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Kinda like looking for free Covid testing. Son in Seattle says there are free 'drop-in" testing places everywhere. In SWWA I have found (2). They are not nearby, and require proof of insurance, and require "online scheduling"
Hoping for "better-than-nothing" Starlink, maybe 2025? Most families who need it can't afford it.
Some of the perks of living closer to cities is you get better access to things like services and technologies. This has been true for quite some time.
I have ok internet.
The wife can work from home and we can have several televisions streaming off our Apple TV’s or we can have several iPads connected.
My son like to play games and says it is too slow for what he needs when he visits.
We are considering starlink but have heard there are some issues and the start up costs are $500.
Do any of you have any real experience with starlink?
Some of the perks of living closer to cities is you get better access to things like services and technologies. This has been true for quite some time.
That is NOT true.
The only reason is that the politicians (remember we have the best government money can buy) can ignore rural areas to benefit the corporations.
In the Wenatchee Valley, at the turn of the century, the local PUD's were laying fiber per BPA requirements and decided to hook up the schools and county offices to fiber. Then they decided to provide internet, phone, and cable TV services to county residents.
That is when Governor Locke and the Democrats came unglued. Nope, there are somethings that GOVERNMENT should NOT be doing said the Democrats. The Republican answer was that it is OUR GOVERNMENT and we can do anything we want.
The compromise was that PUD's could offer wholesale services, but not retail, even though local taxpayers paid for the entire system.
Not mentioned in the Seattle Times article was that law was finally repealed last year. That is why the Colville Tribe can FINALLY start building their own fiber system. And more importantly, other cities, counties can now start building their own fiber systems.
Technology is not limited to urban areas. Wenatchee has a three call letter radio station. The FCC stopped issuing those in 1922!!!
Dams are pretty technological achievements. Four PUD's in eastern Washington built five dams without any state or Federal dollars. They condemed and operate three more dams that they bought from private utilities.
That was in the 1930's!!!
The rural/urban split became real obvious in the early 1980's. I understand urban areas not wanting to subsidize rural areas, but to keep rural areas from spending their OWN monies to upgrade their technological infrastructure.
I have ok internet.
The wife can work from home and we can have several televisions streaming off our Apple TV’s or we can have several iPads connected.
My son like to play games and says it is too slow for what he needs when he visits. Do any of you have any real experience with starlink?
I have experience with EVERYTHING!!! We have had fiber for over twenty years at our home in Wenatchee thanks to the PUD.
I have unlimited data on my phones for traveling in the US and Canada, complete with data amplifiers and other "goodies".
And in late October I got my StarLink system for my vacation rental home.
It is $500 for the dish and equipment. You might need to buy additional cables, fittings, etc.
The monthly fee is 100/month.
Currently, sales are being limited to rural areas and within a "cell". My vacation home is ten miles from my city home. My city home is just barely within the cell.
The dish is geo-referenced to a location. Move it outside the cell and it doesn't work, unless you call StarLink. Then it still might not work, if your new cell is full. But if not, they will transfer you, but when you move back to your original cell, you might not get service if that cell is now full!!!
There is a StarLink application that you can download for free and it will tell you if StarLink will work there. However, the application is pretty flaky.
You need to have a open sky to the north. More open sky the better it works. The power box comes with a 100' cable. The router is on a short cable, but you can buy a longer cable and it works.
My neighbor is out 100 feet on the power supply and 200 feet on the router cable. It works. I am 125 feet on the router cable.
The power supply cable needs to be buried in condiut. Lots of hidden costs. When the snow melts I am going to get an electrician to install the entire setup. I suspect I will out a couple of grand for installation, but it is an off-grid installation and and over 200 feet from the house.
Our guests are split on phone and internet access so I will also put in a on-off switch. The other reason for the on-off switch is that StarLink uses MORE electricity than my ENTIRE off-grid house according to the specs.
The good news is that it works.
I have been getting speeds from 200mbps down to 25mbps. The more sky visible to the dish, the higher the speed. It does drop out as the satellites hand off your signal from one to another. Only really noticeable on zoom video calls. The rest of the time, you think it is just taking longer for the web page to load.
You can do wi-fi calling using your cell phone with StarLink. It works well with that.
I am paying $50 a month for a land-line to access 911. So for another $50 I get internet plus phone.
It is very simple to set-up. Four pictures, no words in the instructions. If you have a clear spot close to the house, your installation costs will be much lower, and especially if your grid connected and not worried about drawing down the batteries. Do watch a video on installation. You always want to do something...don't you will break it. Just watch it connect on its own.
You might want to order if you are at all considering it.
There are lots of issues with low-orbit satellite internet dealing with space and science issues. I am not sure they will ALL be solved, so it might be that old Elon gets grandfathered and nobody else is let in to the club.
The only reason is that the politicians (remember we have the best government money can buy) can ignore rural areas to benefit the corporations.
