Love and hate Starlink

I’m such an industry nerd that I sometimes read customer reviews of major ISPs to see how they’re perceived by the public. Most ISPs have more negative reviews than positive ones, which is to be expected, since people are more likely to complain when something goes wrong than to praise when everything works as promised.

One of the most interesting ISPs is still Starlink. The company is doing well and announced in March of this year that it has 2.6 million customers worldwide. Many of the reviews come from people who love and praise Starlink, especially those who live in rural areas where there are no other viable alternatives. Starlink seems to have a higher percentage of positive reviews than other major ISPs.

People I know who use Starlink say that broadband speeds are slowly improving. That makes sense, since there were 6,219 Starlink satellites in orbit at the end of June. Many of the complaints about Starlink in the early days were because the fleet of satellites in the sky was much smaller. There are enough now that there should always be a few satellites overhead for people with a decent view of the sky.

It’s worth noting that Starlink is still halfway through its first constellation, with FCC approval to deploy nearly 12,000 satellites. The company still says it has an eventual plan to reach 30,000 satellites. It’s worth noting that the satellites are supposedly expected to last about five years. The company began deploying them in May 2019, so an increasing number of replacement satellites will be needed in the coming years — meaning many of the launches will be replacement satellites, not new ones.

Starlink’s negative reviews are interesting because the company has issues that are different from those of other ISPs. Here are some of the most common and interesting complaints about the company.

Many people hate Starlink’s $120 monthly subscription, but some customers are switching to Starlink from more expensive broadband options like hotspots or high-orbit satellites, both of which have stingy data limits. Starlink’s pricing is competitive with many of the largest rural WISPs.

The high price means Starlink must be one of the ISPs feeling the impact of competition from FWA wireless from T-Mobile and Verizon. Those companies have acquired 8.6 million customers from someone. It’s hard to believe that Starlink customers won’t jump at prices that are half of Starlink’s rates. FWA customers within two miles of a cell tower get faster speeds than Starlink. But the real challenge for Starlink in the U.S. will be when the many broadband grants are finally built in rural areas.

Perhaps the most interesting complaint about Starlink is the unpredictability of IP addresses and location identification. Customers are not identified by the location of their own receiver, but by the location of the ground station where the signal from the constellation lands. For most Starlink users, the ground station and their apparent location are different. I know many people who would be happy if the Internet didn’t know where they were, but Starlink users say this creates strange problems.

The complaint, which sounds like that of other ISPs, is about Starlink customer service. Starlink customers can’t talk to a live customer service representative, and everything has to be done through the Starlink app. People say that can work quite well, but customers say that if they hit a dead end with the app, they’re stuck without a solution.

Many people hate do-it-yourself installation, but Starlink now offers professional installation for $199 in many parts of the country.

Users are also frustrated with support because they can’t talk to a live person at the company. It’s almost impossible for a user to know if the problem they’re having is on their end or Starlink’s.

Overall, customers seem to be much less annoyed with Starlink than customers of the big cable companies, the big rural telecoms, or other ISPs that serve rural areas. But, as with most big ISPs, it’s still kind of a love/hate relationship.