Update 2021-05-25 - I now consider this article Starlink, Part 4 of a series. For the entire series, click on the Starlink tag.
I really had not intended to make Starlink a dominant theme of this blog. I actually have an entire blog in preparation that's dedicated to Satellite Broadband Internet Access. But sometimes, a story kind of writes itself in the moment, as this one did.
A number of people who've followed my two previous articles - Why Starlink Will Win Rural Broadband and More on Starlink pointed out an article published today on The Verge:
Starlink review: broadband dreams fall to Earth by Nilay Patel.
Unfortunately, instead of being a fair and impartial review, I think Patel misses two three four major points about Starlink, and missing those points tarnishes the review.
1. I think Patel gives lip service to is that Starlink is currently in beta development. There will be issues. That's expected in a beta deployment. The point of a beta deployment is to learn about those issues (both issues that were anticipated, and especially issues that weren't anticipated.) Despite that, Patel reviews his Starlink experience as if Starlink is a commercial, production system and concludes that it's unusable... as compared to his existing cellular and cable service. Which directly leads me to...
2. The entire point of Starlink is to provide Broadband Internet Service to customers in rural areas who do currently have any reasonable option for Broadband Internet Access. Defacto, if a customer does have a reasonable option for Broadband Internet Access, there would be little reason to consider Starlink. (That is, other than those very few of us who just like something cool, or really want a Broadband Internet Access option that doesn't depend [much] on terrestrial infrastructure.)
3. In my opinion, Patel didn't really conduct a proper "review" of Starlink. The Starlink app informed him in advance that there could be issues because of the trees surrounding him. Patel admits that Starlink recommends to get Dishy McFlatface as high up off the ground as possible to provide the best possible experience. Yet, Patel "reviews" Starlink with his Dishy McFlatface sitting in the back of a pickup truck and on a picnic bench. In a good faith review, Patel might have tried to put his Dishy McFlatface (just typing that name makes me smile) higher up on a pole.
4. This was really missing the point of Starlink:
Starlink’s latency also swings from fine — Zoom did not exhibit any delay when it worked — to pretty bad. My feeling is that the connection dropouts are going to be worse for gaming than latency, so I didn’t spend any time testing gaming latency, but Starlink itself measures ping times for Counter-Strike: Go and Fortnite in its app, and I rarely saw those numbers dip below 50ms, mostly hovering around 85-115ms. Those aren’t numbers you’d want to game with, unless you like losing. (Some Starlink testers have been able to play games and even use Stadia, but that seems both inconsistent and heavily dependent on satellite coverage in your area.)
Other than hardcore fanboys, I suspect that Starlink's support of a great gaming experience isn't exactly front of mind compared to... say... working remotely... or attending school remotely... or chatting with your doctor remotely... or keeping in touch with friends and family remotely....
Indeed, many other reviews such as Tom Evslin in rural Vermont and Brian Hines in rural Oregon, and many, many others on various Facebook groups report that their Starlink installations work reasonably well. No review that I've seen reports that Starlink works (overall) worse than their other options for Broadband Internet Access such as a Wireless Internet Service Provider (Evslin) and Digital Subscriber Line (Hines). Although WISP service and DSL service might not see the dropouts that Patel experienced, the overall experience of Starlink was superior to those options to the point that, warts and all, Starlink is now their preferred Broadband Internet Access option. That goes back to my Point 2 above - if you have a reasonable option for Broadband Internet Access, you're not in the customer base that Starlink is targeting. I suspect that Patel would be writing a completely different review if he didn't already have reasonable options for Broadband Internet Access.
Other than that major "missing the two three four major points about Starlink", the article is readable, informative, and at points actually amusing, such as:
And lastly, if you are a telecom executive or regulator in the United States, you have no choice but to see Starlink, its execution, and the unrestrained excitement and hype around it as a direct indictment of your rhetoric and efforts to properly connect this country to the internet over the past two decades. Dishy McDishface is a sign that reads YOU FUCKED UP AND EVERYONE HATES YOU. Read the sign. This is your fault.
Overall, I don't think Patel's article is a credible review. To me (totally my opinion), Patel's article reads a bit like a sensationalist "hit piece" because of the issues noted above. The article will undoubtedly drive hits to The Verge, and perhaps that was the main point.
Thanks for reading!
Steve Stroh
Bellingham, Washington, USA
2021-05-14
Portions Copyright © 2021 by Steven K. Stroh