| Pages:
1
2 |
BCSTech
Senior Nomad
Posts: 584
Registered: 4-16-2006
Location: Todos Santos, BCS / Placerville, CA.
Member Is Offline
Mood: Carpe Manana
|
|
StarBand Satellite Internet Going Away?
We heard from a current Starband client in our area that Starband is moving their services to another satellite that will no longer service Southern
Baja / Mexico. Is this true, and if so what exactly is happening?
(BajaBus, come on...)
|
|
|
BCSTech
Senior Nomad
Posts: 584
Registered: 4-16-2006
Location: Todos Santos, BCS / Placerville, CA.
Member Is Offline
Mood: Carpe Manana
|
|
Yes, it's a bummer if true. We were just getting ready to pick them up to replace our HughesNet offering.
|
|
|
BigWooo
Senior Nomad
Posts: 579
Registered: 1-2-2007
Member Is Offline
|
|
Oops, accidental deleted my post. Sorry BCS Tech. I think Bajabus will post soon about what's going on.
|
|
|
Bajabus
Senior Nomad
Posts: 892
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: Elias Calles B.C.S. or NC USA
Member Is Offline
Mood: My friends..it's good.
|
|
Basically, the current primary satellite that starband uses, g27 @ the 129 degree orbital slot is nearing the end of it's operational life of about 13
years, it has already suffered one large failure in the not to distant past. it may go fine for another 5 years or it may crap out sooner....fact is
that it is older.
Intelsat was not willing to guarantee if and when a new bird would be placed in that slot, nor were they willing to negotiate future transponder
leases on any new bird that would replace this aging one.
based on the above starband is going to let 4 of the 5 transponders it leases on G27 go and retain only one for the Spacenet commercial services to AK
and other OCONUS areas and approximately 1600 other starband consumer class customers.
The have now acquired long term leases on 6 transponders on the much newer echostar9/G23 located @121 degrees. Many here will recognize that this
same bird is where DN TV HD programing comes from, it's signal in B.C.S requires a 1.8 meter dish. What is not known since the new transponders are
not fired up yet is what the actual coverage or footprint will be.
The first transponder is set to start broadcasting a carrier in the 1st week of June when a lot of us will be testing to see what is actually the
case.
If it's like the TV transponders then many existing BCS customers on 1.2 meter dishes are screwed unless they are in contract and have a strong dealer
that will fight for one of those scarce spots on the single remaining transponder on G27 or upgrade to a 1.8 meter antenna so they can move to the new
E9/G23 bird which honestly is not likely because of the expense involved.
best thing to do is get in contact with your dealer ASAP to see what your best course of action is.
We are advising our customers that are not under contract to quickly extend their contracts so that as their dealer we will be in a better bargaining
position to keep them on the remaining space.
As of June 1st no new accounts will go on g27 all will automatically go on E9/G23 and starband will be contacting all their customers with a mandatory
free repoint (in the USA) to the new bird.
If you can't see the new bird and are out of contract you may be SOOL and find yourself terminated or paying a lot more for the privilege of staying
on that older bird.
the whole thing is a cluster f^(k because it's all going to be done over the next few months in stages and no one really know how each stage is going
to play out because it is going to be largely determined by what the outcome of the previous stage was.
example, what is the real coverage? How many OCONUS customers will be able to see the new bird and can move to it? how many customers can they
legally terminate if they are unwilling to move? How many will take them up on an offer of more expensive service? How many 1500 VS 1000 plan
customers will be left? based on that will they be able to realistically offer two levels of service on the old bird or just go with the 1000 plan so
they can fit the maximum number of customers on the remaining sat? if the number of 1500 customers is not too many can they move them to AMC-6 where
space is really limited?
As you can see there are a lot of variables. no one really knows what the hell is in store for sure.
For USA customers , a lot of mainland Mexico customers and northern Baja customers the news is great. more transponders, more space, a stronger
signal, plenty of room to grow all = better service. For many in B.C.S. it could potentially be the kiss of death to their current setup.
