The satellites orbit low enough to experience slight drag from the upper atmosphere. Without continuous reboosting, they will fall out of the sky and burn up all on their own. No Kessler Syndrome danger at all.
-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
-
We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
SpaceX begins $99 preorders for Starlink satellite internet service
- Thread starter Forerunner
- Start date
‘This Is Not Cool!’ - Astronomers Despair As SpaceX Starlink Train Ruins Observation Of Nearby Galaxies
Two astronomers expected to see distant stars in their telescope this morning. Instead, they saw a train of satellites in SpaceX's Starlink mega constellation.
www.forbes.com
That's not true. It is highly minimized, but I high speed impact can still send debris into higher orbits.
Look. I'm very happy for the persons in rural America, Canada and other first world countries finally getting the service. And $99 USD per month seems completely reasonable. Not too cheap, not too expensive... just right.
But unfortunately, $99 USD is a lot of money for the rest of the world (at least third-world countries as they are called).
Look, I live in Mexico, border with TX. The international bridge is literally 10 minutes away from my house, and I get to visit the USA a couple of times per month for shopping and stuff (well, not during the pandemic).
We have lots of ISPs here in the country: Telmex, IZZI, TotalPlay, Axtel, Megacable and some smaller ones and regional ones. But the prices are way cheaper than in the USA: Telmex Is around $30 USD for optical fiber (150mbps) for one of the most expensive plans in their lineup (most people are paying around $15 and $20 USD per month).
And I know Starlink is not competing against regular ISPs, but complementing them. I live in a neighborhood that doesn't cable utility poles (all the cabling is underground) and ISPs won't offer the service here. The annoying part is that the utility poles with fiber are 400 meters away from my house. I can literally see the fiber from my window.
But $99 USD is a lot of money for a regular Mexican person.
Most people in the country are living with around $100 USD peer week. That would mean a whole week of salary for the service (25%). That's not doable at all. How do most people survive with that kind of income? Well, everything is cheaper here. Most cell phone plans are like $10 USD. Services are way cheaper. Same with food.
SpaceX needs to have regional pricing if they want to succeed in the rest of the world. Now, I know the equipment is expensive, and I don't think most people would have a problem making the initial $500 USD investment.
But a recurring $99 USD per month fee would be almost impossible to pay for 90% of the population in developing countries.
But unfortunately, $99 USD is a lot of money for the rest of the world (at least third-world countries as they are called).
Look, I live in Mexico, border with TX. The international bridge is literally 10 minutes away from my house, and I get to visit the USA a couple of times per month for shopping and stuff (well, not during the pandemic).
We have lots of ISPs here in the country: Telmex, IZZI, TotalPlay, Axtel, Megacable and some smaller ones and regional ones. But the prices are way cheaper than in the USA: Telmex Is around $30 USD for optical fiber (150mbps) for one of the most expensive plans in their lineup (most people are paying around $15 and $20 USD per month).
And I know Starlink is not competing against regular ISPs, but complementing them. I live in a neighborhood that doesn't cable utility poles (all the cabling is underground) and ISPs won't offer the service here. The annoying part is that the utility poles with fiber are 400 meters away from my house. I can literally see the fiber from my window.
But $99 USD is a lot of money for a regular Mexican person.
Most people in the country are living with around $100 USD peer week. That would mean a whole week of salary for the service (25%). That's not doable at all. How do most people survive with that kind of income? Well, everything is cheaper here. Most cell phone plans are like $10 USD. Services are way cheaper. Same with food.
SpaceX needs to have regional pricing if they want to succeed in the rest of the world. Now, I know the equipment is expensive, and I don't think most people would have a problem making the initial $500 USD investment.
But a recurring $99 USD per month fee would be almost impossible to pay for 90% of the population in developing countries.
I hear you. I live in Argentina and 100$ is way too high. We'll see if they adjust their prices in the next few years. It makes sense that they would.
Hmm yes maybe (citation needed :-P)
But a higher orbit with an identical perigee, so still eventually slowed down.
As for the cost: It was always going to be high to begin with. Building and launching 1000s of satellites is very expensive business, and the dish is a very sophisticated phased array of the kind previously only seen in military radar. It will come down over time.
In the mean time, sharing the connection with neighbours would be the best way to make it more affordable.
I live in the middle of nowhere. I would jump on his for sure. God it would be amazing to finally have faster than 10/1. I would love to be able to download a game AND work. At the rate I am now I have to pick one or the other so games take weeks to finish or get all of them updated before I can even play. I literally have to plan like 3 days ahead if I wanna play games because I know there is likely like 20 games waiting to update.
Split the cost with someone else, you don't need all the bandwidth. This is what hotels and AirBnBs do.
Sir, I do heavy remote work, stream HD, etc, with 25mbps without a hitch. This is s non-issue. Like I said you can split the costs. You do not need 150mbps.
