So I'm an IT Professional and I must say I was very impressed with how this was delivered.. Ire basically lectured a crash course in networking and telecommunications right here.. love it ☺️
Believe me a lot of so-called professional or IT technicians are learning how to explain this whole thing from this video. They do the work but can't explain how it's done. Thank God for your level of education and patience in doing your research. You are the best in my opinion....respect all the way from the USA
I'm in the technology field myself and am up on Starlink. Even ordered it last week for my father living in the hills of Clarendon, Jamaica. I was impressed with Irena's knowledge of the topic and her deft way of explaining it in simple terms. Well done Irina.
Cable and wireless is an old throwback to the way that cables were sent under the British systems. In fact AT&T model their system from the cables and wireless systems in Jamaica 🇯🇲
We pre-ordered ours almost 2 years ago when it was still in beta. They told us end of 2022 for our location. they finally shipped it,it's in customs right now..we are very excited. We are located in Portland JA. We are running a business that rely on internet . Flow seems to drop service every time it rains...so this is why we looked into star link . Let's see how it goes once we get it.
Thanks Irena, for bringing StarLink to my attention! Excellent video. As an IT Pro, I am anxiously awaiting your UA-cam review on its performance when your kit arrives.
Thanks a lot for a very informative and timely well researched production. I agree with the majority sentiment here. You're doing a great job and I look forward to the follow up.
Irina,I learn't so much about the internet and how it works in this video. I'm always telling people how well researched you are in your videos. I think that it's really great that Jamaica has been able to connect to Starlink an reap the benefits of the latest in communications technology.
For me Digicel and Flow is out because no cables pass my house not even JPS. I have to use Solar and Satellite Internet. The internet I have now is so bad, mobile data is worst. I am interested in Starlink. The price is not bad for what it says it is offering. Thank you for the information.
Your video was great. It was filled with valuable information and it was presented in an excellent manner. I live in Spanish Town and I've been using Digicel since 2016. I have found them to be second to none in terms of their internet products. I used to be a C&W customer (before they bought FLOW) and I fled to FLOW because of shoddy service. Unfortunately, they followed me, and my business suffered as a result of this. I doubt if I will ever use Starlink but I am excited to have a new player in the market, especially for the benefits stiffer competition will provide. I'm also intrigued by their technology and what they may become in another 5 to 10 years. Thanks again for the info and all the best.
This is the only program about Jamaica that I really watch steadfastly. And every time when I watch, I'm increasingly impressed with your presentations. It is so extremely well put-together and superbly professional, that it often left me speechless. While I send your links all around to my friends and relatives - who live both in Jamaica and abroad. People with interests in Jamaica, who are not watching your videos, are losing out big time!
I am very impressed with this explanation, Love watching your videos. I use to be in IT in Jamaica ,very impress .lots of Hours went into this . Please appreciate it !!!!!
In my area, there was installation of fiber by the original Flow company along with expansions to the surrounding areas. This however changed when Cable and Wireless purchase Flow to use there name. The Fiber expansion by the competition stopped and we were only offered Cable and Wireless service and no exceptions.
The problem is that local companies had only the ownership of the cables, but were still getting the internet from C&W. When Lime (owned by C&W) joined with Flow and C&W retired the brand Lime and started using the brand Flow, the internet supply didn't change - there had never been any competition, since all internet was coming from C&W submarine cables anyway. The only real competitor on telecommunication market is Digicel. Everything else is either owned by C&W or small local companies buying from C&W or Digicel. By the way, C&W was bought by Liberty Global and now belongs to Liberty Latin America, so now it's owned by an even bigger company.
Irina, very informative video following on from the last one. I am happy to see Jamaica getting Starlink as an option. I think tho' that fibre is the way to go but, still, the gov't should incentivize this roll-out as much or more so than highways. Just my 2 cents. It could only benefit more people more people have access to reliable internet and the prices come down more. PS. One of the best "normal pe'ple" explanation of internet speed and latency I've heard.
I work in IT as a web developer. Very impressed by this video. This channel consistently shines for quality of research and its ability to transmit and explain it to where everyone can understand. I really think this skill is underrated and underappreciated so I wanted to show my appreciation. Great work, as always. I am in the US but lucky to have you in JA.
Thank you greatly for the info. But with the set up and running costs of Starling it's going to be a long long time before it becomes mainstream. Those prices will need to come downhill. Fast.
I would love for you to do a video on the OUR (Utility regulations) and how they do nothing to help citizens that complain about poor utility services. I have had no internet with Flow for a year now as you've said, their customer service sit around a desk telling you that the internet is showing active on their system and if I've rebooted the modem... I am so fed up of them...
Competition is good for the citizens. Thank you Irena, this was beautifully delivered. Now some of the monopoly will end, and some of these companies will begin to value their customers. Flow customer service, and the services they provide overall is the worst I've seen. Can't believe they stay in business with such poor service. Some people in the rural areas said to me "its better than nothing ". I can never understand this saying when you are paying monthly fees for a service that you can't use. My sister didn't have usable service for almost a year, she puts service from the same company flow, on to her cell phone, and still couldn't make a call through what's app. She had to spend more money to make direct calls. She was promised compensation, and she's still waiting for that months later. I do hope that they reduce their high monthly price and in addition, deliver good, consistent and reliable service....otherwise they will definitely lose customers
I love ur videos. They come with so much facts and not assumptions. You make it clear to us, what to do if we are interested in something you say. You’re a little investigator😂😂😂
Well researched and well delivered. This has been a game changer for rural areas where it’s available, just be realistic and know that weather and congestion will be a factor in speeds to end users. Some service beats no service every day of the week so the net benefit for Jamaica will be great.
