Please do report back on the service they provide to you. Good luck.
Starlink kit arrived 2 days after I ordered it, so they must have them sat waiting in Chile, even if they don´t have an official office address here.
Setup easy. Lucky for me the dish slotted into a pipe left on the roof by a previous company as I am fairly useless at DIY.
I am getting around 50 or 100 Mb/s (sat in the same room as the router) when I do speed checks in the first days which is slightly on the lower end of others` reports which are often 100+.
It seems to work fine. After going through 2 thick walls and 10 metres of distance it works fine as well, albeit at lower speeds (about 20). It helps to have a high speed to begin with so the reduced speed further away is still half decent! Add having to go through a third wall and extend to maybe 15 metres and it still worked but speed was down to 1 to 4 Mbps and it isn´t reliable it froze a couple of times and there was some resolution reduction on video. We´ll decide later on whether or not we buy extenders, but they are 159,900 each, so not in a huge hurry here. Your situation will vary! Some walls are much thicker than others, or made of very different materials.
I think it´s good so far. Wife and kids are less sure so far, as some issues connecting and some slow speeds, but only at the opposite end of the house to where the router is so I don´t think we can blame Starlink for that. If near the router you can easily stream youtube, netflix and disney all at the same time on different devices.
Webpages load in about a second.
I wouldn´t read too much into this for now as I´ve only had it for about 4 days. If I am still around on this forum by next year, I might do an update.
Thatâs clearly weak wifi rather than a problem with the sat downlink speed. Wifi extenders are the convenient, if expensive and bandwidth-wasteful solution. A better answer, at least technically, would be to purchase the ethernet adaptor they sell and hook up to a separate router either to distribute wifi from better location(s), or to take advantage of 1 Gb/s wired connections. But that requires time and effort to set up, and may not be practicable in some circumstances.
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I just got an email from Starlink, seems they are offering refurbished equipment at more than 50% savings.
Equipos Starlink Reacondicionados estĂĄn disponibles ahora por $215.000, un 50% menos que los equipos nuevos. Los equipos reacondicionados tienen las mismas caracterĂsticas tĂŠcnicas y la misma garantĂa que el Starlink EstĂĄndar! Con Starlink se pueden hacer videollamadas, juegos en lĂnea, streaming, y otras actividades requiriendo un alto ancho de banda que hasta ahora no eran posibles con un internet satelital.
Su Kit Starlink llega con todo lo necesario para conectarse a internet. Pidalo hoy en Starlink.com.
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Thank you bytesurfer! In one of my rare spurts of cynicism, I must ask how they would have so many refurbished units. Are that many people leaving the country or is there a rate of dissatisfaction we are unaware of?
I would guess its US-origin subscriber churn.
Hereâs a reddit thread on Starlink consumer satisfaction, with mainly positive comments.
Returns are a luxury we dont see much of here:
thanks bytesurfer
I had the internet satellite system installed by Global Security (based in Chillan) a month ago. It was recommended by a Canadian friend who lives 45 minutes outside of Chillan. She was accustomed to the ease and functionality of fibre optic cable in Canada. She said she had the same speed as fiber optic.
Before the install, I emphasized we needed access for 4 internet users simultaneously. Seamless, unlimited internet access for gaming, youtube, social media and streaming videos. The owner of the company said he could supply it but would know better when at my house with his signal detector. The installation, 2+ hours plus 3 hours travelling time ( they got lost following the directions of their GPS) and equipment (including a rooftop tower, a second modem and signal booster for the casita) came to 450,000 CLP but the monthly payments for âunlimited high-speedâ was 29,000 CLP per month. First month was included in the 450,000.
Sadly, it has been a major disappointment. Perhaps because the Entel tower is 15 kims away in a straight line, a direct unobstructed line of view? Maybe too far for constant signal? When I called to complain about the slow downloads the installer/owner suggested there might be too many people using it at the same time. Two people watching different Netflix simultaneously was enough to overtax the system? He said 4 were good before the install. He suggested I unplug the modem and wait a minute and plug it back in. No change, everything slow and then normal⌠just like the Entel system out here in this very rural setting. It wasnât what I expected but nothing ever is here in Chile. I contacted my friend and she said it could be bad weather. I tried it for amonth, all kinds of weather. There are times of perfect reception and download streams and other times when everything is slow with connection error messages. Rebooting the modem changes nothing. I believe the system he used was Entel and they are unreliable. Just like the Entel signal, it is bad at peak periods (evenings for example) Entel is the reason I was looking for better internet.
So I approached the owner and asked if he would remove his system and reimburse me. I did not expect to be reimbursed for his time, just the equipment which he could surely sell to someone in a better reception zone. He is prepared to remove the system and credit me 350,000$ which I find is fair. Maybe I will get the refurbished Starlink system with a refurbished As for my friend closer to Chillan, her system with Global Security is reliable 99% of the time. Oh, by the way, they also install security systems.
Will keep you posted as things unfold
Hi Mendoza, how is it going with Starlink? Did you resolve the ditance factor that was slowing down the speeds? My router would be in the main house and connect by an outdoor wire to the caretakerâs house 20 meters away. Wondering if i would need the extenders. Thanks
I bought one extender. It took weeks to arrive rather than the 2 days of the initial system, suggesting that maybe the extenders are not stored in Chile.
It did help, but only a little, and the signal is still weak at the other end of the house.
Eventually will move the main router nearer to the middle of the house, but involves drilling a wall.
The signal can go 20 metres if it doesnât have to go through walls. I literally tried leaving my garden and watching youtube videos in the street and thatâs about how far it got. But go through several walls and itâs struggling at 10 metres. But that will vary by case.
I donât think any of the above helps anyone with determining whether to get Starlink.
This is because I have a long house all on one floor, if you live in a 2-floor house or a small house it will be different, also depends on thickness of walls and type of material. So this is of limited relevance to your case.
I actually had my worst failure yet today after 2 months. Today Starlink stopped working for more than 3 minutes and less than 20 and it wasnât the device because my son came into the office and mentioned it also. Other failures have been a few seconds only and might have been due to an issue with my laptop connecting or distance from the main router so todayâs was the first failure.
Overall Iâd say so far itâs about on a par with what you get from a fibre optic company in Chile.
Budget on the basis that you will most likely need 1 extender for a small house, or 2 for a large house. And make initial decision on that cost basis. But then buy it without extenders first and try it out without.
Speeds are usually 50-200Mbps in the same room of the router although once when it seemed slow I checked and I saw 20, but that was very unusual.
The bottom line is if you donât have trees it is good enough for most people needs like 2-3 people watching Netflix or internet browsing.
It is good enough for working from home including live video calls but you ideally need a backup which can be using your phoneâs internet.
Hope that helps.
On November 21st Elon Musk tweeted:
âStarlink now works for high latitudesâ
Retweeting from Space X âStarlink is now available across all of Alaska and Canadaâ
By the look of this map of availability, they were also referring to southern hemisphere
It should also work for the most southern point of Chile then I think
thanks Mendoza, that helps a lot. We have two small wood frame one story houses about 10 metres from bouse A southeast corner to house B northwest corner. The internet company installed their dish/receiver on the roof on house A and the wire comes into the house at the northwest corner. Then the wire runs over the roof about 12 metres and diagonally connects to house B 10 metres away and enters on their north-west wall. So there are only two exterior walls to go through, one in each house, otherwise the wire is above the houses. There are no interior walls to go through,
It is a fairly open setting on a hilltop with the only possible obstructions being a double water tower about 10 meters south of the two houses and a giant pine tree near the southwest corner of house A.