Starlink : Discussion of orders and pre-orders

[zappafrank]

I just got the email from Starlink on Saturday with the refundable $99 deposit.  I am in Phoenix, AZ, they said availability in the second half of the year @ $99 a month.  I'm paying $57 a month for Cox, and I loathe them, my whole neighborhood except for my block has been wired for Century Link fiber at a lower cost.  Any word on what the monthly price might become for Starlink?  I am going to send the deposit in and decide later if it is worth it.  I really don't like Cox, so many outages and price increases...

[zappafrank]

Update, I waited too late, now they say its not available...womp womp.

[Mandella]

Update, I waited too late, now they say its not available...womp womp.

Wow. That seems to imply that demand is fairly high then. Glad I got mine in within a few hours of the window opening.

[quixote]

I live in the SF Bay Area and I just received the pre-order email. Where I live, for years we had only terrible municipal broadband, but finally got AT&T Fiber about 2 years ago. I'm moving soon, so I am not going to be able to get Starlink here, but hopefully it will be available in my new location. Big SpaceX fan and AT&T hater, so it would've been a good match.

[ehb]

Just received my starlink pre-order notice (30 N), so perhaps a new batch of slots is available.
I successfully purchased a pre-order slot.

The order confirmed email included:

Starlink will begin offering service in your area beginning mid to late 2021. Orders will be fulfilled on a first-come, first-served basis. You will be notified via email prior to shipment, and you will be charged the remainder of your balance once your kit ships.

Edit: added the confirmation note.

[soltasto]

Also got the email here in Italy (44.67 N)

Starlink is targeting coverage in your area in mid to late 2021. You will receive a notification once your Starlink is ready to ship.
Hardware 499,00 €
Service 99,00 € /mo
Shipping & Handling 60,00 €
Due Today 99,00 €

[WTF]

Clicked the Starlink link, sent deposit a few minutes ago.
Received confirmation, etc.

Live in Nashville, Tennessee .... The General Service District ... Think in the city.

More detail:

AT&T has a pedestal 20 meters from my back patio, I assume dedicated to fiber. For the past three years I've attempted to get a connection ... 'promises' is overstating their response.

[Star One]

Got an email in the U.K. today.

[Lars-J]

I see a disturbing amount of people (not in this thread but in general) that are ordering Starlink, and they already have great internet service... just because they want the cool new thing. It's probably better to let the people who truly need it get it first.

I personally requested to be part of the early beta, but I have since gotten much better (and cheaper) internet service out of my cable provider. So I'll stick with what I have... and enjoy the competitive price pressure that is coming to ISPs. 

[ehb]

I see a disturbing amount of people (not in this thread but in general) that are ordering Starlink, and they already have great internet service... just because they want the cool new thing. It's probably better to let the people who truly need it get it first.

I personally requested to be part of the early beta, but I have since gotten much better (and cheaper) internet service out of my cable provider. So I'll stick with what I have... and enjoy the competitive price pressure that is coming to ISPs. 

I'm rural and currently pay $125/mo for 3Mbps up & 3Mbps down (down often is less than this). Need it!

[kevinof]

Got an email today for Dublin, Ireland. Not going to take it up as  I want it for the boat and not the house (we already have 300mb connection).

Once they have mobile/marine coverage (aka roaming) I'll order but good to know it's hitting this neck of the woods.

[Elvis in Space]

Clicked the Starlink link, sent deposit a few minutes ago.
Received confirmation, etc.

Live in Nashville, Tennessee .... The General Service District ... Think in the city.

I have a good friend in the boonies - Right on Hwy 100 halfway between Hohenwald and Linden who I advised to get in early. He's been waiting for the local utility to provide promised fiber for years. He got an email confirming his order a few days ago and is overjoyed. Says if he has to wait until late this summer that's fine because it's still much sooner than anything else he's been "promised".

[Mandella]

Clicked the Starlink link, sent deposit a few minutes ago.
Received confirmation, etc.

Live in Nashville, Tennessee .... The General Service District ... Think in the city.

