Starlink is such a scam all my relatives signed up for the $600 beta and now more than a year later still no way to use the service. All the while they keep promising it's only 1-2 months out.
But I agree that Elon time is absurd and irritating and sure feels like a scam. (I would argue FSD being sold for SIX GODDAMN YEARS on Teslas is _absolutely_ a scam.)
https://www.starlink.com/legal/terms-of-service-preorder#:~:....
Or are they happy to save their place in line?
It really started coming together in the fall and I would say since November it has been very usable. I would say it's easily as stable if not more stable than the 10/.7M dsl it replaces.
The issues I have with connectivity are probably 99% trees.
When I first started it seemed to need a total view of the sky to get consistent. As the software/flotilla have improved vastly, I use it for zoom and once every couple hours of zooming I may risk a 10 second blip.
I think they are getting better software wise of detecting the usable area of visible sky and utilizing satellites better.
I would think more satellites, more tree tolerance. I currently have my dishy too close to the road since I get the best view that way, I might try moving it back to the backyard this spring to see if it can work well there without worrying about teenagers using it for batting practice or some disgruntled cable employee or it getting stolen.
If you have an unobstructed view of the sky, it should be functionally as reliable as cable internet.
You can only pay the 500 for the dish once it's available for shipping.
You're defining "happy" as "not quite pissed off enough to leave". That's exactly the kind of game which (when compounded) makes fed-up people call things scams.
No I'm not, I literally mean happy. Starlink is by far the best ROI internet option for many.
You're taking a plausibly-most-likely scenario and using it to cast an assumption about the emotional state of hundreds of thousands of people. Don't you think you might be talking out of your ass?
And my relatives are not wealthy people -- this was half of their income for a particular month so at this point they'll be damned if they lose their place in line. They have no other choice -- not even DSL options in their area and the other satellite services have been so expensive and unreliable. They are completely at his mercy, and I feel like it's my fault for suggesting it.
It's possible that the delay is due to lack of legal clearance in the customer country. Starlink needs to get approval to install and operate the ground station satellite links in each country. From the few authoritative statements I've seen those are sometimes delayed due to local country bureaucracy.
I ordered Starlink in the UK in February 2020 and the equipment finally arrived in May 2020. I /think/ the stated delivery estimate at the time was 2-3 months and never reduced until the order confirmation email arrived and I paid the balance, after which the equipment arrived a couple of weeks later.
For example, Starlink claimed in early 2021 to be launching in Viet Nam "within a year", and have been selling pre-orders, but they can't legally operate in VN unless they form a JV with a local partner, since foreign companies aren't allowed to provide telecoms services there. The relevant government agency went on record saying that Starlink hasn't even applied for permission, yet they're still selling pre-orders.
In your Viet Nam scenario and similar cases I wonder if it is (partially) a result of the Starlink plan to use direct satellite to satellite LASER links to relay data in low earth orbit to a more remote existing ground station?
As in, if I recall correctly, SpaceX originally expected to be launching 'block 2' satellites with LASER links in mid 2021 but suffered internal hidden delays (that led to Musk's internal SpaceX existential warning in October 2021 and firing of some senior staff) so the first batch were only recently launched in early 2022.
Those LASER links being in place are likely a prerequisite for serving territories where SpaceX cannot obtain favourable permissions for ground stations.