Northwestel has taken part in several interventions to fight off the imminent competition of Starlink.
The telecom company serving Canada’s North first filed a request with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to remove floor tests on its high-speed internet service months ago.
If Northwestel wants to lower its internet rates, it must get prior approval from governing bodies like the CRTC.
In its latest response on the matter, Northwestel answered concerns from interveners who said the proposal could harm competition that would increase internet presence in the North. It could also impact competitors using Northwestel to provide their services.
Northwestel said that’s not the case, as competitors won’t be restricted when purchasing wholesale services.
“Competitors can also purchase, and resell, our tariffed retail internet services, and that at the same reduced rates we aim to implement to our residential customers under our proposal.”
Cartt notes a decision from the CRTC could be the next step in the process unless additional information is requested.
Waking me from a dead sleep like a nightmare – An Elon Musk tweet has surfaced announcing a new Starlink high-performance antenna and Premium package.
The new low-earth-orbit satellite internet option web page claims that speeds range between 150-500 Mbps, with latency around 20-40ms. It further mentions that this could be a good option for businesses. The regular Starlink dish is only rated for around 100-200 Mbps and similar latency on Starlink’s website.
Starlink Premium is more than just a stronger antenna with faster speeds. It also comes with 24/7 support, a detachable 23-metre power-over-ethernet cable and a 1.8-metre power cable. Both of these cables are slightly shorter than what comes with the standard ‘Circular’ Starlink pack, but since the new model has a detachable wire, you can buy longer lengths in the Starlink Shop. As far as I can tell, the shop is only available to people with Starlink accounts, so at this time, we’re unsure of how much it costs.
The new unit is expected to begin shipping to customers sometime in Q2 2022.
As for the cost of the new dish itself. Starlink Premium is not cheap:
Deposit – $635 CAD
Hardware – $3,1700 CAD
Service – $635/month
Shipping & Handling $65
Est tax – $420
Total ——— $4,925
If you have a remote business and need internet, I guess the upfront cost of this is something you could swallow, but it’s incredibly expensive for regular people. Even the ludicrously expensive $635 per month for data service targets this at businesses, not families, which is disappointing.
Regular people instead are pushed towards the Circular dish, which costs:
Hardware – $650
Service – $130/month
Shipping & Handling – $65
Est. Tax – $92.82
Total ———– $937.82
It should also be noted that Starlink isn’t available everywhere yet, so you’ll need to have your address approved before your unit will ship to you. Furthering that, since the service uses satellites to beam internet down at Earth, some areas with heavy tree coverage can experience slow times and other issues when the satellites and the planet aren’t perfectly aligned.
The new Starlink Premium may solve that problem with its larger dish, but since it’s so expensive, it likely won’t be helping many existing Starlink owners.
The satellite internet company that aims to offer internet services to rural and remote communities around the world with its dishes has a knack for attracting cats with its warmth.
Starlink user Aaron Taylor snapped a photo of a Starlink dish covered in cats enjoying its warmth with the device set to ‘Snow Melt Mode.’
Starlink works great until the cats find out that the dish gives off a little heat on cold days. pic.twitter.com/uyH3Kbqrie
The feature “produces additional heat to mitigate signal attenuation caused by snow build-up on the face of the user terminal,” and apparently, also attracts felines looking to keep warm in cold winter weather.
Starlink currently has 140,000 subscribers worldwide and is available in 20 countries, including Canada.
In late 2021, the SpaceX-owned company confirmed that it was delaying the delivery timeline of Starlink dishes to 2022 for some customers due to the ongoing worldwide silicon shortage.
BAYONNE, FRANCE – CIRCA JANUARY 2021: Starlink app on Apple iPhone screen. Starlink is a satellite internet constellation being constructed by SpaceX to provide satellite internet access.
Download speeds offered by satellite internet provider Starlink have decreased in Canada over the past couple of months, according to a new analysis by Ookla.
The company tracked the internet speeds of the SpaceX company through its Speedtest platform over the past three quarters.
Its analysis of Q3 shows download speeds have decreased compared to the last quarter in Canada. In comparison, the download speed of fixed broadband services increased.
Starlink’s download speed decreased to 84.55 Mbps in Q3 compared to 86.92 Mbp in Q2. Download speeds of fixed broadband increased to 90.67 Mbps, compared to 84.24 Mbps in Q2.
According to Ookla, this is expected as more customers subscribe to Starlink’s services, which launched in Canada last year.
The overall upload speed for Starlink was also slower compared to fixed broadband at 13.87 Mbps versus 20.67 Mbps.
Latency was one aspect that wasn’t overtaken. Starlink’s latency of 56 ms was higher than the 12ms offered by fixed broadband.
“Starlink is still a viable alternative to fixed broadband in Canada, especially for consumers without access to other options,” the post notes.
Ookla was able to gather enough data to examine the service in nine provinces. Starlink was faster in five provinces compared to fixed broadband services, including, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, and Saskatchewan.
Fixed broadband was faster in Alberta, British Columbia, and Ontario. This was a change from Q2 reporting, as Ontario and Alberta were noted to have comparable speeds to fixed broadband.
