Starlink .... thoughts?

[Redoctober]

26 minutes ago, Temp said:

How important is the amount of sky you can see? Do wet trees cause an issue like they do for satilite TV?

 In addition to my comments above, here is an image of the tree concerned and its proximity to the dish, situated on the chimney.- hope it helps. 

[Iceverge]

9 hours ago, Temp said:

How important is the amount of sky you can see? Do wet trees cause an issue like they do for satilite TV?

 

 

 

I think the more of the sky you can see the better. 

 

However I've seen videos of the lads in Ukraine with one poking out through a gap in the trees covered in a camo net so I think it's not overly sensitive. 

[Onoff]

We have the original BT line, still copper which wasn't great for my lad's gaming etc. As soon as he got a job he paid for Starlink, the £75 a month option I think it is. Speed wise, though x10 better than BT it doesn't seem that great to me as in for the money. The dish is set up correctly. It may be because we are at the bottom of a steep valley so have line of sight to fewer satellites? 

 

BT:

 

 

Starlink:

 

[SteamyTea]

I am at work.

 

It's shit, and this is the staff login.

[-rick-]

2 hours ago, Onoff said:

We have the original BT line, still copper which wasn't great for my lad's gaming etc. As soon as he got a job he paid for Starlink, the £75 a month option I think it is. Speed wise, though x10 better than BT it doesn't seem that great to me as in for the money.

 

That BT connection looks like shit in 2025. Are you very in the sticks? (no VDSL/FTTC?)

[Onoff]

12 minutes ago, -rick- said:

 

That BT connection looks like shit in 2025. Are you very in the sticks? (no VDSL/FTTC?)

 

Very, no gas, no main drainage, overhead lines, no streetlights, no pavements, single track roads with passing places etc. The phone lines are copper to the exchange a couple of miles away. Openreach have "no plans" to put full fibre down here as yet. 

[Nestor]

34 minutes ago, Onoff said:

 

Very, no gas, no main drainage, overhead lines, no streetlights, no pavements, single track roads with passing places etc. The phone lines are copper to the exchange a couple of miles away. Openreach have "no plans" to put full fibre down here as yet. 

Similar here in location. Surprisingly our poor low speed connection (15 up, 2 down) does cope with multiple streaming, Teams / Zoom etc. Occasional buffering on a Sunday night.

[Redoctober]

1 hour ago, Onoff said:

 

Very, no gas, no main drainage, overhead lines, no streetlights, no pavements, single track roads with passing places etc. The phone lines are copper to the exchange a couple of miles away. Openreach have "no plans" to put full fibre down here as yet. 

 WOW -that is exactly our situation, but Open reach cut off the copper line 18 months ago and offered Full fibre having installed the cables etc. We chose not to go with them and have ended up with Starlink - very pleased we did to be honest.

[-rick-]

1 hour ago, -rick- said:

2025

🫣

[Bramco]

We're out in the sticks but close enough to a 5G mast - Mozillion 5G unlimited data sim £19.99 in a 5G modem. Mozillion are on EE. Worth making sure you can't do this before going the Starlink route.

 

[SteamyTea]

I am currently out in the sticks.

Not sure I will survive, good job I brought a book to read.

 

 

[Iceverge]

Fiber optic cable costs about £1/m.  The telephone poles are already there.

 

Yes somehow it's cheaper and more practical to buy rural Internet from an American multi billionaire who has gone to the expense and effort of developing a private space program and launching thousands of satellites. 

 

Conceptually it's like getting a cup of water from the bottom of the Mariana trench instead of the tap. 

 

I don't know what it says about how we do infrastructure but I don't think it's good. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Post and beam]

13 hours ago, Iceverge said:

I don't know what it says about how we do infrastructure but I don't think it's good

Like a great deal of what the state provides in this country these days. Lots of encouraging words and 'plans' But very little apparent provision. 

Yes i know that Openreach are a private commercial company but the vision is the governments and they are not great at delivery.

[Post and beam]

On 14/03/2026 at 14:07, Temp said:

How important is the amount of sky you can see?

On the graphic that displays my 'obstructions' there is a quite large area behind the antenna that shows as a problem. This is because it is mounted on my chimney at about 12' up and the house is the obstruction it sees.

This is with the antenna pointing north west which is apparently where the satellites come up over the horizon from. I would imagine my signal is handed off to the next one in line before the slightly behind obstruction becomes an issue. I do have a hazel tree partially in the way to the low left of my line of sight but it does not show up as an issue on the graphic. In practice none of the above is a problem 99% of the time. I think other factors are what cause the very occasional buffering in the evenings.

[Temp]

I'm on a fibre to the the cabinet then long copper. Originally got 64mb but over time it's degraded to 16mb with periods as low as 2mb. 

 

Think Starlink looks like a good deal now.

 

 

[-rick-]

1 hour ago, Temp said:

I'm on a fibre to the the cabinet then long copper. Originally got 64mb but over time it's degraded to 16mb with periods as low as 2mb. 

 

Sounds like you should be able to get this fixed? Some ISPs are terrible for this but others will badger BT until the get an engineer out to move you to a different copper pair. (The reasons I've had in the past for performance like this is corrosion/moisture on the line).