I, for one, welcome our new Starlink overlords!

[Piotrsko]

Originally Posted by freebeard

No kidding.


One might be able to 3D print fractal antennae, but my print only does 0.2mm resolution.

But you can print bigger antenna and trim for optimum resonance with connecting wire capacitance going back down to the original resonant length electronically

[freebeard]

I was thinking of packaging more than performance.

I still wonder whether the hand-held phone would need to be pointed to the sky.

[Isaac Zachary]

The nice thing about satelite is that there's just one fiber-optic cable that comes into our town that runs everything (all internet service providers, cell phone towers and landlines). When that's been affected (sometimes for days) the whole valley goes out of service, with no way of making any calls or emails or anything.

The problem is of course latency. But here in town there is no fiber-optic option to my home. This has made me avoid doing anything latency sensitive online anyway.

I'm sure jealous when I go to Mexico and everyone has super fast, low latency fiber-optic internet going to their homes for a way cheaper price than for the crappy internet we have over here.

Still I'm granfathered in on the old Time Warner's ELP (Every-day Low Price) plan and Starlink would be much, much more expensive. Interestingly when comparing interenet speeds of my low price internet and everyone else's it all seems to be the same speed here in town. Even those that paid considerable more for faster interenet seem to get the same speeds as I do.

[Xist]

Does every ad say "Up to" for each transfer speed, which is only given for illustrative purposes, and not a guarantee or even a suggestions of actual performance?

[Piotrsko]

Originally Posted by Xist

Does every ad say "Up to" for each transfer speed, which is only given for illustrative purposes, and not a guarantee or even a suggestions of actual performance?

Would you buy a service that only promised actuals of 18 meg download or less? That was so 20 years ago.

I just did a speed check and got 11 mps. Hmmm.

freebeard: if you run the antenna down the side of the phone case it is oriented for normal space communication. Might interfere with all the other antenna wiring running down the side.

[hayden55]

Originally Posted by Xist

Does every ad say "Up to" for each transfer speed, which is only given for illustrative purposes, and not a guarantee or even a suggestions of actual performance?

Yes. Especially in neighborhoods that weren't planned well. Usually they mean that is what is available during non peak times when you aren't fighting your neighbors to download.

[redpoint5]

18 mbps is enough to stream in 4k. What, I'm I gunna watch two 4k movies at the same time on different streaming services?

The thing that always annoys me is the 5 mbps upload.

I'll probably call my provider today and upgrade to the 250 mbps download package because that's the slowest service that they offer 10 mbps upload... and it comes with 100 GB more data allowance.

I'm averaging about 400 GB per month, and am told that's more than 99.9% of people. Seems unlikely considering our family of 3, and we hardly watch anything. I listen to Youtube content at the lowest resolution setting to save data, and because I'm listening and not watching.

[Piotrsko]

Well 18 mps continuously wouldn't be that bad, but my latency also goes up and everything else is a craps shoot right after dinner when everyone in the hood tunes in. We're talking cable install that's probably 40 years old and 50% more houses since most lots here got subdivided after the cable install.

I just did a wifi scan and got 30 router names with 4 of 5 bars, 20 more with 3 bars. It's like living in a condo downtown

I don't upload so care less about that

[redpoint5]

Oohf, that's a lot of wireless networks.

WiFi 6E opens new a new frequency to operate at, and fortunately it's short range so even when people start to adopt the new spectrum they won't be blasting signal hundreds of feet.

I get full 5 GHz coverage in my 5 bedroom house with a cheap wifi router because it's centrally located. 2.4 GHz extends out into my yard, but not much further.

[freebeard]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

The thing that always annoys me is the 5 mbps upload.

If download speed equals upload speed one is a netizen.

If download speed is 10x upload speed one is a consumer.