For the nitty gritty and up to date info as we know more, check www.starband-users.com
it is what it is...for now I am just going to do my best to make lemonade outta these lemons
[Edited on 23-5-2009 by Bajabus]
[Edited on 23-5-2009 by Bajabus]
"Preventive war was an invention of Hitler. Frankly I would not even listen to anyone seriously that came and talked of such a thing."
Dwight David Eisenhower
|
|
|
oladulce
Super Nomad
Posts: 1625
Registered: 5-30-2005
Location: bcs
Member Is Offline
|
|
Thanks for starting this post BCS tech!
We wouldn't have known anything about this issue until it was way too late.
We have crappy luck with satellite technology...
In '99 we bought a $1500 Iridium sat phone. One week later the Iridium network went belly up and the phone was completely useless.
We got our Starband internet system set up in BCS last year and got one full month of use out of it. Whoo hooo! I'll be bummed if we can't salvage
some level of service from it. What a waste of another chunk of change if we can't.
More importantly, if we loose our internet access, living, managing finances, communication etc, in remote Baja Sur will be nearly impossible.
|
|
|
BCSTech
Senior Nomad
Posts: 584
Registered: 4-16-2006
Location: Todos Santos, BCS / Placerville, CA.
Member Is Offline
Mood: Carpe Manana
|
|
Bajabus what about the Gilat commercial service, can you confirm same issue or no?
We've been installing iDirect commercial systems and we're just about ready to drop the home gear, especially if Starband is no longer an option. More
expensive but they work so much better, support VoIP telephone service no problem, and they're happy to service Mexico. At least the commercial
service providers seem to understand there's a market here, unlike Hughes and Starband apparently.
|
|
|
Bajabus
Senior Nomad
Posts: 892
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: Elias Calles B.C.S. or NC USA
Member Is Offline
Mood: My friends..it's good.
|
|
No problem on the commercial services which are mostly offered on AMC-6 and get a great signal.
There is also going to be another low cost ( relative to the other commercial plans) option with Digital Voice Services available on the old G27 sat.
Gilat has about 90% of the rural sat telephone market world wide because their digital voice service is superb and flawless...no one would ever know
you were talking on a satellite connection.
You should take a look at Spacenets/Gilats commercial services. The MRC is a bit more expensive than most providers using iDirect equipment but the
equipment is less and the SLAs are a lot better.....for instance they are the only company that will state in writing what your minimum assured speeds
will be and credit you if they don't meet the target.
"Preventive war was an invention of Hitler. Frankly I would not even listen to anyone seriously that came and talked of such a thing."
Dwight David Eisenhower
|
|
|
Bajabus
Senior Nomad
Posts: 892
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: Elias Calles B.C.S. or NC USA
Member Is Offline
Mood: My friends..it's good.
|
|
| Quote: | Originally posted by oladulce
We wouldn't have known anything about this issue until it was way too late.
We have crappy luck with satellite technology...
In '99 we bought a $1500 Iridium sat phone. One week later the Iridium network went belly up and the phone was completely useless.
We got our Starband INTERNET system set up in BCS last year and got one full month of use out of it. Whoo hooo! I'll be bummed if we can't salvage
some level of service from it. What a waste of another chunk of change if we can't.
More importantly, if we loose our INTERNET access, living, managing finances, communication etc, in remote Baja Sur will be nearly impossible.
|
Oladulce....who is your starband dealer in B.C.S.? depending on if they are a minor Johny come lately or major player with the company they will be
able to keep you on the current bird. if you bought directly from SB and did your own install and are out of contract you may not be too lucky.
"Preventive war was an invention of Hitler. Frankly I would not even listen to anyone seriously that came and talked of such a thing."
Dwight David Eisenhower
|
|
|
oladulce
Super Nomad
Posts: 1625
Registered: 5-30-2005
Location: bcs
Member Is Offline
|
|
| Quote: | Originally posted by Bajabus
Oladulce....who is your starband dealer in B.C.S.? depending on if they are a minor Johny come lately or major player with the company they will be
able to keep you on the current bird. |
I'm very confident in our Starband dealer and we are taking the necessary steps to try and keep our current service,thank you.
