Starlink loses out on $886 million in rural broadband subsidies

misk@sopuli.xyz to Technology@lemmy.world – 482 points –
Starlink loses out on $886 million in rural broadband subsidies
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Its simple like many Musk projects he over promises and under delivers.

Starlink performance is slow and unreliable. Sometimes you get 100 Mbps and sometimes you get < 1 Mbps with the average being around 25. So it cant even really be considered broadband.

Doesn't match my experience. The worst thing about it is ping, but download is mostly always around 100-200.

Yeah, I've always seen at least 20 down, never as low as 1 Mbps the grandparent comment claimed. I usually see roughly 100 Mbps down, though.

That's based on using it in a few different places in our RV over the summer, some with obstructions from trees in some spots. Regardless of the actual speed, my wife and I were both able to telework and hold conference calls simultaneously without an issue - and my wife would use video (I kept it off, but she used it).

Really? Shit. I was planning to move to starlink but let me do some research.

I had Starlink too and it was definitely unreliable. It's also absolutely atrocious in any kind of weather like heavy rain or snow.

It's better than nothing for sure, but definitely look into it more, especially if you'll be relying on it for work.

It's also generally better than dsl.

It's faster than my old fiber connection through Telus up here in Canadia and also means I can look at any hamlet with power as a viable place to live now. We are never down for more the 2 seconds a day.

Because it's satellite!

Absolutely, but Musk specifically said weather wouldn't be a problem like regular satellites, which was just not true from my experience.

Overall though, I just think people should be aware that it's not a good replacement for if you already have access to other Internet services. I've seen people discuss how they want to ditch Comcast for it. It's a lot more expensive and definitely not as consistent. Again, it totally has an audience and purpose, pros and cons.

DISH says the same crap about satellite TV. Physics doesn't lie.

I was shocked when he got a gov't contract after he admitted to all that fuckery in Ukraine. Wtf is happening in gov't???

i imagine that's a product of the technology and not so much the company. the problems with satellite internet are just physics. it's probably stupid to go with something like this in an area that has fiber available.

My parents had it. Average was about 40mbps over a 60gb download, minimums were in the low 20s, and it topped out at around 80-100mbps. A fuck of a lot better than 10mbps down 750kbps up, their only other option. I hate Elon as much as the next guy, but starlink is awesome.

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