Starlink - pre-order available in NZ

Forums › New Zealand Broadband › Starlink - pre-order available in NZ

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409 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2682393 29-Mar-2021 11:29

Has anyone that's connected tried VOIP yet, particularly SIP calling? I know there have been some varied results, I'm interested to hear how well you think it works in these early stages. Hopefully with more coverage in coming months rural users can ditch the landline as well!

Lenovo

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wired

156 posts

Master Geek

#2682411 29-Mar-2021 11:44

There is a report available from SamKnows, who is used by the NZ Commerce Commission to measure NZ broadband performance, which gives it a thumbs up. The speed and latency is good.

https://www.samknows.com/blog/the-space-edition

sidney

80 posts

Master Geek

#2682414 29-Mar-2021 11:47

pih: Has anyone that's connected tried VOIP yet

I'm curious too. Right now my "landline" is a 2talk VOIP connected through an old Linksys/Cisco SPA2102 box, working fine over RBI. However, I got a static ip which makes for a simpler setup. 2talk have a STUN server, so that should be fine with the CGNAT, right? But I would like to hear from someone who is actually using 2talk over Starlink.

Yank1w1

40 posts

Geek

#2682471 29-Mar-2021 13:00

Yank1w1:

Been monitoring my power usage since installing the Starlink dish. Consistently using about 110W minimum and seeing peaks of 150W.

Power supply is quite hot to the touch.

Has anyone else looked at power supply temp and power usage in NZ. From reading online seems to be a bit of variance in power usage reported

Just to update: if the Skylink dish was using only 100W average = 2.4kwh per day. At estimate cost of electricity of $.24 per kwh looking at $ .576 per day.

$17.28 per 30 day month

Zander

60 posts

Master Geek

#2682482 29-Mar-2021 13:14

A few replies -

zenourn - Great map! You may find this UK map interesting to compare. Here is the Reddit thread of the maintainer.

The cells look to be the same size ~20km across. You may be able to safely copy-and-paste for more cells. Very interesting that Starlink may have good coverage already, but limited number of cells it can manager per 'shell' reliably. The UK looks to be only around 15-20% of cells in England active at the moment, with almost nothing in Scotland (being a bit out of Starlink orbit range).

To get a reliable jump up in latitude needs a doubling of Starlinks to fill in the gaps, perhaps stretch to ~25° (from 37°) latitude next to keep Florida happy. But to increase number of active cells in existing latitudes perhaps 'just' needs an extra shell of 36 x ~20 = 720 satellites. Starlink has almost finished launching its 2nd full shell, and should be in position by July / August. Based on that active cells may double to 30-40% around that time too. The US Beta went live very quickly after the first shell positioned. You can see the positioning of the Starlinks and Shells with the 'layout' button on https://satellitemap.space/ or this video.

An observation - these Starlink pre-orders really may be 'first come first served'. Not just for Dishy, but Starlink using the pre-order numbers to decide which cells to turn on first, perhaps with a user-count threshold. Once the mid-late 2021 cells are active, will then have to wait for future batches of Starlinks to activate cells. Though Starlink claims not to be targeting cities, the suburbs are where a lot of customers may lie, as shown on your map and the UK map perhaps.

Yank1w1 - that power usage sounds pretty much identical to the threads I've seen on Reddit. Some people with detailed power-usage graphs on there. Yes, I worked out power usage in Northland about the same, $0.35/kWh up here though :-/ Could timer it to turn off overnight perhaps, and save 1/3. Some people looking into solar, but probably overkill for most people.

pih - Some Reddit user experience seems 'not great' for VoIP and maybe Zoom so far from what I've read, with drop-outs between satellite handovers perhaps or coverage gaps. Some people keeping their DSL line as backup for VoIP calls etc. Hopefully things will improve though, still 'beta'.

Yank1w1

40 posts

Geek

#2682747 29-Mar-2021 20:19

acjh58:

Do we know where the Starlink DNS server is located?

Alan

Starlink App recommends setting DNS to 1.1.1.1

Oblivian

6669 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

#2682748 29-Mar-2021 20:20

That's an old verizon set if I recall. Now run by Cloudflare

Yank1w1

40 posts

Geek

#2682758 29-Mar-2021 20:30

There is one less hop to 1.1.1.1 vs 8.8.8.8

5 vs 6 hops

cloudflare or google both work just fine.

DjShadow

3853 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

#2682834 30-Mar-2021 01:20

Have found a bit of a NZ review on Youtube: Starlink unboxing and setup Christchurch, New Zealand - YouTube

kingdragonfly

7171 posts

Uber Geek

#2684013 30-Mar-2021 11:43

I wonder what's with the lines of satellites?

https://satellitemap.space/

zenourn

245 posts

Master Geek

Trusted

#2684016 30-Mar-2021 11:45

It's the latest launches... they take a few months to space out and get to their final positions.

Zander

60 posts

Master Geek

#2687360 6-Apr-2021 17:38

Starlink Beta availability seems to have jumped lower in Arizona, now down to 33.7 degrees. In theory, that should cover the whole of NZ 'now'. 36.9 degrees was the minimum latitude for a good while, so quite a jump.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Starlink/comments/li1dzo/starlink_availability_current_and_new_beta_test/gti33ws/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

Also, Starlink has sent out the following update to beta users.

Jordanh

11 posts

Geek

#2687825 7-Apr-2021 12:02

I feel like the satellite switching update has already gone into effect. Just checked the stats page this morning and had only 5 mins of beta downtime but 100% satellite coverage.
It felt much better, played a few hours of Valorant last night with only very minor stutters. Previously we got quite big dropouts.

Ill check dishy's firmware version when I get home and see if any changes have been made.

Yank1w1

40 posts

Geek

#2687864 7-Apr-2021 13:24

It is nice being able to stream Netflix in 4K without drop outs.

Yank1w1

40 posts

Geek

#2687989 7-Apr-2021 18:15

Some Recent Starlink speed tests from Christchurch, Port Hills installation.

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