Trends noted in Canada were similar to other parts of the world. In the U.S., for example, download speeds decreased from 97.23Mbps in Q2 to 87.25 Mbps in Q3.
Back in February, founder and CEO of SpaceX, Elon Mush, tweeted internet speeds for the company would reach 300 Mbps and latency would drop near 20ms this year. With 2021 nearing an end, it’s unclear if this will be achieved.
I’m outside at my rural Saskatchewan farm, chatting with my neighbours who I’ve invited over to appreciate the night sky through my telescope. After exclamations and open-mouthed wonder over Saturn’s rings, and light that has been travelling through space for more than two million years to reach our eyes from the Andromeda Galaxy, our conversation inevitably turns to the pandemic, our work-from-home arrangements and complaints about rural internet. My neighbour casually mentions they’ve just switched to using Starlink for their internet provider.
I glance up and notice a bright satellite moving across the sky, almost certainly a Starlink, since they now make up almost half of the nearly 4,000 operational satellites and they’re extremely bright. I take a deep breath and carefully consider how to discuss the substantial cost that we’re all going to have to pay for Starlink internet.
I don’t blame my neighbours for switching. Here, as in many rural parts of North America, there aren’t great internet options, and with many people working and taking classes from home during the pandemic, anything that makes life easier is immediately accepted.
With no regulation, I know that in the near future, one out of every 15 points you can see in the sky will actually be relentlessly crawling satellites, not stars. This will be devastating to research astronomy, and will completely change the night sky worldwide.
A simulation of the brightness and number of satellites during a full night for 50 degrees north on the summer solstice.
Our model uses 65,000 satellites on the orbits filed by four megaconstellation companies: SpaceX Starlink and Amazon Kuiper (United States), OneWeb (United Kingdom) and StarNet/GW (China). We calibrated our simulation to match telescope measurements of Starlink satellites, since they are by far the most numerous.
Starlink has so far made some strides toward dimming their satellites since their first launch, but most are still visible to the naked eye.
Our simulations show that from everywhere in the world, in every season, there will be dozens to hundreds of satellites visible for at least an hour before sunrise and after sunset. Right now, it’s relatively easy to escape urban light pollution for dark skies while camping or visiting your cabin, but our simulations show that you can’t escape this new satellite light pollution anywhere on Earth, even at the North Pole.
The most severely affected locations on Earth will be 50 degrees north and south, near cities like London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, Kiev, Vancouver, Calgary and my own home. On the summer solstice, from these latitudes, there will be close to 200 satellites visible to the naked eye all night long.
The telescope observations that are key to learning about our universe are about to get much, much harder because of unregulated development of space.
Astronomers are creating some mitigation strategies, but they will require time and effort that should be paid for by megaconstellation companies.
Unknown environmental costs
Starlink internet might appear cheaper than other rural options, but this is because many costs are offloaded. One immediate cost is atmospheric pollution from the hundreds of rocket launches required to build and maintain this system.
Every satellite deployment dumps spent rocket bodies and other debris into already-crowded low Earth orbit, increasing collision risks. Some of this space junk will eventually fall back to Earth, and those parts of the globe with the highest overhead satellite densities will also be the most likely to be literally impacted.
Starlink plans to replace each of the 42,000 satellites after five years of operation, which will require de-orbiting an average 25 satellites per day, about six tons of material. The mass of these satellites won’t go away — it will be deposited in the upper atmosphere. Because satellites comprise mostly aluminium alloys, they may form alumina particles as they vaporize in the upper atmosphere, potentially destroying ozone and causing global temperature changes.
This has not yet been studied in-depth because low Earth orbit is not currently subject to any environmental regulations.
Regulating the sky
Currently, low Earth orbit, where all of these satellites are planned to operate, is almost completely unregulated. There are no rules about light pollution, atmospheric pollution from launches, atmospheric pollution from re-entry, or collisions between satellites.
But companies are launching satellites right now at a frenetic pace, and the damage they do to the night sky, the atmosphere and the safety of low Earth orbit will not be undone even if the operators go bankrupt.
There’s no doubt that rural and remote internet users in many places have been left behind by internet infrastructure development. But there are many other options for internet delivery that will not result in such extreme costs.
With co-operation instead of competition between satellite companies, we could have many fewer in orbit. By changing the design of satellites, they could be made much fainter, having less of an impact on the night sky. We shouldn’t have to make a choice between astronomy and the internet.
But without regulations requiring these changes, or strong pressure from consumers indicating the importance of the night sky, our view of the stars will soon be changed forever.
SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet program has delayed delivery timelines again, pushing estimated deliveries out to 2022.
In an email sent to some customers (via Tesla North), SpaceX encourages customers to check the delivery times in their accounts. Further, the email cites silicon shortages as the reason for delays:
“Silicon shortages over the last six months have slowed our expected production rate and impacted our ability to fulfill many Starlink orders this year. We apologize for the delay and are working hard across our engineering, supply chain and production teams to improve and streamline our product and factory to increase our production rate.”