Boy am I glad to hear this, Flow has had the monopoly on the Internet for far to long, all you are saying is so true, I've lived here for 15y and in all that time not a lot has improved, At one stage we had no system for 6mths owing to the fact the cables had been stolen for the copper, I spent so much time complaining at the office, i had a season ticket (joke) so thank you so much 😊,
Thing is, Flow is cheating a lot of their customers, especially long time customers with the high rates. Once the customer tells them they’re planning to switch and requests a disconnection, they come running in with sweet discounts and free months of service. Why they don’t just reduce the payments in the first place? Also, for the long time customers who had painfully slow internet and paying high monthly bills. That is so cruel! Having people pay 8k for a 2mb connection while new customers pay 5k for 15mb. They’re just evil!!!
This is really great news because that is what is needed in Jamaica competition flow treats us like nothing because they know they are the hot shot in town so I hope their service will improved you don't have to stand up in line for 4 hours just to get some service
I’d been considering Starlink and so this video is very helpful. So well presented. You’re videos are always so great. Thank you for doing what you do.
🇯🇲 Thanks again Irene for untangling the unknown & the complex bits of analog/digital $pace. Crossing my fingers & legs for the day third & fourth parties brave enough to venture into the energy secter to make JPS a footnote of our history.
Yes, I agree with this. I want to see green renewable energy in Jamaica, something that does not rely on fossil fuel to make electricity. Utility scale wind, solar, combined with battery storage. Only then energy prices will come down in Jamaica and that in itself will be helpful to the local economy. Energy independence.
@@islanddweller4263 🇯🇲 If you had stayed in school long enough you would've known the definition of run-on sentences. Just so we're on the same subject, they are sentences and not sentence!!
@@ianwint2292 that's already there boss and is an ongoing work in progress at the same time. Old Fort Village in Old Fort Bay, St. Ann is100% solar, with zero ties to JPS. JPS themselves are also dabbling in renewable energy. They have signed a purchase agreement with solar developer, Eight Rivers Energy, which has constructed a 37 megawatt solar power plant in Paradise Park, Westmoreland. JPS will be purchasing electricity from the new solar facility for twenty years. The facility is the largest solar power plant in the English speaking Caribbean.
I hope you realize these are Jamaican Dollars. The $60,500 (roughly $400 USD) is a ONE TIME FEE for the Equipment; which is CHEAPER than I pay for a Phone that lasts 3-years before I have to get a New one. The $8,450 (approximately $55 USD) per month is Cheaper than I pay for my Internet Service here in the States. As a Jamaican from Rural Jamaica, and knowing the difficulty with Internet Service in my Hometown (I go back home frequently), I would readily consider this Starlink Option, if I were to move back TODAY....But who knows what Options might be available in 10-15 Years (the Time Frame when I hope to move back), and the costs accordingly.
This is the second best news I've heard today. Absolutely wonderful news, and about time too...Thank you Irina for this great piece of news. Absolutely welcome news.
You need to promote more Jamaican companies providing good Internet Services..Flow and Digicel are not the only ones and as a Jamaican resident….you can educate options but promote those companies working hard as legitimate service providers changing the landscape also..but overall good info.
Apparently you were asleep during the class, didn't you watch where she was explaining that it's only six cables are in Jamaica that provides access to the internet and Flow owns 5 and Digicel owns 1? So any other company providing internet in Jamaica is just buying from the other two and reselling to the public.
Flow and Digicel ARE the only ones. If you see any other company offering Internet Service in Jamaica - it's just a reseller (they buy from Flow or Digicel, so technically - you're just paying them, while they are paying Flow or Digicel). Please kindly note, Flow and Digicel are not really Jamaican companies either, they are international companies with owners from different countries. The thing is, there can never be a Jamaican company providing internet for the same reason why there can never be a Jamaican company producing space shuttles. To understand why - Jamaica's GDP is 13.64 billion. Liberty Global (a company that initially bought Flow) has assets worth 59 billions USD, meaning that Liberty Global company on its own is worth more than Jamaica, as a WHOLE COUNTRY makes during 4 years. Internet is a global service and no single country can have "a local company" offering such service. However, sure, Digicel and Flow are registered businesses in Jamaica, but so is Starbucks and KFC and all the other international companies. These are huge corporations that don't belong to any one country. Anyway, I'll share more on this in a video "who owns Jamaica" , but I hope this additional info helps.
@JAMAICA WITH IRIE not a 100% agree. You could have Jamaican companies own internet but they simple don't have the resources. Similar in the US you have Verizon fios , Comcast and a few other players own most of the cables and internet because they bought out most of the smaller companies to kill the competition then later would raise their subscription prices
@@phillyyardyvibes808 lol which Jamaican company would be so wealthy to run underwater cables to have their own internet? Average cost would be around US900 million depending on how far you are going. Even if someone in Jamaica has that money , Jamaican population is too small to make back that money. It would take decades and would have to cost too much.
Thank you Jesus. I just need options God know because Flow a gwan bad. In my area Digicel is not even an option so am glad another player join. Am working from home and the poor internet service causes me to miss so much work and am getting corrective for something I cannot control.
Thanks for helping to show how we have evolved as a nation with the help of the intenet. I had absolutely no internet or internet-based activities as child in Jamaica (about 2-5% of the population would've been able to afford it even in the mid 2000s).
