Internet Providers, Starlink

Do search on Starlink.  There is a lot of discussion with first hand experience.

I’ve been using it for a couple of months, switched from Broadband VI, no regrets. Performance seems to be at least as good, doesn’t appear that even heavy rain affects it much and if a big storm is coming I can take down the antenna in about 5 minutes.

With Broadband VI my downloads were supposed to be 50mbps, which I saw maybe 50% of the times I tested the speed.  Not uncommon to see 15 or 20mbps. With StarLink I’ve seen close to 200mbps but it varies widely, occasionally as low as 10mbps but 60 to 80mbps is more typical.  I’m fairly convinced the speed is a function of the internet traffic, not the technology, if I’m correct the performance will improve with time as the number of satellites in the network increases, also the gen 2 satellites will be much higher bandwidth.  They should start deploying next year, StarLink just received approval to add 7,500 satellites to the network. 

My experience is almost identical to jaldeborgh. We have Starlink at home where we consistently see speeds of >150 mbps during the day and >75 mbps during peak evening hours.

Starlink is really the BEST option for internet here if you can afford the upfront cost for the equipment and have an unobstructed northern sky from your roof. I've found their support to be fast and effective.

I still have Liberty Broadband VI at my office. We have the Business Platinum Plan at $299/month which is supposed to be "up to" 58 mbps. I check almost everyday and sometimes several times a day and we rarely ever see speeds faster than 15 mbps. But, fortunately, we won't have to deal with that soon.

For what its worth, we're also switching to T-Mobile from Liberty Cellular, which sucks too since they bought out AT&T in the territory.

I have pretty much the same experience.  Starlink speeds vary widely but they are still pretty high.   I also have VIYA which I get consistent speeds with when they aren’t having issues.  Starling’s monthly change can’t be touched by the others for the speeds.   So if you have the view needed to get it I’d go that route.   

One benefit of Starlink coming to St. Croix is that my experience with BroadbandVI (aka Liberty) has increased significantly lately.  As others have mentioned earlier, previously Broadband would only deliver a portion of the 50 mbps service I subscribed to averaging around 25 mbps.  Now it has been consistently in the mid-70's everyday for several months.  I'm not sure if the reason is with some subscribers moving to Starlink freed up capacity or if the competition has pushed BroadbandVI to upgrade their network, but my experience with them has improved significantly.  

Posted by: @mw24

I'm not sure if the reason is with some subscribers moving to Starlink freed up capacity or if the competition has pushed BroadbandVI to upgrade their network, but my experience with them has improved significantly.  

Probably a bit of both. But, at $299 a month for BroadbandVI Business Platinum even at 25 mbps is outrageously expensive when compared to Starlink, including the upfront $500 equipment cost. Plus, with Starlink, you never have to worry about the service (being voice, internet and streaming TV) being out for weeks if there is a hurricane. 

At my new house the internet service is not great. My AT&T router speed is 7mbps and my first Starlink test was 99mbps. Unfortunately the cable connection in the mast got bent during installation so they had to send me a replacement. Will test it again when I get the replacement. As long as my football games don’t buffer anymore I don’t care what the speed it is. 🙂

@knowlesstak I've had nothing but great support from Starlink. Early on, my kit was running slower than I thought is should (<100 mbps). They diagnosed it remotely and sent me an entirely new kit plus (inadvertently) an extra router which I now use as a mesh router, at no charge. I've since bought another SL mesh router. The whole system works great and is way faster and cheaper than any local competitor. I can't say enough good things about it.

My Starlink is quite inconsistent in performance. I have seen speeds as high as 200 mpbs and as low as 7mpbs. Today I am seeing between 30-60 down and 3 to 10 up. I am hoping more satellites in 2023 will improve the performance.  

Posted by: @STTsailor

My Starlink is quite inconsistent in performance.

That's definitely always going to be the case, but, can be said for any ISP. I'd still rather give my money to Starlink than Liberty or VIYA.

@mw24 

It may also be a result of the millions of federal dollars that BBVI received before Liberty bought them:

https://viconsortium.com/vi-technology/virgin-islands-broadband-v-i-awarded-84-4-million-contract-by-federal-government-to-provide-up-to-1-gig-of-affordable-broadband-internet-service-in-usvi-

Like many others,  I was an early adopter of StarLink, and I don't think I'll be looking back,  but if my leaving BBVI also helped your speed,  it's a true 'win-win scenario'!