Elon Musk’s Starlink Satellite Internet Beats a Canadian Telecom Giant. Here’s How it Transformed My Life

Life is more difficult when the internet is slow and unreliable. Canadian in rural areas suffer from internet woes more than others, and Starlink is filling that gap.

A $92-million contract for high-speed internet service in rural Ontario was awarded to Starlink last week. Having grown up in Toronto, I took for granted fast, reliable internet access.

Since moving to rural Ottawa 10 years ago, we haven’t realized how horrible life would be – until we switched to Starlink this spring.

Before Starlink, we dealt with slow and spotty service from the only telecom giant.

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There were service interruptions, awful upload speeds, and download speeds sometimes as low as one to two megabits per second on a good day – on a bad day just three to four.

He put us on the waiting list a long time ago when he discovered Starlink.

The email we had been looking forward to took two years to arrive. Starlink equipment was delivered, and we would have access to the service.

The box arrived last spring, and we opened it like a present on Christmas day. I had my husband mount the dish and connect all the components because he is an electrician and internet wizard.

This would mean faster service for us. Nevertheless, we remained cynical about the reliability of Starlink as pessimists with realist attitudes. Let me spoil it for you: it did – and then some.

In speed tests, the internet is running at 131.21 Mbps for downloads and 12 Mbps for uploads, indicating good reliability.

Only when it has snowed or rained heavily have we experienced problems with the service – or when it has gone down. Over the past year and a half, I have only experienced that a handful of times.

You would be surprised at how much it changed our lives. We run our businesses out of our house and I work from home. Streaming is a way of life for us, my husband enjoys video games and I am ashamed enough to admit I do too much doom scrolling.

You no longer have to buffer movies repeatedly during streaming, break up work calls, drive to town to upload files and do time-sensitive tasks, or negotiate who needs the internet and when. Furthermore, safety has been improved.

Our remote location makes it impossible for us to receive cell service at home with reliable internet.

Because our internet was so bad, you couldn’t rely on your phone’s Wi-Fi calling feature for emergencies and work. During heavy rain, the landline would be intermittent and our provider refused to assist us.

When working and in emergencies, Wi-Fi calling is available with Starlink. During a power outage, our internet is supported by a generator.

In favor of a fast, reliable internet service, we dropped our previous provider’s landline and internet bill.

Price is the only downside. The cost is higher. Besides the dish, we also pay about $300 a month for service.

‘Starlink’ has been called a disruption. A greater variety is needed. Innovation is needed. The marketplace will be improved.

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