Sorry for whining, it's left over baggage from the Iridium thing. Reminds one that you're at the mercy of the company when you invest in their
equipment. The system works great and I hope we can continue to use it.
|
|
|
larryC
Super Nomad
Posts: 1482
Registered: 8-11-2008
Location: BoLA
Member Is Offline
|
|
Has anyone done a test to see what the signal strength is from the new starband satellite in Baja sur? I'm a starband installer in BOLA and I tested
the signal strength there and found it to be almost as good as the present satellite. So no problems in Bahia. Each dish (I have installed about 50 of
them) will have to be reaimed but starband is paying for that so no problems for the customer. Anyway until someone does a test on echostar 9 no one
knows if Starband is going away in BCS or not.
Larry
|
|
|
BCSTech
Senior Nomad
Posts: 584
Registered: 4-16-2006
Location: Todos Santos, BCS / Placerville, CA.
Member Is Offline
Mood: Carpe Manana
|
|
No Muy Bueno Aqui:
|
|
|
Bajabus
Senior Nomad
Posts: 892
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: Elias Calles B.C.S. or NC USA
Member Is Offline
Mood: My friends..it's good.
|
|
Alan, it is not as simple as that......to see what I mean check this discussion out:
http://www.starband-users.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=10&a...
It is evident from the preliminary testing on existing DVB broadcasting DN transponders on G23 that you can't trust that map....hence the uncertainty.
To compound that uncertainty we do not know the agreement between the sat operator and Spacenet. The power level on a transponder is variable and to
a degree the individual transponders used are steerable. Spacenet has leased 6 transponders.
Also what is the modulation that will be used DVB or 8QPSK? That could also have a profound bearing on the actual SQ and final Ebno at any given
point on the ground.
In short, until they actually start firing up the transponders sometime next week and we input the info into a modem on the actual frequency with the
assigned data rate and modulation we don't know.
Time will tell.
"Preventive war was an invention of Hitler. Frankly I would not even listen to anyone seriously that came and talked of such a thing."
Dwight David Eisenhower
|
|
|
BCSTech
Senior Nomad
Posts: 584
Registered: 4-16-2006
Location: Todos Santos, BCS / Placerville, CA.
Member Is Offline
Mood: Carpe Manana
|
|
Interesting. Keep us posted on what you find out in June.
Gotta say, map #2 looks like something the marketing department put out. Hope not. Regardless, probably still need to talk to you about the commercial
side.
|
|
|
BCSTech
Senior Nomad
Posts: 584
Registered: 4-16-2006
Location: Todos Santos, BCS / Placerville, CA.
Member Is Offline
Mood: Carpe Manana
|
|
Max, any updates here? Were you able to run some tests on Wednesday?
|
|
|
cabobaja
Nomad
Posts: 362
Registered: 9-19-2006
Location: South \"O\", Elias Calles, BCS
Member Is Offline
Mood: Smiling
|
|
Bump..............................Max?
|
|
|
schwlind
Nomad
Posts: 362
Registered: 8-30-2008
Location: Daytona Beach, FL/San Antonio Del Mar (Colonet)
Member Is Offline
|
|
I am extremely interested in this topic, as we had a Starband residential system installed in February 2006 with a 3 year service contract (expired
Feb 2009). We paid about $1200 for the equipment and install with a monthly service fee of $49.99. Our download threshhold is 1 GB and upload is
390.6 MB per rolling 7 day period. I think we have exceeded our download threshhold maybe 4 times since the install.
We are located at San Antonio Del Mar, between San Vicente and San Quintin (near Colonet). Our lat/Long coordinates are 31N / 116W. While we don't
live there full time right now, our close friend does. He relies heavily on our system to stay in contact with the outside world as we are totally
off grid. Cell phones work sometimes and sometimes they don't.
We have a contact person in Colonia Guerrero and the person who installed the system has two satellite internet websites. He is located in San Diego.
