Starlink increases coverage

Trying to be funny, it is a sink hole where everything disappears. haha

The hole is the The Square Kilometre Array, or SKA, project, it is an international effort to build the world’s largest radio astronomy observatory
Square Kilometer Array

Thanks for that info Rod N, as I did not know that. I have heard of the array, but that's about all. I learnt something new today, and will look it up on Mr Google.

Thanks Rod. I was just about to post along those lines after looking at the link and expanding the map. Murchison, where the SKA is, is on the edge of the hole.

EDIT: Some info on the SKA here.

Viewed the link and what an exercise that must have been to erect and complete.

Nick -Starlink is Elon Musk’s Space X project. Multiple satellites orbiting much closer to Earth than others, providing much faster service than ‘conventional’ satellites, & at present much faster service than any non satellite services too. The relevance for travellers is that there is a mobile service available offering the promise of very fast internet *anywhere* in Australia once the roll out of satellites is complete. This rollout process is happening quite quickly with full Australia coverage expected by early 2023. As well as providing internet it will make Satphones redundant for subscribers. What remains unknown is how fast the service will remain once it is subscribed to in large numbers. As I understand it it will slow down from it’s current high speeds, but will remain a far more useable option than current services like Skymuster. Faster & less affected by weather. On the possible downside our skies are being filled with thousands of new low level satellites. This is my understanding but others may provide more detail. https://www.starlink.com/rv

Michael, $174 is the monthly cost for the mobile ‘RV’ service (which can be turned on/off from month to month). Residential (which does not have the flexibility of turning on/off from month to month) is priced at $139.

Either way it is not a cheap option but for folk living or travelling in remote areas is a potential game changer.

The pricing is for unlimited data. Expensive just to get the odd email or browse Facebook, but the ability to get internet at all, let alone fast internet from your RV in the middle of the Simpson desert (for example) is unprecedented.

Thanks Cuppa, I think it's not too bad. Telstra is around $90 to $99 at present for home internet. Agreed, travelling remotely is the real winner for an extra $40 a month. Regards Michael

‘Tis indeed a horses for courses thing. For us for our extended stays in remote areas internet is a must. Here it is our online stuff, our phone , our radio & our Tv. All things we are quite happy to be without for shorter periods but currently it’s our lifeline to the outside world. Even much of our grocery order is via a Coles online order from the nearest Coles supermarket 800kms away! Without internet a stinging tree incident here would have been far worse than it was. We have had Skymuster satellite at most of the places we’ve looked after. Better than nothing, but sadly lacking in comparison to city & town based services.

When you buy an RV package you have 7 days after dispatch to pause the service. Un-pause can be done whenever you want it. I paused mine within the 7 days and did not pay for usage. ie It was dispatched on 10 Oct, received 12 Oct, paused 15 Oct and service stopped and invoice received 24 Oct.
I think the current draw was about 3 amps.

I think the $450 you are seeing is the US price - make sure you change the region to Australia and it will confirm the $AU price. Also as Rod mentioned you have now actually have 14 days to pause the service after purchase so when ours arrives today I will have a about 10 days to play with it for free and pause before the first billing (if I so choose).

We will report on it usage, setup and power requirements once I have it up and running.

David

I had put in my home address as the delivery address for the order and it was showing "A$139/mo for service and A$450 for hardware". I assumed that the "A" was AUD. I changed the region to Australia, and all that changed was that it took away the "A". Price was the same.

I haven't been following Starlink prices closely, but on another forum I read that the hardware cost had halved and when I looked that seemed to be the case.

I've only done the first step of the order, so it's not clear to me how this works. It appears that you have to pay the first $139 as part of the order. Is that right? If so, that means that you have a $139 credit for one month waiting to be activated if you choose to suspend within those first 7/14 days?

Ah I can see the $450 but this is for the residential hardware NOT the RV hardware which is still showing $924. If you want to take it with you from your home you need the RV option. If you want the residential then yes $450 till end of year.

As for the pricing you pay for the hardware with the order. When the hardware is shipped they activate the plan on a free 14 day trial and your first bill for service becomes due 14 days after shipment. So you can play for a few days (if it arrives quickly, sent via DHL) before the billing falls due. However the plan pause/resume options only exist in the RV option the residential is deemed to be running unless you cancel the service (I believe).

David

It may depend on whether you get RV or residential. I only had to pay the hardware cost for my RV service, which can be paused. Residential can't be paused.

I thought I had selected the RV option, in that I clicked on the RV link on the home page and then something like "Order Now".

So I went back and did the same thing again, and now one of the numbers has changed. Now it says "$174/mo for service and $450 for hardware". I visited the home page and changed the country from there, and I can now see the 50% AU hardware discount until the end of the year.

I thought the monthly charge was too low for mobile Starlink. Not sure whether they had a glitch or I did something wrong. But the hardware is definitely $450, i.e. half price. Doesn't seem to be any different for RVs.

It's an expensive option, but I'm more inclined to invest $450 in something that I rarely use than $900.

The site is a little weird as now I cannot order an RV unit for some reason (says no coverage) - suspect it is updating from the CDN networks. Bugga if the hardware is half as I just paid last week but it is meant to be in motion supported. I will know more when it arrives!
David

The $450 is AU that’s why I have ordered both. 2 for the price of 1, if you bought yours recently they are giving a credit on your service. Check out the Starlink FBook page.

Starlink now officially covers all of Australia.