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Starlink in Rossland - is it reliable?
Submitted by Rachel Welsh on Tue, 25/10/2022 - 10:10am
Hi Rosslanders, We moved to Rossland in June, 2022. The Telus internet that we have is good enough for sending emails, but I work from home and it drops off Zoom calls more than 50% of the time. We cannot get Shaw internet at the house we are renting, due to its location. I need to find a better solution for more reliable internet. We are debating getting Starlink. It is on the more expensive side ($800 upfront for the satellite dish + $140/month for service). We are willing to pay for this if it means we can get reliable internet, as I require it for my job. My concern is that I have heard that it doesn't work great in the snow because a) snow accumulates on the dish and b) the dish has a hard time getting a good signal through snow/blizzards. Would anyone be able to provide some feedback from this area? We have heard that it snows a ton here in the winter (yay!) but our concern is that the dish won't be reliable and then we are no farther ahead with our poor internet situation. Input is much appreciated! Cheers, Rachel
Town: Rossland, BC Photos:
 
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We have had starlink since Nov 2020 down in Paterson.I also work from home with zoom, I use landline for audio during my meetings which help with the call dropping.
the dish has the ability to melt the snow off of it, we have had no issues during the winter Our property also has a lot of trees
Had it for 2 years. I was initially a big proponent. It was always great but for the last 6 months or so I've have slower speeds and will occasionally have video meetings freeze. Customer service is almost non-existent if you ever have issues, and it's expensive. For us it's the only option; The Telus hub is awful. Starlink is really just meant for more remote areas with no other options.
We have had it for 18 months. It's not perfect but it's workable most of the time. Download speeds range from 20-60Mbps, and the average upload speed is 10-20Mbps. We have the older dish. I have heard the newer one melts the snow better, but to be honest, it hasn't been an issue.
We have some issues from time to time with video feeds freezing, but in most cases I have tracked that back to issues *inside* the house.
We are on Mann Road with the older dish and have had the older round dish for about 2 years. It is dramatically better than anything else available to us out here as no cable or fiber. I also just installed a neighbors newer style Starlink this past week. Both are getting 100+mbps consistently. The above report of 20-60 is unusual from my experience with Starlink, though still faster than Telus. The only time I have seen 60 is in a huge snowstorm. I do wonder if the 20-60 is the reading after going through a wireless connection. Otherwise, there have to be obstructions involved. That brings me to one of the major topics about Starlink. You will want to download their app and test for obstructions before purchasing. If you are surrounded by trees on your property, you will likely not want Starlink. Test for free with the app and find out beforehand. Another topic is speed is not the only thing for a Zoom call to consider. You can get microsecond interuptions with Starlink that can periodically drop your call. Not usually a major problem though. Lastly, yes customer service is nonexistent!
Thank you all for your feedback! We got the Telus Smart Hub for rural areas which seems to have improved the internet situation considerably. I found that calling into Zoom audio via phone and using the internet for the video portion only, also takes a load off the internet and my Zoom calls crash less.