Hello Irie, Great presentation. However Starlink usually sets up 2 + ground stations in each country. Because local Jamaican regulation do not publish to the public the license given to every provider we can't find the Starlink ground stations in Jamaica. Can you help with that? Example. Dominican Republic has Starlink and they have two ground station ( one in Santiago and the other in Santo Domingo ). The ground station are important because it will be the local ( Jamaica gateway ) where things like local information, advertisements, etc. will be geo located and sent to the enduser. Plus it's also a way to have more data to feed the satellites for the zone. Probabilities are that Starlink internet comes from DigiCell or Flow.
In the video I was talking about offices, so it's not related to ground stations, since it's not like the users can get customer service or "buy" Starlink at a ground station :). However, the information you've provided is interesting, because I couldn't find any confirmation about the number of ground stations Starlink has and where they are located, at least I can't see it on their official website. I've found an article from January 2022 claiming "SpaceX hasn't publicly disclosed its overall plans for ground station infrastructure globally", but then maybe something has changed since then. Where did you find out about Starlink ground stations in Dominican Republic?
Great crash course on the internet, how it works & the coverage & comparison amongst the choices. Software & data is eating is going to continue to eat the world, the cost of most goods & services should & will trend downward with the adoption, implementation & passing on of the saving to consumer via healthy competition. The patient will be rewarded just as we are reaping the benefits & unintended consequences of the invention of electricity. Overall great content empress! 👏🏽
@@JAMAICAWITHIRIE the US military would probably be somewhat offended to have the internet be considered an ‘unintended consequence’, when they worked hard to create it, circa early 1980s. :)
@@faithm2535 When electricity was discovered nobody thought of such concept as internet. The fact that the electricity was later used to develop internet had not been something ORIGINALLY PLANNED for electricity. The set of scientists who worked on electricity from the 17th century surely never had the internet in mind. Imagine Michael Faraday in the 19th century saying "Hey, I'm working on the principles of underlying electromagnetic induction, diamagnetism and electrolysis and guess what - It can be used for Internet!!!". If this was the case - then the internet would have been a planned consequences from electricity discovery. But it wasn't, hence it's not. US Military did not take part in electricity discovery, they simply used electricity to come up with new concepts. Even "light" wasn't the planned consequences of electricity discovery, since the original work on electricity and electromagnetism wasn't done for the purpose of electrification - this concept came much later at the end of the 19th century. Compare this to the discovery of the wheel. The wheel was first created precisely for the purpose of improving the ability to move/transportation and it is used with the same intended purpose today. The unintended consequences of wheel discovery is the ability to grind grain, but that's a different story :) I hope this clarifies the point I was trying to make :)
@@JAMAICAWITHIRIE I actually didn’t realize how seriously intentional you were being regarding the unintentional consequences of electricity, lol. Tho, I’m now reminded of what the early US government termed, ‘manifest destiny’…a belief and philosophy that it was justifiable and inevitable for its nation to expand and advance, even by any means necessary. Relevance?…well, the same could be said about electricity…it is but part of mankind’s manifest destiny to observe and learn from naturally occurring examples, then use each new ‘discovery’ to either enhance existing tools or pivot towards the invention of new ones. So, I guess man’s ‘invention’ of electricity could be viewed as an unintended consequence of trying to capture lightening in a bottle. Airplanes and orbiters an unintended consequence of wanting to imitate birds. Invention of the wheel, an unintended consequence of wanting to roll down a hill like an armadillo. I believe ALL of man’s efforts to imitate The Creator are intended and destined, not consequences. Bless.
Hi great video. I’m interested in getting StarLink here in JA but my only question now becomes; what about clearing the package via customs? Are they going to charge duty on the package, and if so how much did you pay?
From I switched to Digicel I never look back at Flow. I live in Spanish Town and Digicel is in St. Catherine as well as Kingston. Starlink is something I have been following for awhile. Great video.
Irina, stellar presentation as usual....I learnt a lot. Also, kudos to my fellow subscribers for providing additional info on this topic. I was particularly interested in donating a starlink to a communuty and will check it out.
Good for them now fix the transportation issues. They need to train drivers and hire drivers for local bus. I don’t live in Jamaica but I am Jamaican and I know this issue still exist.
They have Knutsford Express which is a decent transportation bus service with ac, TV, wifi. She is talking about internet as a foreigner who made Jamaica her home and you are likely a born Jamaican and is so condescending of the land of your birth. 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇯🇲🇯🇲🇯🇲
if you need good affordable cable in Canada i can hook you up,the good thing about it you can take the service with with you to Jamaica or anywhere there is internet
Wow I felt like I was in a class. Was vary attentive as to what you were saying. I now have a better understanding about internet and the way it really operates. Thank you again always informative.....Miami in house.
Hey! I've had flow at my house in Montego Bay for $5,800 Jamaican for about a year now. I am very interested in the starlink, but since I'm not there full-time I'm not sure how I can get it build correctly if you have to be there to pay for it. We can only get back three times a year for now. However that upfront fee for starlink is a little rich for my blood. Also I had one problem with the cable box that I believe got hit by lightning and their customer service was fantastic and it was replaced in one day. This video was fantastic I appreciate all you do
Payments for starlink are all done online, you can be anywhere and still have it running in Jamaica. I'm not sure if Starlink can be "paused", but this should be the option, so you'd only pay for it when using it.
hey Steve would you like to add IPTV channels to your internet here in Jamaica?fact that you're not here all the time ,you can take or use the service overseas with you,it comes on a device so you can basically take it with you anywhere you have internet access
All that you say is true, Irena, and, as always, very educational. However, there is a downside of Starlink that has nothing to do with telecommunications. Astronomy. I am a lifelong amateur astronomer (a passion of mine) and am bothered by Light Pollution. Musk is putting up thousands of Starlink satellites in low orbit and this affects millions of astronomers (amateur and professional) all over the world. Imagine spending several hours one night taking a photo through a telescope only to see one or more satellite tracks across your image. Scale that up to the multi-billion dollar telescopes used by professionals and it is a major problem that PhotoShop can't fix. Musk promised to do something about it, but his solutions have not been satisfactory so far. So yes, Starlink is a great telecom innovation (and have been a boon to The Ukraine though I hear Musk wants to drop that coverage or have a government agency pick up the cost). But for astronomy, it's a growing problem. If it comes across that I am not a Musk fan, that too is true.