In the Wenatchee Valley, at the turn of the century, the local PUD's were laying fiber per BPA requirements and decided to hook up the schools and county offices to fiber. Then they decided to provide internet, phone, and cable TV services to county residents.
That is when Governor Locke and the Democrats came unglued. Nope, there are somethings that GOVERNMENT should NOT be doing said the Democrats. The Republican answer was that it is OUR GOVERNMENT and we can do anything we want.
The compromise was that PUD's could offer wholesale services, but not retail, even though local taxpayers paid for the entire system.
Not mentioned in the Seattle Times article was that law was finally repealed last year. That is why the Colville Tribe can FINALLY start building their own fiber system. And more importantly, other cities, counties can now start building their own fiber systems.
Technology is not limited to urban areas. Wenatchee has a three call letter radio station. The FCC stopped issuing those in 1922!!!
Dams are pretty technological achievements. Four PUD's in eastern Washington built five dams without any state or Federal dollars. They condemed and operate three more dams that they bought from private utilities.
That was in the 1930's!!!
The rural/urban split became real obvious in the early 1980's. I understand urban areas not wanting to subsidize rural areas, but to keep rural areas from spending their OWN monies to upgrade their technological infrastructure.
I think that is just wrong.
Medical, cable, internet and cell are all services that were easier to get nearer the city.
I grew up in Texas. I don’t know WA history.
I do know Texas had some nuclear development in rural places -for a good reason!
Yes Washington used to have a law that prohibited local municipalities from providing internet service direct to consumers. A bunch of states had those laws that were mostly promoted by cable monopolies and put forward in state legislatures by ALEC and other conservative pro-business lobbying groups.
I don't know the particular history of how such a law was first passed in WA, who advocated and why. A quick bit of googling didn't provide any answers. During that time period several decades ago the WA legislature was bouncing between GOP and Dem control so it was probably a bipartisan effort and maybe snuck into some other bill under the radar. It is hard to find answers.
But bottom line is that the current legislature repealed those old restrictions and local municipalities are free to provide whatever sort of internet service they want. The problem, of course, is that wired service to remote rural locations is very expensive and difficult. Which pretty much forces you to rely on satellite service for cable TV and there are various satellite and microwave-based technologies that are available to provide broadband to very rural areas. When we lived in TX we were outside the Cable TV range and so had to use DirectTV for our cable provider and a local small microwave outfit provided our internet via an antenna on the roof connected to a router. It wasn't the best but it worked.
That is the price that goes with living in very rural areas. It is absurd to think otherwise. There are a bazillion different urban services that you don't get in super rural areas. You aren't going to get DoorDash delivery of sushi or thai takeout either. And you probably can't easily call an Uber. If you want certain amenities you have to live somewhere where the population density supports such services.
I was told that starlink had a tendency to freeze up a bit.
When it runs it runs fine but for some reason it would freeze up the monitors or tv’s.
Obviously a bad reception issue.
Wifey can’t afford any issues like that if she is in a meeting and she is almost always in a meeting.
So we are scared to try it if it has issues.
Have any of you had any issues with the starlink system?
That is the price that goes with living in very rural areas. It is absurd to think otherwise. There are a bazillion different urban services that you don't get in super rural areas. You aren't going to get DoorDash delivery of sushi or thai takeout either. And you probably can't easily call an Uber. If you want certain amenities you have to live somewhere where the population density supports such services.
There are semi rural areas with medical services not very far, even Thai take out and delivery that have abysmal internet. Washington has a lot of old DSL lines, bad cell reception and no cable internet. You don't need to go far to find areas with poor internet. The neighbors might have cable internet, and across the street none, and the company refuse to add a line.
I was told that starlink had a tendency to freeze up a bit.
When it runs it runs fine but for some reason it would freeze up the monitors or tv’s.
Obviously a bad reception issue.
Wifey can’t afford any issues like that if she is in a meeting and she is almost always in a meeting.
So we are scared to try it if it has issues.
Have any of you had any issues with the starlink system?
I tested it to make sure I wanted to continue to pay the $100 a month until I can get it pernamently installed after the snow melts.
I used for one ZOOM call in the early evening. It froze up for about 30 seconds four or five times in a couple of hours. That was frustrating. I am no longer working...so it didn't matter, but still you lose your train of thought.
Reception is directly related to how much clear sky you have to the north, and how many users are in your cell. That is why they are limiting the number of users by cell.
IF you know somebody that has a StarLink set up close to you ask if you can borrow it. Inside of an hour using it on site, you will know more than enough to make a decision.
The story is that as more satellites that go up the better the service will be. Which is why is just came off beta. The target is 100mbps. The ping on my service was running 36. It is 8 on the PUD fiber network.
Is there anybody in your area that does StarLink installations?? My electrician is willing to do it, but I took care of ALL the non-electrical issues first.
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