The problem with the map, as others pointed out, is that satellite access is problematic. Most current services are not going to work with VPNs. We use VPNs both for work and for our personal use, so the satellite providers that will not work with a VPN are useless for us.
After a year or so on the Starlink wait list we received a unit earlier this year. It works great and is far more reliable than the 1.5 mbps DSL service we had, not to mention extremely fast. Starlink is more reliable and faster than the cell based Internet we have used. In very, very, very heavy rain, Starlink can lose its connection, which is a problem we had when living in a house that had cable service. We have only had two Starlink outages for unknown reasons that lasted five and ten minutes and one or two rain based outages that lasted maybe five minutes. This is much more reliable than DSL or cell internet that we have had in the past.
The big issues for Starlink are:
– The wait to get a unit.
– Only a limited number of customers can be in a given area which is dependent on the number of available satellites.
– One has to have a clear sky, especially to the north. Starlink has an application that runs on a smart phone which can tell you if you have the sky view needed to use the service.
For many people in Chatham county, Starlink is not going to work because of the required view of the sky. Starlink needs a large, 360 view to see the satellites that are zipping around up there unlike the geosynchronous satellites from other services that are always at the same point in the sky. There are a couple of websites that track Starlink satellites which is interesting to watch and shows the complexity of the system. Amazing that it work at all. Here is one tracking site, https://satellitemap.space/?constellation=starlink#.
Not all states have Starlink ground stations but NC has two, with one being nearby in Alamance county. Not that the ground station location really makes a difference but I was surprised to see a ground station so close.
From: Dan McCarty
Sent: Monday, December 12, 2022 at 10:46:24 AM EST
Subject: Re Poor internet or no internet? Starlink