June 5, 2022
Tamir Scheinok

Further Reach vs. Starlink

While Starlink appears to offer significant improvement over other satellite providers, Further Reach offers better connection quality, a better customer experience, and the benefits of choosing a local provider. As Starlink rapidly adds subscribers, business analysts expect Starlink’s offering to degrade.

CONNECTION QUALITY

While telecoms often only headline their peak download speed, ample download and upload speeds and a stable connection are required for much of what we do online. A deficiency in one of these three could cause network dropouts during a Zoom meeting or buffering during a Netflix stream and ruin the experience.

It is an industry secret that most consumers use less than 35Mbps (often far less) in download bandwidth. Almost all broadband plans have sufficient download speed. Connection issues are more commonly caused by unstable connections and slow upload speeds. For instance, a zoom meeting only requires about 1.5 Mbps – not very much – but requires a very stable connection to avoid gaps in conversation.

While Starlink typically has ample download speeds, frequent and regular network interruptions are reported by most users. These interruptions significantly degrade the user experience and are the most common reason subscribers return to Further Reach from Starlink. Starlink also often has relatively slow upload speeds.

Further Reach has invested heavily in designing, building, monitoring, and maintaining excellent network quality – optimizing upload and download speeds and connection stability. We continuously monitor every customer connection to ensure that your signal quality is smooth and steady. We pride ourselves on best-in-class connection quality.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Starlink support is only available by email. No in-person assistance is available. Customers are expected to locate and mount their dish and manage cable runs themselves. Starlink typically does not provide any support for your in-home network and has a reputation for slow response times. Musk companies are notorious for poor customer experiences.

Further Reach is staffed by a local team of support agents and field technicians who are available and responsive in person, by phone, SMS, and email. We tailor our approach according to the varying needs of the community:

 We offer full-service installations, securing your outdoor gear, running cables to your specified location, and connecting gear to your in-home router.

 For those that are not technically inclined, we include a WIFI router for all installations and support it for you at no additional cost.

 We often assist in extending WIFI to outbuildings or larger homes.

 We assist with VPNs, Surveillance, complex networking, and hospitality businesses.

LOCAL SOCIAL MISSION

Further Reach is fueled by our social mission, not by Wall Street expectations. Further Reach subscribers support our local community mission:

 We provide deeply discounted service to scores of low-income residents, students, and families with better discounts and far less red tape than federal programs.

 We provide free service to scores of local community service organizations.

 We provide free hotspots in many downtown locations.

 We are committed to providing service to everyone in our service area, not just those areas that are commercially attractive.

 Our gear is highly directional and low power. RF radiation from our equipment is virtually undetectable.

 We support net neutrality – no back-office deals or throttling traffic.

 We develop novel software to run our operation and donate it to the open-source community to use for free. We aim to help advance broadband access worldwide.

#connectLocal


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