First of all, thank you so much for sharing the point about Astronomy and all the issues this situation is causing to our ability to run observations. In fact, the network of satellites that Starlink is building will only get bigger and can have an even more serious consequences and I hope Elon Musk will indeed do something about it. By the way, I'm not a Musk fan either, on the contrary. Especially after the comments he made about Ukraine, American politics, free speech vs hate speech and many more. All of them showed that despite Elon's multiple talents in business and technology, he lacks knowledge and education when it comes to history, sociology and politics. Sure, it's ok not to know some things, but the fact that he acts as if he knows them when he actually doesn't is really sad, because it means that he's not as intelligent as I once thought he was. Spreading nonsense in Twitter to multimillion audience is irresponsible to say the least. Having said that, I still admire his work and/or the work of his team when it comes to technology. That's why when I was writing the script for this video I tried my best to keep my negative opinion of Musk as a person to myself, so it would not influence my opinion of Starlink as a service.
@@JAMAICAWITHIRIE Bravo. That's a very hard thing to do - to write without exposing personal negative opinions - very hard. Even when I was tutoring astronomy, it was difficult to talk about idiots and their ideas about Dark Matter, String Theories and Multiple Universes. The idiot string theorists touted math proving the presence of 6 dimensions, then 7, then 10, then 12 - now nobody talks about them. And there I go calling them idiots - you see, it's hard. Chuckle, chuckle.
Goodb. With more options and competition, this will be better for the people. There’s no way internet should be out upwards up to three days in this day and age.
We recently switch to flow fiber optic. East Portland, speed maybe a little faster, but every day we have multiple outages, sometimes for days. No compensation 🤷 P.s. my mobile data is faster than fiber optic 😂😂😂 and more reliable 🤷
Thank you for sharing and yes... the outages, inconsistent service etc.. I don't think Flow has proper fiber in Portland, maybe some parts of their network, but not the whole line... My LTE/4g mobile often works better than landline as well..., during the peak hours for sure, but it's not fiber, just regular flow cable.
I love your channel Irena, I really do, But I would not get so excited about Starlink. While it is a great option for rural areas, Starlink is a satellite service. If you watch LTT channel, you will see that they(Starlink) are getting to be A$$holes. They lower speeds unusable speeds(deliberately)and won't even care to explain why. As you stated, Starlink is owned by Elon Musk. Think about that.
That's why I'm glad she stated that she will buy it herself and test it out. I don't think anyone should run out and buy something just because she gave them some knowledge on a possibility.
A very informative video! I just had a couple points and clarifications I wanted to make in order of how I heard them regarding Starlink. I want to just preface this by saying, you're right when you say it is currently better than whatever you can get outside of Kingston and the only options for remote areas IF you can afford it. Everything mentioned is based on my own research spanning from about a year ago until recently as like you I'm very much interested in the technology. I do not have a PHD in internet and networking etc so I am very open to corrections. 1. While there aren't any problems with consistency issues because of other users or out of date cables persay, eventually starlink will become saturated as this is a service offered globally and speeds will continue to slow. You can google "starlink speed" and you will see the reports of it already taking place. They currently as of Nov 2022 have 2300 satellites in orbit which provide roughly 46tb/s of data, so 20gb/s each satellite. For this example let's assume everyone is home using the internet and an average of 50mbps for each customer (the global average speed as of July 2022), that would mean 400 customers per satellite or under 1 million total serviceable customers as of right now. In order to service more they would have to launch more sats or continue to reduce speeds. Sidenote: SpaceX/Starlink's goal is to launch 10,000 total by (I believe it wasthe year) 2029. The other issue is that most of these satellites will spend the majority of their time over oceans when they're circling the earth, as 70% of our planet is water. Using USA as an example. America takes up almost 2% of surface area which means currently at any given time there will be 46 satellites over America able to service only 18400 customers assuming they're maintaining 50mbps. Jamaica has an even smaller footprint. I have watched a few reviews by now which showcases that while full outages are not common, what happens is the connection will drop for a few seconds (I've seen up to 15 seconds if I recall, the number fluctuates) regularly throughout the day sometimes every hour which can and will impact certain internet activities like calls, videochats, livestreaming, gaming etc. 2. The price. I strongly believe pricing is a barrier to entry for most Jamaicans, especially in rural areas. 60k plus tax is a steep setup cost upfront for the average Jamaican. Then to pay $8500 per month on internet bill alone is again I believe extremely high for a lot of the population. I understand your situation where you were paying I think 12k for your internet but vast majority are not paying that much or even need 100mbps connections. Starlink draws 50-75 watts. Thats more than the average tv at 58w. Imagine your new light bill at the end of the month. If you can afford it then I do believe if you're in a rural/remote area then this is your best option. Many will still continue to suffer with Flow simply because of the price.
