I have been using starlink for several months and have been thoroughly impressed! I switched to Starlink even though I live in an area with multiple high-speed internet options: Verizon FIOS, Comcast xfinity, etc… The “big boys” of internet. They all tout multi-hundred Mbit/sec internet downlink; in the case of fios symmetric uplink. Starlink, in the other hand, barely breaks 100mbit/sec down. So why bother with it?

Normally you don’t care about your ISP – you just use your internet and it’s great… but what about when it isn’t so great?

Enter exhibit A – fios performance against starlink. Fios basically went to pot around january. No manner of rebooting of routers would resolve it. Starlink didnt tank – just verizon.

Now enter Verizon’s consistently crappy service: i call verizon and get bounced between 4 or 5 different “agents.” Nobody could help – but they acknowledged the problem. They assured me they valued me as a customer. Then they started blaming my router… but in my case, they didn’t realize i have redundant routers running pfsense. I’m not a black belt network engineer but I am fairly capable of handling my home internet router. I tried in vain to explain to them that it wasn’t my router. This proved a waste of time so I asked them to cancel. Even getting them to cancel took forever! And to top it off they informed me that since I was cancelling at the beginning of a billing cycle i would still have to pay the full amount – no proration – “per the contract.” Well, so much for valuing me as a customer – they don’t care and never did, even up to the very bitter end.

Now enter starlink. Normally one has no bargaining chip if they have a single internet uplink. I have pfsense load balance my internet across starlink and fios. This meant I could cancel Verizon without any interruption of service. So satisfying.

Granted Starlink is NOT as fast as FIOS. Not even close. But the fact that “Starlink != Verizon” is good enough for me. I’m even willing to pay more, obviously; starlink is now $120/mo for me, and verizon was only $80/mo. That’s what sheer disdain does.

Oh and user experience with starlink is way better. Everything is managed out of the starlink app. Want to cancel? Upgrade? Just hit the button, for goodness sakes! And never are you required to interact with anyone to set it up, change, or shut it down. Take a hint Verizon – nobody wants your service reps.

Also starlink is improving: Around march the already-low latency dropped another 10ms. See in the image below around March.

Now for the bad… obviously uplink is weak – single digit Mbit/sec. Also during torrential rains I lose internet for a minute or two at a time.

Elon: I’m hoping starlink can add a cheaper tier – perhaps $60/mo? I’d even be good with $60/mo for 60 Mbit/sec downlink? But please don’t drop uplink speed. Its already too low.