I've sent an email to the Colonia Guerrero contact, but have heard nothing so far.
Can you two-way satellite techy-types advise if we will be affected by this transition and offer any advice, opinions, suggestions as to what we
should do if we are forced to replace all our equipment due to a loss of the Starband service we are currently receiving?
Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
Linda
[Edited on 6-6-2009 by schwlind]
|
|
|
BCSTech
Senior Nomad
Posts: 584
Registered: 4-16-2006
Location: Todos Santos, BCS / Placerville, CA.
Member Is Offline
Mood: Carpe Manana
|
|
Hi Linda,
I'm sure Max will chime in but, at this point, no one is sure how strong the signal levels will be in BCN/BCS and where. But since your house is right
in the area where the signal starts to drop off (according to one of the two signal maps), your friend could provide some useful information.
On the SB Users' Forum, there was a report last weekend from a SB user in Haiti who was supposed to be outside the signal area for the new satellite.
He reported good signals so perhaps the "official" signal level map is wrong.
|
|
|
schwlind
Nomad
Posts: 362
Registered: 8-30-2008
Location: Daytona Beach, FL/San Antonio Del Mar (Colonet)
Member Is Offline
|
|
UPDATE
After sending an email this morning, I received a response from Chris, the individual from whom we purchased our system as well as did our install.
In addition to his comments below, he also said that I should make sure Starband has my correct contact information (you can update your information
at the www.starband.net website). He also suggested that I check my Starband email account at least once per week to see if there are any updates from
Starband.
This is what Chris had to say...
"It is true Starband is moving most of their customers to a third satellite. Starband currently has AMC4 Galaxy27 and the new Echostar9
satellite.
They are not moving because the satellite is getting old. When satellites get old (10 yrs) they send them into a self destruct orbit. This is
because they run out of fuel. They park a new satellite in the original position. In a few years there will be a new satellite in place of Galaxy27.
Airtime on the new satellite will be more expensive. Starband is moving customers to make their business more profitable. The move requires an
installer to go to your home, repoint the antenna on the roof and reprogram the modem. Starband is paying the installer for the work to be performed.
You may be asked to pay a small travel fee due to your remote location in Baja.
The time frame is unclear at this time. Right now I know they are testing up to June 22. After June 22 they plan to move certain groups of customers
in a phases. The entire process will take 5 months. You will not lose service from one day to the next. You will be contacted for an appointment
and we will repoint your antenna to take advantage of the higher speeds and better resources of the new satellite.
Regarding your equipment, you have a Starband 481 modem. This modem will work on the new satellite. If you don't want to spend more money, you can
keep this modem. If you like, you can take advantage of an upgrade program. For $149 instead of $300 they will provide a new Nova modem. The Nova
modem is capable of entering on the largest speed plan. Upgrading your modem is not required for the satellite transition. It is a good idea if you
need more resources or more speed. The nova modem can only be activated on speed packages with a higher monthly cost.
Any other Starband customers you know in baja, regardless if they are my customers or not, should contact me to schedule a repoint."
He was great to work with in 2006 and in getting back to me promptly today, so if anyone would like Chris' contact information, send me an email...
For now at least, I'm relieved...
Linda
|
|
|
bajabound2005
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 2760
Registered: 10-15-2005
Location: Punta Banda, BCN
Member Is Offline
Mood: words cannot describe...
|
|
Free to a good home: complete Starband system including dish and modem. Come get it and take it away.
We love our Starband system when it was our only choice, but our good friends at Telnor finally brought us DSL and we're pretty darn happy with it.
And it costs a lot less and lets us do a lot more.
Friends don't let friends drink white zinfandel.
|
|
|
DENNIS
Platinum Nomad
Posts: 29510
Registered: 9-2-2006
Location: Punta Banda
Member Is Offline
|
|
When I got rid of my Starband set-up, I was going to put it in the street and run over it with my truck but, somebody rescued it. Good riddance.
|
|
|
| Pages:
1
2 |
![[*]](images/xmbforum/default_icon.gif){kind=icon}