Sir, I have lived in this house for the past 6 years, and I have been working from home for a year now. Your 25mbps are actually decent.
My speed is 5mbps.
Of course Starlink for $99 USD is decent and decently priced in first world countries, but not here. It's out of reach. And it's not like I could share the service with neighbors. It's not a village here.
It's not for me but for my parents. They live in a rural area and would have no one to share it with.
They have the money but would never pay that much for internet.
Also, not to burst your bubble but I live with 170 dollars a month my dude. Nobody is going to pay 100 dollars per month for internet here, it's more than my rent.
I share bills with my roommate and my internet costs me 10 dollars a month.
Last edited:
Its not really meant for people who have access to Comcast. It's meant for people who have zero options outside of some BS Hughesnet with low data caps. And I mean LOW like 30 GB a month.
I might give it a try...It's going to be bad for my little 15,000 person city.
It's cutting edge hardware. I suspect it's already subsidised.
After watching that LTT video posted yesterday, yeah, you can understand why it's that much.
Debris could end up in orbits with higher apogee, but even in the worst case the perigee would be at the altitude where the impact occurred
If you're at 500km and you apply some kind of impulse, whether its from an engine burn or a collision, your resulting orbit will still pass through 500km
I would totally go for 99 dollars for a preorder but that $499 is really preventing me at the moment.
Or just rural with poor ADSL. I'm paying $72 a month for 6Mbps down and 0.5Mbps up through CenturyLink.
Poor phrasing on my part. More that I find the $500 hardware cost a bigger starting barrier to entry for many.
The worst part about my rural DSL, and I suspect my area isn't alone in this, is that in addition to literally being dog shit AND expensive, it is HORRIBLY unreliable. What starlink is offering, and even currently delivering on (let alone how we know its going to vastly improve), will literally be a night and day experience.
True, its also important to know that this is potentially a product that will come down in price with time, which is Tesla's gimmick (offer a premium product and lower the price over time).
I don't think it's entirely due to lack of choice. Per user infrastructure costs are probably higher too. But I'm just guessing so maybe others have hard data to prove that wrong.
In any case, Starlink does not have capacity right now for everyone, so high entry price will control the arrival of new customers until more satellites go up.
There are bunch of YT videos from beta testers, it's working fine in rain/snow. Heavy snow on the dish can reduce the signal quality, but antenna is making its own heat so it can melt the snow.
You're not wrong. It's the same reason 5G won't save rural America either. Cell companies have no financial incentive to build out entirely new towers/expand coverage into the sticks to MAYBE acquire 5 new customers per tower. The math just doesn't work out.
From what I've read and seen clouds and rain don't affect it much, if at all. Falling snow definitely impacts performance though, download, upload, and a pretty erratic ping. Clearing snow off the dish helps marginally - it seems its worst when it flying.
Even conservative estimates will generate enough profit to allow SpaceX to outspend NASA several times over.
This is literally the seed funding for a Mars colony.
For people in other countries, one encouraging part of this is they can probably use the infrastructure to extend service to different countries and price them based on COL. Just going by instinct these are very much "targeting US customers" prices and not "minimum anywhere in the world" prices. Also works as a proof of concept for imitators or competing services.
Same here, ordered mine yesterday and the kit should arrive in 2-4 weeks. Can't wait to cancel my 7mbps up/ 0.5mbps down DSL!
I spent the morning using the app to try and determine the best location (without actually getting on my icy/snowy roof) with the least obstruction. I watched a video of a guy that set his up with some obstruction and still got good results, so I feel pretty good I'll find a spot - just hoping it can also be somewhere accessible to clear snow off when it falls heavy.
If you can even get DSL. AT&T is phasing theirs out. My mom bought a house and the prior owner has to keep the service in his name or she gets nothing
If you ever wanted to buy stock for a product, this is one of those things thats close to a sure bet I can think of and thats largely due to ISP's dragging their feet for decades. If the speeds improve its going to make inroads into the more populated areas too.
I'm currently paying 64.99 a month for 200Mbps, but I usually get anywhere from 300-450.
I'm so excited for rural people to be able to have reliable internet, but I think I'll jump on the band wagon when they reach their proposed goals of higher speeds. I can't justify 99 a month for less speed, but I'm in when they get higher speeds like they have been proposing.
I'm so excited for rural people to be able to have reliable internet, but I think I'll jump on the band wagon when they reach their proposed goals of higher speeds. I can't justify 99 a month for less speed, but I'm in when they get higher speeds like they have been proposing.
I was browsing their fine print and I love where their heads at tho! Got some stuff in there about service provided on Mars, in transit to Mars, and how Mars is a free planet that no Earth based government has authority over!
Some fun fine details
Some fun fine details