Starlink .... thoughts?

[Indy]

OneWeb is the only other operational LEO service that competes with Starlink, but it’s B2B rather than B2C like Starlink. The terminals needed to connect to OneWeb are also an order of magnitude more expensive (enterprise grade) so its not really a competitor in that sense. 

[Kelvin]

5 hours ago, ProDave said:

 

 

Only now, 5 years or more behind when it was wanted have we had a company digging up our road laying fibre to each property.  I son't be taking them up on their offer.  Their fibre is buried in shallow bare trenches under the road verge and nowhere near deep enough as far as I could tell where it crosses the road.  First utility that needs to access their own services will likely cut the poorly laid fibres.

 

I’ve been driving around Perth and Kinross a fair bit the last few months and Openreach (via Morrisons) have been laying fibre in the grey ducts all over the place. I was little surprised at how shallow the trenches are for the ducts though given how soft the verges get and how deep the ruts end up. 

[Indy]

Freedomsat (through Viasat) is another option but it’s likely to be GEO, hence slower speeds and higher latency so not really a suitable replacement for home broadband usage. 

[Post and beam]

Starlink is live. Only lying on the garden floor and partly obscured by hazel trees in this temporary location but 324meg download and 31 upload.

 

Not too shabby

[Kelvin]

Good stuff. Mine has been on the ground for four years because fibre has been within touching distance and haven’t wanted to screw to the garage. 

[SimonD]

We just had fibre rolled out to us. Signed up. Had connection for 6 out of 14 days. Cancelled the contract within the 14 day cooling off period. It was with Virgin Media. I have to say I haven't experienced worse customer service since we were with BT broadband.

 

Now using National Broadband on 5g which has been pretty good so far.

 

Forgot to look at Starlink.

[JohnMo]

23 hours ago, Post and beam said:

Starlink is live. Only lying on the garden floor and partly obscured by hazel trees in this temporary location but 324meg download and 31 upload.

 

Not too shabby

That was all pretty quick 

[Post and beam]

On 08/11/2025 at 15:42, JohnMo said:

That was all pretty quick 

Pretty quick to install or the download?

Ordered and collected the antenna from Currys, tried it out on the floor before i committed to drilling a hole in my house wall. Test all good.

So mounted in on the side of the chimney, aligned it easily and have been good to go all weekend.

Easy peasy.

Had a text over the weekend from Openreach saying they will arrive tomorrow Tuesday to install my broadband. I took great delight in telling them that their incompetence and attitude were incompatible with me paying them any money so please dont bother.

 

[Kelvin]

On 08/11/2025 at 15:42, JohnMo said:

That was all pretty quick 

When we ordered it way back in the early days it was shipped from the US. I was surprised at how fast and well organised it all was. 

[Onoff]

Our first Starlink, bought from Costco in the UK was faulty out of the box. Called the US helpline. New one was delivered the next day if I recall. Customer service is brilliant. 

[Alan Ambrose]

@Beau / @BotusBuild 

 

I'm still trying to get a proper net connection - fibre access still seems like the Wild West.

 

For your connections where you got a provider to deal with Openreach rather than deal direct - were these new connections for a new plot or some re-arrangement of an existing service (e.g. adsl or fttc to proper fibre)?

[JohnMo]

Why not just go 4/5G? £20 for unlimited data. Get one these hubs for £58.

https://amzn.eu/d/jlWgSgm

 

Add an external aerial if needed

Edited November 13 by JohnMo

[-rick-]

On 06/11/2025 at 12:13, -rick- said:

I doubt any competitor will be truely competitive until they are launching on reusable launchers (like SpaceX). Before that the costs just don't add up. Other reusable launchers are coming (Blue Origin has its second launch scheduled this week) and RocketLab are working on one but SpaceX has a very large head start.

 

Well Blue Origin just landed their rocket on their second ever launch so a true competitor to Starlink might not be so far away.

