronomy outside the atmosphere if Starship gets going.
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Is the light pollution issue a real thing or a beat up?
It's a real issue for astronomy, there are so many of them out there. Even the ones they changed to reflect less light to earth, still cause issues and the shear number means it is getting harder and harder to block out when studying the sky
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@Machpants said in Star link:
Is the light pollution issue a real thing or a beat up?
It's a real issue for astronomy, there are so many of them out there. Even the ones they changed to reflect less light to earth, still cause issues and the shear number means it is getting harder and harder to block out when studying the sky
Amateur astronomy is minorly effected. Scientific astronomy is uneffected as the paths are preditcable and computer processing removes any impact from them.
Updated versions have a lower reflectiveness, and once they hit their final orbits it's a non issue. Space is big, these are are effectively the same as a car spread out one per state of the US.
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@Machpants said in Star link:
Is the light pollution issue a real thing or a beat up?
It's a real issue for astronomy, there are so many of them out there. Even the ones they changed to reflect less light to earth, still cause issues and the shear number means it is getting harder and harder to block out when studying the sky
I get it. Sorry I thought it meant light pollution affecting performance of Starlink
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@Machpants said in Star link:
Is the light pollution issue a real thing or a beat up?
It's a real issue for astronomy, there are so many of them out there. Even the ones they changed to reflect less light to earth, still cause issues and the shear number means it is getting harder and harder to block out when studying the sky
Amateur astronomy is minorly effected. Scientific astronomy is uneffected as the paths are preditcable and computer processing removes any impact from them.
Updated versions have a lower reflectiveness, and once they hit their final orbits it's a non issue. Space is big, these are are effectively the same as a car spread out one per state of the US.
For some forms of astronomical images yes, but not all
"However, a growing interest in surveying the entire sky for transient phenomena (such as supernovae) or near-Earth asteroids makes the twilight sky an important piece of real estate. A study published in January 2022 in The Astrophysical Journal provides an important benchmark on just how intrusive Starlink satellites can be. According to the paper, the Zwicky Transient Facility at Mount Palomar is already affected, even with only a fraction of the final constellation in orbit. In 2021, when only some 1,000 satellites were in place, nearly 20 percent of the telescope’s twilight images had streaks on them."
