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>Does Starlink offer a plan for multi-tenant buildings? I'm thinking condo with 30 units. It seems like it should be more efficient to run one high bandwidth co

by xoa 3y ago

>Does Starlink offer a plan for multi-tenant buildings? I'm thinking condo with 30 units. It seems like it should be more efficient to run one high bandwidth connection than multiple regular customers. Could we share cost among all tenants and get a really good deal? I'm not quite sure what you're envisioning here? Starlink offers a business class service with a more powerful terminal, higher QoS, etc. One just gets that and then have it serve as the uplink to a LAN which you can subdivide in all the normal ways however one wants, that's what I've done with Starlink for multiple clients now including one that then feeds to a dozen or so different units over a half mile or so. There isn't any need to SpaceX to be involved in what happens after their terminal, it's no different than a fiber connection WISP or ADSL or cable. Everyone can agree to divide up paying for service and kit as they wish. Same as if it was going to a business that has 2 employees or 20 or 200 or 2000, SpaceX only cares (and should only need to care) about the bottom line of the monthly bill getting paid and any acceptable use/data TOS respected. They don't need any visibility into the network beyond their terminal. And Starlink can be part of a failover or more complex load balanced WAN too.

pavon 3y ago
Starlink's ToS prohibit reselling of service, and dividing cost of service among several tenants could be considered to violate that. Most ISPs would require a specific agreement for those sort of things. [1] https://www.starlink.com/legal/documents/DOC-1020-91087-64 https://www.starlink.com/legal/documents/DOC-1020-91087-64, Sections 2.1 & 10
- xoa 3y ago
  >and dividing cost of service among several tenants could be considered to violate that Show me the caselaw where multiple people splitting a bill would be "reselling", not your head canon make believe if you're going to make such an assertion. ISPs grab enough power already without us needing to invent new things they can do. Reselling as far as I understand means taking a good or service and then selling it again for a profit. I'd really like to see any examples of people at one address being sued for privately deciding to share a bill. Also FWIW I don't think it should be legal for ISPs to prohibit reselling anyway, but I don't dispute they probably can in theory. Splitting a bill though? >Most ISPs would require a specific agreement for those sort of things. I think this sounds like absolute bullshit.
  - inemesitaffia 3y ago
    He's right. Usually you need an agreement to resell. Very few companies monitor these things. But anti resale, anti server provisions are common
    - xoa 3y ago
      >He's right. Usually you need an agreement to resell. That's not the argument though. The argument is if a few people living together in a building decide to just divide up a bill counts as "reselling". Or one person pays the internet bill and another then pays some other utilities or something, which is legally the same outcome. Ie, $90 month, each pays $30. It's not getting resold as a whole new connection. I really don't agree that, even if it was possible for them to find out, ISPs would go after anyone for that. I've never heard even a hint of it in 30 years, but I don't have a global perspective either. Is this actually a thing in some places? Like 3 friends rooming together somewhere and they're all supposed to buy their own separate WAN not divide it up like other utilities?
      - inemesitaffia 3y ago
        If you're rooming that's one thing. If you have different addresses for mail delivery and utilities that's another matter. I've seen someone have an ISP refuse. They had to cancel then buy the same exact service over the same exact Fiber from a reseller. Imagine Verizon/MCI refusing to allow you, then you buy service from Zayo over the same Verizon fiber that never got physically removed. It still had limitations but it allowed them to deliver service to an entire neighborhood.
    - phkahler 3y ago
      >> He's right. Usually you need an agreement to resell. I wasn't thinking of reselling, more like cooperative buying. We'd have co-owners pay for it with their HOA fees and just let everyone in the building use it. Obviously we'd have bandwidth limits per connection, but I'm thinking several wifi APs around the building would do the job and nobody would have to pay an ISP directly anymore.
- dotnet00 3y ago
  That seems strange for the business version, considering that one of the intended uses is for planes and ships.
  - xoa 3y ago
    I'd assume the likes of airlines and cruise companies would all be cutting custom special deals with SpaceX, just like government, large enterprises etc? For SLAs, prioritizatoin and support if nothing else, if you're going to be dropping 6-8 figures with them the public deals are probably no longer the only thing on the menu. We know the DOD at least has custom projects going with SpaceX wrt Starlink. No idea how independent hotels, B&Bs and other small businesses might work with it though. Maybe that just comes down to selective enforcement, SpaceX has it there as one of a few possible clauses to respond with if they feel some entity is being abusive or making too much off of it. Still relatively early days too.