RizlaRifle, great additional information. Regarding the Pricing, keep in mind that while "most" Jamaicans might not be able to afford the Monthly Cost, "many" can; including many MOVING BACK HOME and living in Rural Areas (which seems to be where most who move back to Jamaica decide to live). For example, this option would be "much better" for me when I travel (or move) back to Jamaica. I am from Saint Ann, and when I go back home, I have a difficult time with Internet Service in my Home Town (fortunately, I can use my work phone now; so having access to home internet is not a big deal when I go back home). Similarly for the one time (I hope) Setup Cost. Many of us who live outside of Jamaica, would be willing to help a Relative get setup (in the Country area), so that we have a more reliable internet service when we go back home.
About the quality of internet with Starlink - when I have it up and running, I'd be able to share more, however, so far the speeds of Starlink are increasing. There is a "drop" in speeds in certain areas when the new areas are introduced, but then it goes back to normal. These "drops" in speed will end once all planet is connected. People over the oceans also need Starlink, maybe even more than us. Starlink satellites move very fast and people get connected to different ones, so there are no dedicated satellites for certain number of users. For more info - simply check the full film of "How does Starlink Satellite Internet Work?" - by Branch Education. As for the costs - the point I was making was that the prices of Flow service will reduce, which means people who can't afford starlink will STILL benefit from reduced prices, that's why everyone will benefit from Starlink. If you want to know the real negative effects of Starlink - the night sky gets jammed with these satellites which is not good and causes issues for astronomers. Also there is a potential problem with eventual monopoly that Starlink might hold in the end if everybody switches to Starlink and other ISPs will go out of business. Very good point about electricity consumption for the dish. It uses up 50-75 watts on average. I was planning to get it connected to some solar electricity source for backup in case of outages, BUT maybe it's worth connecting to solar for the regular use as well.🤔
@@JAMAICAWITHIRIE Funny enough I went to check the video you mentioned and realized it was one of the videos I watched months ago when researching. It goes into a lot of detail. I'm not sure I understand your statement "These "drops" in speed will end once all planet is connected" and thus you some of mine. Each satellite is limited to sending 20gb/s of data and no more, so as the world gets connected more people will cut into that amount. To counter that, they would need to add more satellites but there is a limit to the amount of satellites they can add ( be it because of money or technology). So as more people get connected the speeds will always slow. Imagine it like a highway, when the road is clear/empty you can go very fast but as you know add a lot more cars and the average speed on that motorway will slow the more cars are using it. "Starlink satellites move very fast and people get connected to different ones, so there are no dedicated satellites for certain number of users". Again, I don't believe you were understanding my previous USA example. Starlink sats move in sync around the globe in a continuous grid pattern and spread out equally. So if they are always spread equally across the surface of the earth and USA takes up 2% of that surface, then only 2% of starlink satellites will be over USA at any given point in time and able to service customers, a sat over Africa for eg cannot send service to Florida. So technically yes there are no dedicated satellites for a certain number of users BUT the satellites cannot service an infinite number of users concurrently. My example was saying that if all users accessed the service in USA at once then based on the number of sats over USA, the data transfer limit of each satellite (20gb/s) and each user receiving 50mbps then Starlink can only service just under 20,000 customers in USA as of right now. That number can increase as more satellites go up, but it is not infinite. To possibly get a better understanding or visualization of what I am trying to explain look up "Starlink: BUSTED!! + ALL other Failed Musk promises!" by Thunderf00t on youtube and skip to 19 minute mark. And while he's not very keen on Musk overall, his explanation on the limiting factors of Starlink are based in math/science and easy to understand. Lastly, I understand your points about costs of flow, I just don't believe Starlink will receive enough customers to warrant a response from flow. Even in the rural areas it would cost Flow so much more to build infrastructure to service the few. Of course I could be wrong. Anyway, love your content Irena! Always look forward to your thorough history and details surrounding Jamaica! Waiting for the next one.
So I'm an IT Professional and I must say I was very impressed with how this was delivered.. Ire basically lectured a crash course in networking and telecommunications right here.. love it ☺️
Hey I'm in NYC doing an IT degree any connections.
Luv her u si
I'm impressed myself
Totally agree.
Totally agree
Believe me a lot of so-called professional or IT technicians are learning how to explain this whole thing from this video. They do the work but can't explain how it's done. Thank God for your level of education and patience in doing your research. You are the best in my opinion....respect all the way from the USA
Hi Irena, as an electronics engineer i am very impressed with your knowledge on internet. Also, I actually learnt a few things from you. Thanks.
I'm in the technology field myself and am up on Starlink. Even ordered it last week for my father living in the hills of Clarendon, Jamaica. I was impressed with Irena's knowledge of the topic and her deft way of explaining it in simple terms. Well done Irina.
I'm an It student,I would like to connect.
@@blissfull7648 what's your linkedin profile?
Hey Lawrence would like to connect. I'm studying IT also.
@@blissfull7648 I'm not into I.T. I'm in a very specialized electronics field. Xrays.
Cable and wireless is an old throwback to the way that cables were sent under the British systems. In fact AT&T model their system from the cables and wireless systems in Jamaica 🇯🇲
Gosh! Hearing this has brought Christmas to me in November. Can't wait to get hooked up to Starlink.
Very good presentation 👏 I learned a lot, and I am very grateful for the information, very informative and helpful 👍
Great message,,,respect 🇯🇲🇯🇲🇯🇲
very informative as usual, thank you 🙏🏾
You are a Great Teacher Irena.. The Best ever ! Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us.
