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Comment by noncoml | Hacker News Reader

My experience with Starlink is that it kind of works(I get 50-100Mb bandwidth) but I have multiple(as in 10s) sub-second interruptions every hour.

Dishy view is completely unobstructed. And weather is clear most of the time in California.

As much as I hate Comcast, if 100Mb Comcast was available in my area I would trade it in a heartbeat.

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Wait until you get the strange billing from ComCast first.

My mom had it in Florida and I found she had all sorts of extra charges for items and services she never had. There is a reason ComCast has a bad rep.

There's also a reason every terrestrial ISP has bandwidth caps.

"Unlimited" satellite bandwidth is not sustainable, and once the business model changes to acknowledge that, Starlink will join the ranks.

> if 100Mb Comcast was available in my area I would trade it in a heartbeat

Um...duh. Starlink isn't meant to replace your internet where typical options are available. It's meant to give something where there was nothing, or replace much worse satellite internet options.

That’s my experience, yes. I wonder if there are enough such people to make Starlink profitable.

You’d be shocked how many areas outside major metro areas don’t have any broadband options. When we were buying a home recently, we had to carefully search Comcast and Wave’s websites to make sure the home had broadband service. Lots of homes only had satellite internet.

If you add RVs, boats, and planes, there’s an even bigger potential market for Starlink.

I’m in a major metro with no good internet options! I assume the cost of laying down fibre optic is too high due to the buildings, roads, etc.

Seriously considering Starlink instead of old copper.

Worldwide? Definitely. Enough that also have the resources to pay? Not 100% sure, but I would imagine so. I think I read 500,000 Australians alone live in places with very little internet connection, or are currently served with Geo-Sync internet heavily subsidized by our government.

I’ve experienced these pauses as well but they’ve only been problematic on real time video calls in practice. I wouldn’t trade my fiber for full time Starlink but I would definitely choose it over any Comcast offering (for personal use)

I use starlink here in the UK. I don't get any drops and I spend probably around 4 hours a day on video calls. I've heard people say it can be regional though.

I get these 0.5s and 0.7s drops as well (maybe 10-20 per hour), in Texas. To be honest, I don't even notice the sub-second drops.

I only notice them during ssh sessions or voip/zoom calls.

They don’t affect web browsing or streaming movies

Try using MOSH; that will eliminate the problem for your shell sessions.

> As much as I hate Comcast, if 100Mb Comcast was available in my area I would trade it in a heartbeat.

And that's expected. Elon Musk has publicly stated before that Starlink has no plans for competing with Comcast.

Have you raised that with starlink support?

Horizon to horizon in all directions?

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