by xoa 3y ago

pavon 3y ago

Starlink's ToS prohibit reselling of service, and dividing cost of service among several tenants could be considered to violate that. Most ISPs would require a specific agreement for those sort of things. [1] https://www.starlink.com/legal/documents/DOC-1020-91087-64 https://www.starlink.com/legal/documents/DOC-1020-91087-64, Sections 2.1 & 10

xoa 3y ago
>and dividing cost of service among several tenants could be considered to violate that Show me the caselaw where multiple people splitting a bill would be "reselling", not your head canon make believe if you're going to make such an assertion. ISPs grab enough power already without us needing to invent new things they can do. Reselling as far as I understand means taking a good or service and then selling it again for a profit. I'd really like to see any examples of people at one address being sued for privately deciding to share a bill. Also FWIW I don't think it should be legal for ISPs to prohibit reselling anyway, but I don't dispute they probably can in theory. Splitting a bill though? >Most ISPs would require a specific agreement for those sort of things. I think this sounds like absolute bullshit.
- inemesitaffia 3y ago
  He's right. Usually you need an agreement to resell. Very few companies monitor these things. But anti resale, anti server provisions are common
  - xoa 3y ago
    >He's right. Usually you need an agreement to resell. That's not the argument though. The argument is if a few people living together in a building decide to just divide up a bill counts as "reselling". Or one person pays the internet bill and another then pays some other utilities or something, which is legally the same outcome. Ie, $90 month, each pays $30. It's not getting resold as a whole new connection. I really don't agree that, even if it was possible for them to find out, ISPs would go after anyone for that. I've never heard even a hint of it in 30 years, but I don't have a global perspective either. Is this actually a thing in some places? Like 3 friends rooming together somewhere and they're all supposed to buy their own separate WAN not divide it up like other utilities?
    - inemesitaffia 3y ago
      If you're rooming that's one thing. If you have different addresses for mail delivery and utilities that's another matter. I've seen someone have an ISP refuse. They had to cancel then buy the same exact service over the same exact Fiber from a reseller. Imagine Verizon/MCI refusing to allow you, then you buy service from Zayo over the same Verizon fiber that never got physically removed. It still had limitations but it allowed them to deliver service to an entire neighborhood.
  - phkahler 3y ago
    >> He's right. Usually you need an agreement to resell. I wasn't thinking of reselling, more like cooperative buying. We'd have co-owners pay for it with their HOA fees and just let everyone in the building use it. Obviously we'd have bandwidth limits per connection, but I'm thinking several wifi APs around the building would do the job and nobody would have to pay an ISP directly anymore.
dotnet00 3y ago
That seems strange for the business version, considering that one of the intended uses is for planes and ships.
- xoa 3y ago
  I'd assume the likes of airlines and cruise companies would all be cutting custom special deals with SpaceX, just like government, large enterprises etc? For SLAs, prioritizatoin and support if nothing else, if you're going to be dropping 6-8 figures with them the public deals are probably no longer the only thing on the menu. We know the DOD at least has custom projects going with SpaceX wrt Starlink. No idea how independent hotels, B&Bs and other small businesses might work with it though. Maybe that just comes down to selective enforcement, SpaceX has it there as one of a few possible clauses to respond with if they feel some entity is being abusive or making too much off of it. Still relatively early days too.