Some users on another forum were happy and reporting getting emails today. Some went to Youtube to see what folks were saying and experiences for the service brand called Starlink seemed positive. So some on that forum were signing up today.

 

"Starlink satellite internet is currently undergoing beta testing in parts of the US and Canada to people who live between 44 and 53 degrees latitude."

 

But that was not a forum having anything to do with MSFS,. So, I am not sure how good Starlink works for MSFS scenery streaming.

 

Summary: Starlink is in Beta, only certain areas of the world (see above) are being invited to subscribe now, they say it will be expanding constantly and rapidly from current 1000 satellites to 42,000 satellites. It is supposed to be faster then ViaSat or HughesNet.

 

https://www.satelliteinternet.com/resources/starlink-beta-sign-up/

 

 

Not sure this is the best forum for this, it might get moved but...

In addition to more bandwidth, the big advantage of the LEO satellite constellations (SpaceX Starlink and Amazon Kuiper) is the reduced latency.

GEO satellite internet has latency of 700-900ms because those satellites orbit at ~35,700km, and a request has to traverse that distance 4 times to be complete (from you to the satellite, to the ground station, to the server you are talking to, back to the ground station, to the satellite, to you).  With speed of light delays, that adds up.  So every. click. on. a. website. takes. forever. to. respond.

The new LEO constellations are orbiting at ~500km, the latency introduced is much much much less.  Speedtest has measured ~41ms with Starlink in the beta phase.

So yeah, if you're in a rural area with bad internet and can jump on the bandwagon of one of these new systems, do it. 

One thing - there is not currently a data cap on Starlink but it's possible one might happen in the future.  In some FCC filings for the Rural Broadband subsidy apparently SpaceX has stated they expect users to average 1Mbps constant use which works out to 316GB/month.

Edited February 20, 20215 yr by marsman2020

$$$$$, but if one lives where the only alternative is dial-up...

I had HughesNet for a while at a weird desert house I owned, and I would have given a kidney to have something like Starlink then.  425MB/day data cap (yes, MB/day), with a few hours from like 2am to 4am where it was unlimited.  Later on Verizon put in a 4G tower I could get to and I use a hotspot to drive my entire house......40GB/month for like $60...  I built a MicroATX computer and would literally bring it into work to install Steam games and stuff...

Do Not I repeat DO NOT sign up for any Satellite Internet unless your only other option is dialup.

They will oversell bandwidth and you will be stuck with slow, speeds. They lie and give you no options to stop service

They LIE LIE LIE about speed

NEVER NEVER AGAIN

 

These new services have nothing to do with the legacy geosynchronous services, and yelling at people to avoid them without understanding the differences is a disservice to people who might be stuck with things like 1.5 Mbit DSL....

Just curious, has anyone actually seen them fly over?

I have seen them a few times now. They are a long series of what looks like stars one after the other, very strange to see.

Just look up satellite train and you can find out when they pass over head. The only catch is you need clear sky's.