Elon Musk fights to rid rural Britain of sluggish broadband in battle with BT – Telegraph.co.uk

Musks satellites orbit the Earth at an altitude of 340 miles. At that height, they do not suffer as much from latency, the time it takes a signal to reach them, which can slow down streaming and gaming. Starlinks test satellites promise speeds of up to 100mbps - not equivalent to fibre, but better than entry level broadband packages.

But the system is not perfect. When setting up Starlink, early users say the signals can be interrupted by any kind of obstruction near the horizon, such as a house or trees.

In Devon, Hall admits his speeds are not as fast as some. Some of the sky is obscured where I currently mount my dish, he says. His friend nearby gets speeds up to 200Mbps faster.

Aaron Wilkes, another Starlink user in the village of Bredgar in Kent, has seen even greater speeds. Over the first two months it was patchy now the service is on a par with normal internet service providers, he says. Speeds have been in excess of 400 megabits per second download.

One sticking point for now is likely to be price. Starlink costs 439 to install, while Wi-Fi boxes are generally free. It also charges a 89 per month subscription fee. Still, Wilkes says 89 is value to someone like myself in a rural community.

Others are less impressed. Its a beta service with inferior reliability when compared to current rural offerings, says Tom Bastable from Cornwall, who claims customer service can take days to reply. Theres no point glamourising the state of it. It needs to be better.

More here:

Elon Musk fights to rid rural Britain of sluggish broadband in battle with BT - Telegraph.co.uk