Moving to Starlink

[UncleEbenezer]

I thought prices had come down well below that!

Googling "satellite broadband", I see £25/month and others in that ballpark. Though I haven't researched what you get for that.

There's two kinds of satellite broadband. The "classic" satellite broadband uses a geostationary satellite, and a dish (like a satellite TV dish) that you have to install pointed at the satellite. Speeds are fairly low, you tend to have a low-ish data cap, and latency is terrible (since you've got a round trip to geostationary orbit) so useless for gaming. It used to be horribly expensive but has got a lot cheaper.

Indeed, that's what I had in mind, back in the days when I considered it as an option if I had found myself otherwise cut off. For me, latency would be the most annoying issue (need to keep a landline phone), but I could've lived with it.

The new generation like Starlink uses satellites in low earth orbit.

Right. Yes, I was kind-of aware of a new generation of mass-junk, but not the details - and it firmly postdates my time in the space sector (my main work was software infrastructure for remote sensing, but satellite comms kind-of rubbed off from colleagues in that field and the ESA work environment).

I take it you're not prepared to live with a geostationary satellite service?

[PhaseThree]

I thought prices had come down well below that!

Googling "satellite broadband", I see £25/month and others in that ballpark. Though I haven't researched what you get for that.

There's two kinds of satellite broadband. The "classic" satellite broadband uses a geostationary satellite, and a dish (like a satellite TV dish) that you have to install pointed at the satellite. Speeds are fairly low, you tend to have a low-ish data cap, and latency is terrible (since you've got a round trip to geostationary orbit) so useless for gaming. It used to be horribly expensive but has got a lot cheaper.

Indeed, that's what I had in mind, back in the days when I considered it as an option if I had found myself otherwise cut off. For me, latency would be the most annoying issue (need to keep a landline phone), but I could've lived with it.

The new generation like Starlink uses satellites in low earth orbit.

Right. Yes, I was kind-of aware of a new generation of mass-junk, but not the details - and it firmly postdates my time in the space sector (my main work was software infrastructure for remote sensing, but satellite comms kind-of rubbed off from colleagues in that field and the ESA work environment).

I take it you're not prepared to live with a geostationary satellite service?

I'm absolutely certain I can't live with a geostationary satellite service. (Latency, data usage limits, cost of set up etc.), But I'm not certain I can live with Starlink's service either (zero customer support, Ethernet connection an extra cost extra, lack of service guarantees etc)