[Alan Ambrose]

>>> Why not just go 4/5G?

 

I could do, but the fibre ducts & router kiosk are ready to go - at least, until OR decided they would refuse to go any further. So, if I could get a 3rd party to encourage them a bit...

[Kelvin]

I had hoped to do similar to you and install it in my kiosk as it’s close to the road where their cable is so that doesn’t fill me with confidence. 

[bedrock]

14 hours ago, -rick- said:

 

Well Blue Origin just landed their rocket on their second ever launch so a true competitor to Starlink might not be so far away.

 

Much closer than you might think - https://leo.amazon.com/

[SteamyTea]

7 minutes ago, bedrock said:

 

Much closer than you might think - https://leo.amazon.com/

They will need to ramp up launches to a couple a week to catch up with SpaceX though.

[BotusBuild]

On 13/11/2025 at 19:25, Alan Ambrose said:

were these new connections for a new plot

Mine was a new connection

[Post and beam]

On 13/11/2025 at 19:50, JohnMo said:

Why not just go 4/5G? £20 for unlimited data

In my case and in the village i now live in, the 4G is patchy and 5G non existent.

[JohnMo]

2 minutes ago, Post and beam said:

4G is patchy

For all networks, EE, Vodafone/Three and O2. We get ok Vodafone, everything else is a zero for coverage.

[Kelvin]

Our Vodafone coverage has improved significantly since the Vodafone and Three merger. I can even get a good fast outdoor 5G signal. However my initial testing suggests it’s a bit too unreliable for the other half to use for WFH as some days, despite a good signal, it won’t connect. It did that on 4G too so no change there. 

[Alan Ambrose]

Re 5G routers - anyone have a recommendation for SIM providers? O2 has bolloxed our camera sims and talking to people at O2 and EE shops - they don't really support data sims. They say they will cut off any sim that doesn't have a voice call on it at least every 3 months.

 

AI recommends EIOTCLUB, Transatel and other providers I've never heard of. I read there are some multi-network IOT data sims? Any experience?

 

p.s. O2 & EE seems to be our best actual networks at the plot.

 

Ditto 4/5G router/aerial recommendations?

Edited yesterday at 14:45 by Alan Ambrose

[-rick-]

Can't you buy a data SIM like:

 

https://www.three.co.uk/broadband/data-sim-payg

 

Edit: see you mention preference for O2 / EE. Look for mobile broadband or packages for tablets. EE have a whole line of Mobile Broadband offers, not sure they are sim only but if you are looking for a router too then worth a look.

Edited yesterday at 15:01 by -rick-

[SimonD]

35 minutes ago, Alan Ambrose said:

Re 5G routers - anyone have a recommendation for SIM providers? O2 has bolloxed our camera sims and talking to people at O2 and EE shops - they don't really support data sims. They say they will cut off any sim that doesn't have a voice call on it at least every 3 months.

 

AI recommends EIOTCLUB, Transatel and other providers I've never heard of. I read there are some multi-network IOT data sims? Any experience?

 

p.s. O2 & EE seems to be our best actual networks at the plot.

 

Ditto 4/5G router/aerial recommendations?

 

Try https://www.national-broadband.co.uk/  Works for us. Has access to all networks and aerials etc. Router supplied by them. 

[Nick Laslett]

44 minutes ago, Alan Ambrose said:

Re 5G routers - anyone have a recommendation for SIM providers? O2 has bolloxed our camera sims and talking to people at O2 and EE shops - they don't really support data sims. They say they will cut off any sim that doesn't have a voice call on it at least every 3 months.

That must be a newish policy, I have a 4G data sim from O2 in a router at my site. Been using it for 5 years. No voice calls ever made. Maybe this is for 5G sims. 
 

It is a TP Link sim router. Seems fine. Powered connection improves 4G reception. The Wi-Fi signal is adequate. 

Edited yesterday at 15:26 by Nick Laslett