Is Starlink available in Switzerland ?

Tech, TV, Mobile, Internet and Geek Corner
1
Heard it is in the Netherlands.

2
It's a technology that would have been great in the 1990s. Today, it was born dead.

Starlink In France: download 139 mbps upload 29 mbps, latency 53 ms

Starlink In Germany: download 107 mbps upload 24 mbps, latency 37 ms

https://www.speedtest.net/insights/b...mance-q2-2021/

Switzerland broadband average: download 214 mbps upload 142 mbps, latency 13 ms https://www.speedtest.net/global-index/switzerland

3
The biggest use for Starlink is if you're in a remote location with poor or non-existent internet. Unless you're in some remote valley where not even cell phone reception works, then I can see the need, but I don't think there's really anywhere in Switzerland that is without good internet of some sort.

I'm currently in South Africa in a remote location where we get good internet, but only 8 Mbps delivered via a Microwave link from a provider some 35 kms away. However, it's surprising just how much can be done at that speed. Netflix, WhatsApp etc all running at the same time.

Big updates from Microsoft and so on do take some time though and that's why I'm looking at Starlink as it offers much faster speeds and is half the price. The equipment will be sent to Switzerland and I'll bring it down with me when I come back here.

But if you really want to go with it, then sign up via their website, buy and install the equipment and off you go. It's satellite based so will work all over Europe.

4
I think delivering internet to remote areas is really just a sideline for Starlink..

As I see it the end game is delivering network point to point between specific locations such as stock markets in New York and London - where milliseconds matter.. Light travels faster in a vacuum thus if they can crack that, traders will pay big money to get that advantage over those on fibre links.

The numbers just don't add up when looking at it as a pure internet provider, the cost of the infra vs the cost to the consumer vs what they provide vs whats already out there cheaper.. it's got to be something else behind it.

5
A very good point. I'd not thought of that.

6
Good point

7
Not my domain of expertise, but I would doubt that in practical terms; while what you are saying is factually correct, there is one important element that I am thinking of: the uplink/downlink time.

My analogy is - assuming one can either fly or drive from A to B. Does the plane fly faster than a car can be legally driven? Yes. Does this make a center of A - center of B trip faster by plane than by car? Not necessarily, because one has to get to the airport, check in, board, take off (this is the "uplink"), then fly, then get off the plane and get from the airport to the city center (this the "downlink"). If the A-B distance is large enough, then flying wins (because the plane speed offsets the time spent to get to/from the plane). However, considering the earthly distances relative to the speed of light in different media, I think the "NYC-London latency" question is more of a "Zürich - Bern" than a "Zürich - Stockholm" trip.

8

“Why pigeons mean peril for satellite broadband”

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-58061230

9
Hi,

starlink is available in Switzerland though the chip shortage is causing delays in getting the dishes. Starlink will be a huge cash cow for SpaceX and will help finance Starship. So far they have 100,000 users who are paying 100 dollars a month. So even in beta it has 12 million in revenue. It is likely that it will get millions of users. If it gets to 10 million users then it will have revenue of 12 billion and it is quite likely to get to 100 million users worldwide and 120 billion in revenue is going to mean a huge profit. Remember at the moment they can only launch 60 satellites on a Falcon 9 and with starship it will be 400 and the vehicle will be completely reusable...so only a few million per launch and they also build the satellites in Seattle. So assuming they get a few million to use the service then it will be a very profitable business.

In Switzerland we are spoilt with very highspeed and reliable connections there are lots of people in the US, UK etc who still have very slow speed internet. The promise of 300mb internet is going to be very interesting for many people who are currently badly served.

Also with laser interconnection between the next generation of starlink satellites they are going to be able to produce a very competitive service companies who need a high speed connection between continents. Also they are looking at providing services for aircrafts and boats.

This has the potential of being an enormous money earner for SpaceX. It is difficult to see how Amazon with Project Kuiper can really compete.

Have fun

Martin

10
I used to have satellite internet back in the early 2000s in UK they had a satellite downlink and ISDN uplink. Fine for downloading stuff but completely and utterly useless for gaming or anything requiring any decent latency. Ok for those desperate in very out of the way areas but not much else.

11
But Starlink satellites are at a much lower altitude and are more numerous than the service you previously used. There are many videos online of people playing online games via Starlink. It has a much lower latency than the older systems and also.higher speed downloads. Honestly there is no comparison. I am on Fibre and in a city and so Starlink is not something I would use.

12

Quotes of 50+ ms match the ISDN ping times I used to have on Quake 2 15+ years ago (usually 40-60ms). Just because people used to have to game with modems and 120-140ms ping times doesn't mean they want to now compared to 15-20 ms on fiber.

All you've done is confirm my point if you have no other alternative then Starlink is a good option but it's not for anyone else.

13
For the majority of people who do play online games and live in poorly connected areas outside of cities especially in the US Starlink will be vastly superior to any of the other choices. In Switzerland really we are just talking about small villages.

This should be a big cash cow for SpaceX.

14
From what I read you cannot use Starlink equipment outside the country you get it in yet, even changing address (from city to city), within a country in this case you need to update your account address.

15
To those who don't see the need:

I currently live 30 minutes away from Bern. 5 minutes away from me by car there is fibre available.

Here I only have 16/1Mbit/s... and hardly any mobile reception. While it's better than nothing, imagine sharing that line with multiple people in one household- and because there's great internet "nearby", we won't get any infrastructural upgrade any time soon.

Swisscom gave us a booster box for free, which connects to the mobile network. But even with that our connection is at 20/5Mbit.

Starlink would be at least 5x better, and with working from home / video conferences that would make a huge difference already.

16
outside Zurich I get 60Mbs-220Mbs download

upload speed: more or less around 20Mbs