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In Alaska, specifically, gigabit internet costs ~$200/mo through Liberty Media's subsidiary GCI in the three major cities. In rural areas, GCI offers plans thro

In Alaska, specifically, gigabit internet costs ~$200/mo through Liberty Media's subsidiary GCI in the three major cities. In rural areas, GCI offers plans through local co-ops averaging $150/mo for 6mbit down, 100gb data cap over terrestrial microwave relay. Starlink will normalize this market.

Johnny555 6y ago
Yeah, those rural customers are in the category "people with poor internet access" that I mentioned above - but I think that few people with fiber to the home are anxiously awaiting Starlink. That $200 gigabit plan is faster than I can get from Comcast (my only provider) not far from Seattle - the fastest they can provide to me is 600mbit, but with only about 15mbit upstream. Starlink hasn't really revealed speeds, bandwidth caps, etc. Some tests claim they can provide gigabit speeds, but will have to wait and see what they can provide in real world usage.
shaklee3 6y ago
Starlink will not cost $80 for the gigabit plan. I'd wager there won't be a gigabit plan. They need thousands of customers per 20Gbps satellite for this to even start to make sense. You cannot fit even a couple hundred 1Gbps customers on a single satellite.
- zaarn 6y ago
  You can certainly fit a couple hundred 1Gbps customers on a 20GBps satellite provided you make sure that those people don't completely saturate the entire line at the same time.
  - shaklee3 6y ago
    Yes, I know how the modeling works. For a 100Gbps subscriber they will need to guarantee that they can achieve 100G peak speeds when nobody is using it. That means the beam the user is in always has to be illuminated with as much power as they need for 100G. Remember, this power is shared between all the other beams on that satellite.
- dan1234 6y ago
  At 60:1 contention ratio (which used to be BT’s standard for home ADSL), you’d be able to squeeze 1,200 Gb plans per satellite.
  - shaklee3 6y ago
    60:1 is not realistic for a 100G plan. See my other comment.
- samoa42 6y ago
  > You cannot fit even a couple hundred 1Gbps customers on a single satellite. ISP's totally do overcommit in the range of thousands
  - shaklee3 6y ago
    They do for lower tier plans. Not 100G plans.

Johnny555 6y ago

Yeah, those rural customers are in the category "people with poor internet access" that I mentioned above - but I think that few people with fiber to the home are anxiously awaiting Starlink. That $200 gigabit plan is faster than I can get from Comcast (my only provider) not far from Seattle - the fastest they can provide to me is 600mbit, but with only about 15mbit upstream. Starlink hasn't really revealed speeds, bandwidth caps, etc. Some tests claim they can provide gigabit speeds, but will have to wait and see what they can provide in real world usage.

shaklee3 6y ago

Starlink will not cost $80 for the gigabit plan. I'd wager there won't be a gigabit plan. They need thousands of customers per 20Gbps satellite for this to even start to make sense. You cannot fit even a couple hundred 1Gbps customers on a single satellite.

zaarn 6y ago
You can certainly fit a couple hundred 1Gbps customers on a 20GBps satellite provided you make sure that those people don't completely saturate the entire line at the same time.
- shaklee3 6y ago
  Yes, I know how the modeling works. For a 100Gbps subscriber they will need to guarantee that they can achieve 100G peak speeds when nobody is using it. That means the beam the user is in always has to be illuminated with as much power as they need for 100G. Remember, this power is shared between all the other beams on that satellite.
dan1234 6y ago
At 60:1 contention ratio (which used to be BT’s standard for home ADSL), you’d be able to squeeze 1,200 Gb plans per satellite.
- shaklee3 6y ago
  60:1 is not realistic for a 100G plan. See my other comment.
samoa42 6y ago
> You cannot fit even a couple hundred 1Gbps customers on a single satellite. ISP's totally do overcommit in the range of thousands
- shaklee3 6y ago
  They do for lower tier plans. Not 100G plans.