We bought our current house in 2020 and suffered through three years of misery with CenturyLink (now Brightspeed) internet. I won’t go through the whole drawn out story of this company having the worst customer service that I have ever encountered. Just suffice to say, the company advertised my area had 25 Mbps available, then said I could only get 10 Mbps and was provided a max of 6 Mbps. And that was on the best day, most of the time, during the day and on week-ends, there were constant service interruptions. Very rarely could I even think about streaming a movie until after 6 or 7 PM. Our DSL internet and landline phone cost about $70, which wasn’t bad, except the internet was just about useless.
I was on the waitlist for Starlink for quite a few months when they raised the monthly rate from $90 to $120 just as service became available in my area. I canceled the order and waited some more. Finally in August last year I was so fed up I told myself “to hell with it” and ordered it again. One of the best decisions I ever made and it didn’t cost as much as I thought!
While the equipment cost is substantial at $600, you own it and can resell at will, and, I believe you have time to return it for a full refund if not satisfied with the service. The monthly $120 dollar service seems pricey but here’s what I did. I had an unlimited data plan and hotspot on my cell phone for only one reason. That was to have the internet at home when Brightspeed was down, which was so frequently, it was beyond belief. I was paying $55 per month and switched to a $35 plan. Starlink is a month to month service which you pay by credit card on file and you can suspend or cancel service at any time, for any reason. There are no taxes or extra fees other than the $120 monthly charge. Since I get 5% cash back on my credit card, my actual cost is $114 monthly.
So, I canceled our landline and DSL internet saving $70. The only calls we got on landline were scammers anyway. My cell phone plan change saved another $20 per month, so my total savings was $90. Starlink dollars out of pocket is $114 minus the $90 saved equals a net cost increase of $24.00! And if I could convince my significant other to switch her cell phone to a cheaper plan, the household savings would be even greater, maybe close to the same previous cost!
And how is Starlink working? In the 10 months we’ve had it there’s been one 22 minute outage that occurred other than any standard utility power outage from storms. The router and internet will go down if the power goes out, but I solved that problem by getting a UPS battery backup with integrated surge protector for it. My download speeds are consistently well above 50 Mbps with uploads above 20Mbps. More than enough to do anything online without any issues. Of course if you have access to fiber or cable internet, that would be worth considering, but for us rural areas, Starlink is great. It’s sure made me a happier person!
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