Much Appreciated 🙏🏾.. 💐🪴
We pre-ordered ours almost 2 years ago when it was still in beta. They told us end of 2022 for our location. they finally shipped it,it's in customs right now..we are very excited. We are located in Portland JA. We are running a business that rely on internet . Flow seems to drop service every time it rains...so this is why we looked into star link . Let's see how it goes once we get it.
Let us know how it performs
@@krawsbreed1779 I will.
You should be good now
Hi, will there be customs duty on the equipment when it gets to Jamaica?
@@nayahr740 hi. No we didnt pay duties . DHL delivered it to us in Portland. Just to let you know.
I recently covered a topic on this in my IT forum and u did this justice, well done 👍🏼
Thanks Irena, for bringing StarLink to my attention! Excellent video. As an IT Pro, I am anxiously awaiting your UA-cam review on its performance when your kit arrives.
Another epic presentation! You certainly left
A footprint in journalism in Jamaica.I hope Victory comes for the Ukraine soon.
I've said this before...the only better than your on point information is your ability to create & edit videos, including graphics 👌🏻👍🏻🤜🏻💯
Thanks a lot for a very informative and timely well researched production. I agree with the majority sentiment here. You're doing a great job and I look forward to the follow up.
Irina,I learn't so much about the internet and how it works in this video. I'm always telling people how well researched
you are in your videos. I think that it's really great that Jamaica has been able to connect to Starlink an reap the benefits
of the latest in communications technology.
For me Digicel and Flow is out because no cables pass my house not even JPS. I have to use Solar and Satellite Internet. The internet I have now is so bad, mobile data is worst. I am interested in Starlink. The price is not bad for what it says it is offering. Thank you for the information.
Right on time again Irina! Can’t wait to make that move and this will benefit all Jamaicans!
Your video was great. It was filled with valuable information and it was presented in an excellent manner. I live in Spanish Town and I've been using Digicel since 2016. I have found them to be second to none in terms of their internet products. I used to be a C&W customer (before they bought FLOW) and I fled to FLOW because of shoddy service. Unfortunately, they followed me, and my business suffered as a result of this. I doubt if I will ever use Starlink but I am excited to have a new player in the market, especially for the benefits stiffer competition will provide. I'm also intrigued by their technology and what they may become in another 5 to 10 years. Thanks again for the info and all the best.
This is the only program about Jamaica that I really watch steadfastly. And every time when I watch, I'm increasingly impressed with your presentations. It is so extremely well put-together and superbly professional, that it often left me speechless. While I send your links all around to my friends and relatives - who live both in Jamaica and abroad.
People with interests in Jamaica, who are not watching your videos, are losing out big time!
I am very impressed with this explanation, Love watching your videos. I use to be in IT in Jamaica ,very impress .lots of Hours went into this . Please appreciate it !!!!!
Thank u Irene, for always keeping us up to date on things!!
Thanks Irene for this good information. Not every thing is bad in Jamaica as some would want us living overseas to believe.
In my area, there was installation of fiber by the original Flow company along with expansions to the surrounding areas. This however changed when Cable and Wireless purchase Flow to use there name. The Fiber expansion by the competition stopped and we were only offered Cable and Wireless service and no exceptions.
The problem is that local companies had only the ownership of the cables, but were still getting the internet from C&W. When Lime (owned by C&W) joined with Flow and C&W retired the brand Lime and started using the brand Flow, the internet supply didn't change - there had never been any competition, since all internet was coming from C&W submarine cables anyway. The only real competitor on telecommunication market is Digicel. Everything else is either owned by C&W or small local companies buying from C&W or Digicel. By the way, C&W was bought by Liberty Global and now belongs to Liberty Latin America, so now it's owned by an even bigger company.
Incredible information, and not just for Jamaica! Thank you, again, for your research and adept delivery!
Irina, very informative video following on from the last one. I am happy to see Jamaica getting Starlink as an option. I think tho' that fibre is the way to go but, still, the gov't should incentivize this roll-out as much or more so than highways. Just my 2 cents. It could only benefit more people more people have access to reliable internet and the prices come down more.
PS. One of the best "normal pe'ple" explanation of internet speed and latency I've heard.
Excellent. I learnt so much
I work in IT as a web developer. Very impressed by this video. This channel consistently shines for quality of research and its ability to transmit and explain it to where everyone can understand. I really think this skill is underrated and underappreciated so I wanted to show my appreciation. Great work, as always. I am in the US but lucky to have you in JA.
Thank you so much! I really appreciate this feedback! 🙏😊
Thank you greatly for the info. But with the set up and running costs of Starling it's going to be a long long time before it becomes mainstream. Those prices will need to come downhill. Fast.
Maybe it doesn’t have to become mainstream, but just be available in the stream where none of the existing options are available or performs well.
I would love for you to do a video on the OUR (Utility regulations) and how they do nothing to help citizens that complain about poor utility services. I have had no internet with Flow for a year now as you've said, their customer service sit around a desk telling you that the internet is showing active on their system and if I've rebooted the modem... I am so fed up of them...
Great video
Competition is good for the citizens. Thank you Irena, this was beautifully delivered. Now some of the monopoly will end, and some of these companies will begin to value their customers. Flow customer service, and the services they provide overall is the worst I've seen. Can't believe they stay in business with such poor service. Some people in the rural areas said to me "its better than nothing ". I can never understand this saying when you are paying monthly fees for a service that you can't use. My sister didn't have usable service for almost a year, she puts service from the same company flow, on to her cell phone, and still couldn't make a call through what's app. She had to spend more money to make direct calls. She was promised compensation, and she's still waiting for that months later. I do hope that they reduce their high monthly price and in addition, deliver good, consistent and reliable service....otherwise they will definitely lose customers
Wow nice this is one of the thing I am waiting to move back to Jamaica wow amazing news
I love ur videos. They come with so much facts and not assumptions. You make it clear to us, what to do if we are interested in something you say.