I have a good friend in the boonies - Right on Hwy 100 halfway between Hohenwald and Linden who I advised to get in early. He's been waiting for the local utility to provide promised fiber for years. He got an email confirming his order a few days ago and is overjoyed. Says if he has to wait until late this summer that's fine because it's still much sooner than anything else he's been "promised".

I've had cable "promised" since the early aughts here too, so I definitely think that is a good bet.

[erv]

I also got an email a few days ago. Going to site it says: Starlink is targeting coverage in your area in 2022.
That's Latvia, EU.
Not preordering it now, will see if/when the price go down.

[jon.amos]

Got my invite, same as all the others.
Location 28.4433 LAT so they are moving well South by mid year!

[oldAtlas_Eguy]

Got my invite, same as all the others.
Location 28.4433 LAT so they are moving well South by mid year!

With 1500 operational sats. Ones actually in their "permanent" orbital positions. The minimum Latitude is supposedly 0 degrees. For SpaceX to get to 1500 operations sats it will take 2 to 3 months after L25 or L26 launches. L26 would be likely in mid May. Putting 3 months from then at mid August. So solid continuous coverage from 0 to ~53 degrees N/S Latitude. As it approaches to 1500 total the min continuous coverage will decrease to lower and lower until it finally reaches 0.

[duh]

Stray thought: Unless I am missing something, enough satellites are necessary but not sufficient to get coverage all the way to 0 degree latitude. In fact, enough satellites are not suffificient for any latitude based on the current satellite configuration. Without an intersatellite laser link (or some other means to communicate between satellites directly) both the user terminal and a ground station are required to be in view of the same satellite. In addition, that view has to be continuous until another satellite ground station pair are visible to the user terminal. Having made that point, where is the appropriate thread to find out if someone has compiled a map showing all the ground stations locations that are currently in operation? To get back to the topic of this thread, if there is no ground station "close" to a potential user, there is no need for a user terminal since it cannot be used for its intended purpose. What meets the definition of "close" may be appropriate for a different thread (which one?) but I would guess if would have to be closer than 500 miles to the user terminal (but how much closer). Enough of this stray thought: I have wandered far enough for the moment.

[John Duncan]

Starlink will be available 3rd quarter of 2021 here in rural Alabama.  We ordered it.  Our current provider (windstream) gives us 6 to 10 mbs download, .4 mbs upload and latency between 100 to 400 ms.  I can't wait for starlink.

[ehb]

Ordered mine 2021-02-23
Received "ready" email 2022-06-24
Didn't notice it until today (email overloaded) ...

n.b. if you don't respond to the "ready" in 7 days, you lose your place and have to start over ...

Location 29.99 N.

[DanClemmensen]

Stray thought: Unless I am missing something, enough satellites are necessary but not sufficient to get coverage all the way to 0 degree latitude. In fact, enough satellites are not suffificient for any latitude based on the current satellite configuration. Without an intersatellite laser link (or some other means to communicate between satellites directly) both the user terminal and a ground station are required to be in view of the same satellite. In addition, that view has to be continuous until another satellite ground station pair are visible to the user terminal. Having made that point, where is the appropriate thread to find out if someone has compiled a map showing all the ground stations locations that are currently in operation? To get back to the topic of this thread, if there is no ground station "close" to a potential user, there is no need for a user terminal since it cannot be used for its intended purpose. What meets the definition of "close" may be appropriate for a different thread (which one?) but I would guess if would have to be closer than 500 miles to the user terminal (but how much closer). Enough of this stray thought: I have wandered far enough for the moment.

SpaceX provides a map of areas that can be serviced:
     https://www.starlink.com/map
It's not as simple as "distance to nearest teleport". The area covered by a satellite moves continuously, and the satellite must see both you and the teleport. Each satellite switches from teleport to teleport as it moves. Thus you are served by multiple teleports that the satellites that serve you can see.  For an oversimplified example, if you are close enough to a teleport to your east but there is no teleport to your west, you cannot be served.  ISL solve this of course, but only when all the satellites that serve you have ISL.