Some users who checked their account now see a message that reads: “Starlink expects to expand service in your area by mid-2022.” Previously, a similar message said mid- or late-2021. One user based in the Kawartha Lakes region in Ontario told Tesla North that they saw the message — they pre-ordered Starlink in February 2021.
It’s worth noting that pandemic-related supply constraints have plagued several companies and products, especially those in the tech space. Starlink’s availability, however, has been restricted for a while as part of its ‘beta’ status. Unfortunately, dropping the ‘beta’ wording earlier this month hasn’t changed much about the service’s availability.
Several customers who pre-ordered SpaceX’s Starlink broadband are complaining that making minor alterations to their service location on the Starlink website map caused their delivery dates to be pushed back by a year or more, as first reported first by Ars Technica.
“I moved it from the end of my driveway to my house this morning and just looked back, and it had changed to 2022-2023. Bullshit! Damn it! I’ve been waiting since Feb,” commented ‘BrdwyBabe13’ on a cautioning Reddit post about the issue.
Judging by the complaints, it appears as though people pinpointing their house with the newly visible map tool available to those who pre-ordered the service, are being pushed way back in line.
Please tell me correcting your coordinates on the map a few hundred feet doesn't alter your position in the Starlink Beta queue. It sure seemed to in my case. @SpaceX@elonmusk
“I moved the dot a few feet last night and wham! Went from late 2021 to sometime in 2023!😭😭😭 I didn’t sleep all night! Why? Why did I do it? I just can’t believe I’ve screwed us out of internet for two more years! Omg I suck,” wrote ‘3-HUGGER’ in the same Reddit thread.
This kind of pre-order delay with Starlink isn’t a new problem. The fact that the location map is now more prominently visible is causing more people to experiment with it, and they end up at the back of the queue with the slightest of change to the pinned location.
SpaceX hasn’t done much to alleviate the confusion. Several users have reported the issue to Starlink to no avail.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says talks are underway to see if airlines are interested in having Starlink satellite internet service installed on their commercial aircraft.
Musk dropped the announcement via a tweet on his personal Twitter account, as he often does for news relating to his companies.
In this case, that includes Starlink — SpaceX’s low-orbit satellite internet project, which is currently in its beta testing phase.
When asked via tweet if he had “any plans to make Starlink available on any airlines”, Musk replied: “Yes, we are talking to airlines about installing Starlink. Please let them know if you want it on your airliner. Low latency ~half gigabit connectivity in the air!”
Yes, we are talking to airlines about installing Starlink. Please let them know if you want it on your airliner.
Low latency ~half gigabit connectivity in the air!
No specific airlines or timelines are mentioned in the tweet, though it’s worth noting that SpaceX began seeking regulatory approval back in March 2021 to hook up trucks, shipping boats and aircraft with Starlink internet.
But while outlets such as Reuters did report on this update in Starlink’s ongoing quest to beam internet from space to moving vehicles, you’d be forgiven if you missed seeing the actual announcement on Twitter.
This is because the tweet itself was buried within in a thread about the popular JRPG Genshin Impact.
In fact, just two tweets below this major piece of news from the centimillionaire CEO who wants to colonize Mars, Musk also shares some of his favourite anime titles (Princess Mononoke felt a bit ironic, given the film’s core theme of nature fighting back against human greed and industry) and that he prefers the character of L over Light in Death Note.
Death Note, Evangelion, Ghost in the Shell, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Full Metal Alchemist, Your Name
Elon Musk says Starlink will exit its beta phase “next month.”
As it so often goes with Musk, the CEO of Tesla and Space X made the announcement in a tweet with precious few other details. Someone asked Musk when Starlink will leave beta. Musk answered. That was all.
As a quick refresher, Starlink is a platform that uses low-earth orbit (LEO) satellites to beam internet to customers on the ground. Starlink has been available to a limited number of people as part of a beta period, which saw SpaceX build out its satellite array and stabilize connectivity. It’s not a perfect solution, with The Verge detailing how something as simple as a tree in the wrong place could disrupt service.
Despite issues and still being in beta, the service has so far proven popular in rural Canada, where people are tired of paying exorbitant prices to incumbent operators for service that doesn’t work particularly well.
In August, Ookla released data that showed Starlink offered slightly faster median download speeds in several provinces compared to fixed broadband. However, it’s important to note that people living in urban areas likely have access to high-speed broadband that performs better than Starlink. Still, it’s impressive to see Starlink outperform other internet offerings even in its beta stage.
Once Starlink exits the beta phase, it should be more accessible for people. There’s a steep upfront cost to get it up and running, but the monthly fee may be less than competitors with improved performance, depending on where you live. Those interested can read more about Starlink in Canada here.
However, Starlink’s success may inspire competitors. In August, the Canadian federal government invested $1.44 billion in Telesat, a Canadian satellite internet company aiming to connect 40,000 households with 5G and LTE.
Finally, Musk previously said that Starlink could provide mobile internet services, suggesting that people with RVs could use Starlink to get internet service wherever they are. While that capability isn’t officially available yet, some people have already mounted Starlink terminals to their cars.