You’re a little investigator😂😂😂
As a mechanical engineering student I am in a WOW. Great job. 👍
i love this lady she logically inclined
Thanks again for providing a wealth of information re Jamaica.
Nuff BIG ups to you, your programs are always very informative 👍 Thanks!
Well researched and well delivered. This has been a game changer for rural areas where it’s available, just be realistic and know that weather and congestion will be a factor in speeds to end users. Some service beats no service every day of the week so the net benefit for Jamaica will be great.
very very well done! great simple explanations for anyone to understand. Thanks Irina!
Big up Irie, as a telecommunications engineer I can't find a inconsistencies to your delivery 👏🏿👏🏿🇬🇧🇯🇲
Protect this woman at all costs 🙌
Thanks for this information. Highly informative.
Boy am I glad to hear this, Flow has had the monopoly on the Internet for far to long, all you are saying is so true, I've lived here for 15y and in all that time not a lot has improved,
At one stage we had no system for 6mths owing to the fact the cables had been stolen for the copper, I spent so much time complaining at the office, i had a season ticket (joke) so thank you so much 😊,
Good more competition love these videos
Long over due
Absolutely 👏🏽👏🏽💪🏽🙌🏾
Thing is, Flow is cheating a lot of their customers, especially long time customers with the high rates. Once the customer tells them they’re planning to switch and requests a disconnection, they come running in with sweet discounts and free months of service. Why they don’t just reduce the payments in the first place?
Also, for the long time customers who had painfully slow internet and paying high monthly bills. That is so cruel! Having people pay 8k for a 2mb connection while new customers pay 5k for 15mb. They’re just evil!!!
Very good points and yes, you're right :) However, the reason why they don't reduce the rates right away - why bother if people are paying? 🙄
This is really great news because that is what is needed in Jamaica competition flow treats us like nothing because they know they are the hot shot in town so I hope their service will improved you don't have to stand up in line for 4 hours just to get some service
Imagine we were talking about a new power company to compete with JPS...
Thanks for this detailed information!
Thanks you sis for the information
I’d been considering Starlink and so this video is very helpful. So well presented. You’re videos are always so great. Thank you for doing what you do.
Another great video. Thanks for the information. By the way, my mother’s maiden name was Bruce. There were a lot of Bruce in St. Elizabeth.
but of course, St.Elizabeth was one of the most Scottish parishes in Jamaica :)
Good work irie
Thanks for the education of how wifi works and ect
I love your videos ..they are so informative and educational..i have learnt so much.. keep up the good job Irena!!
Another outstanding presentation, I’m very impressed with this news. Your knowledge and professional experience is the best Irena. ❤❤❤❤❤
Amazing work Irena 👍👍
Honestly I don't know how to thank you enough. This was really good the presentation had me pinned for whole time. I felt like I was in a class
🇯🇲 Thanks again Irene for untangling the unknown & the complex bits of analog/digital $pace.
Crossing my fingers & legs for the day third & fourth parties brave enough to venture into the energy secter to make JPS a footnote of our history.
Yes, I agree with this. I want to see green renewable energy in Jamaica, something that does not rely on fossil fuel to make electricity. Utility scale wind, solar, combined with battery storage. Only then energy prices will come down in Jamaica and that in itself will be helpful to the local economy. Energy independence.
@@ianwint2292 exactly. Jamaica is blessed with year round sunshine and wind in many places. It’s a shame to not be investing in those things.
Now this is a run-on sentence on steroids.....kok
@@islanddweller4263 🇯🇲 If you had stayed in school long enough you would've known the definition of run-on sentences.
Just so we're on the same subject, they are sentences and not sentence!!
@@ianwint2292 that's already there boss and is an ongoing work in progress at the same time.
Old Fort Village in Old Fort Bay, St. Ann is100% solar, with zero ties to JPS.
JPS themselves are also dabbling in renewable energy. They have signed a purchase agreement with solar developer, Eight Rivers Energy, which has constructed a 37 megawatt solar power plant in Paradise Park, Westmoreland.
JPS will be purchasing electricity from the new solar facility for twenty years.
The facility is the largest solar power plant in the English speaking Caribbean.
I love your channel....always so informative,,, thank you for all your hard work #Irina 🥰🤗💚
Excellent video
📡 🛰📡 for the jamaican school children period .
Grandma Forever 🇯🇲
Great presentation Iris.
Digicel is in parts of Mandeville, Most parts of St. Catherine and and a small section May Pen and continously growing as we speak
Digicel, flow and
STARLINK
Cant ever be in the same sentence.
LOL...that made me laugh
STARINK in a class by itself
DUE FEE IS $60,500.00 AND MONTHLY SEVICE IS $8,4500.00
I hope you realize these are Jamaican Dollars. The $60,500 (roughly $400 USD) is a ONE TIME FEE for the Equipment; which is CHEAPER than I pay for a Phone that lasts 3-years before I have to get a New one. The $8,450 (approximately $55 USD) per month is Cheaper than I pay for my Internet Service here in the States.
As a Jamaican from Rural Jamaica, and knowing the difficulty with Internet Service in my Hometown (I go back home frequently), I would readily consider this Starlink Option, if I were to move back TODAY....But who knows what Options might be available in 10-15 Years (the Time Frame when I hope to move back), and the costs accordingly.
This is the second best news I've heard today. Absolutely wonderful news, and about time too...Thank you Irina for this great piece of news. Absolutely welcome news.
What was the first?
It's not food,and it's got to be paid for
You need to promote more Jamaican companies providing good Internet Services..Flow and Digicel are not the only ones and as a Jamaican resident….you can educate options but promote those companies working hard as legitimate service providers changing the landscape also..but overall good info.
Who are the other viable company? I found it disturbing that the western or tourist capital would lack adequate internet service
Apparently you were asleep during the class, didn't you watch where she was explaining that it's only six cables are in Jamaica that provides access to the internet and Flow owns 5 and Digicel owns 1? So any other company providing internet in Jamaica is just buying from the other two and reselling to the public.
Flow and Digicel ARE the only ones. If you see any other company offering Internet Service in Jamaica - it's just a reseller (they buy from Flow or Digicel, so technically - you're just paying them, while they are paying Flow or Digicel). Please kindly note, Flow and Digicel are not really Jamaican companies either, they are international companies with owners from different countries.
The thing is, there can never be a Jamaican company providing internet for the same reason why there can never be a Jamaican company producing space shuttles. To understand why - Jamaica's GDP is 13.64 billion. Liberty Global (a company that initially bought Flow) has assets worth 59 billions USD, meaning that Liberty Global company on its own is worth more than Jamaica, as a WHOLE COUNTRY makes during 4 years. Internet is a global service and no single country can have "a local company" offering such service.
However, sure, Digicel and Flow are registered businesses in Jamaica, but so is Starbucks and KFC and all the other international companies. These are huge corporations that don't belong to any one country. Anyway, I'll share more on this in a video "who owns Jamaica" , but I hope this additional info helps.
@JAMAICA WITH IRIE not a 100% agree. You could have Jamaican companies own internet but they simple don't have the resources. Similar in the US you have Verizon fios , Comcast and a few other players own most of the cables and internet because they bought out most of the smaller companies to kill the competition then later would raise their subscription prices
@@phillyyardyvibes808 lol which Jamaican company would be so wealthy to run underwater cables to have their own internet? Average cost would be around US900 million depending on how far you are going. Even if someone in Jamaica has that money , Jamaican population is too small to make back that money. It would take decades and would have to cost too much.
Thank you Jesus. I just need options God know because Flow a gwan bad. In my area Digicel is not even an option so am glad another player join. Am working from home and the poor internet service causes me to miss so much work and am getting corrective for something I cannot control.
Thanks for helping to show how we have evolved as a nation with the help of the intenet. I had absolutely no internet or internet-based activities as child in Jamaica (about 2-5% of the population would've been able to afford it even in the mid 2000s).
Thank you so much for covering this, very exciting news. Once again you hit it out of the ballpark!
Hello Irie, Great presentation.
However Starlink usually sets up 2 + ground stations in each country. Because local Jamaican regulation do not publish to the public the license given to every provider we can't find the Starlink ground stations in Jamaica. Can you help with that?
Example. Dominican Republic has Starlink and they have two ground station ( one in Santiago and the other in Santo Domingo ). The ground station are important because it will be the local ( Jamaica gateway ) where things like local information, advertisements, etc. will be geo located and sent to the enduser. Plus it's also a way to have more data to feed the satellites for the zone.
Probabilities are that Starlink internet comes from DigiCell or Flow.
In the video I was talking about offices, so it's not related to ground stations, since it's not like the users can get customer service or "buy" Starlink at a ground station :). However, the information you've provided is interesting, because I couldn't find any confirmation about the number of ground stations Starlink has and where they are located, at least I can't see it on their official website. I've found an article from January 2022 claiming "SpaceX hasn't publicly disclosed its overall plans for ground station infrastructure globally", but then maybe something has changed since then. Where did you find out about Starlink ground stations in Dominican Republic?
@@JAMAICAWITHIRIE I tried sending the links with the information but looks like tube takes the reply out.
Looking forward to seeing your practical video..I did not know that Starlink was already here
Great crash course on the internet, how it works & the coverage & comparison amongst the choices. Software & data is eating is going to continue to eat the world, the cost of most goods & services should & will trend downward with the adoption, implementation & passing on of the saving to consumer via healthy competition. The patient will be rewarded just as we are reaping the benefits & unintended consequences of the invention of electricity. Overall great content empress! 👏🏽
What are the unintended consequences of electricity?
@@faithm2535 the unintended consequences of electricity, e.g. internet :)
@@JAMAICAWITHIRIE the US military would probably be somewhat offended to have the internet be considered an ‘unintended consequence’, when they worked hard to create it, circa early 1980s. :)
@@faithm2535 When electricity was discovered nobody thought of such concept as internet. The fact that the electricity was later used to develop internet had not been something ORIGINALLY PLANNED for electricity. The set of scientists who worked on electricity from the 17th century surely never had the internet in mind. Imagine Michael Faraday in the 19th century saying "Hey, I'm working on the principles of underlying electromagnetic induction, diamagnetism and electrolysis and guess what - It can be used for Internet!!!". If this was the case - then the internet would have been a planned consequences from electricity discovery. But it wasn't, hence it's not. US Military did not take part in electricity discovery, they simply used electricity to come up with new concepts.
Even "light" wasn't the planned consequences of electricity discovery, since the original work on electricity and electromagnetism wasn't done for the purpose of electrification - this concept came much later at the end of the 19th century.
Compare this to the discovery of the wheel. The wheel was first created precisely for the purpose of improving the ability to move/transportation and it is used with the same intended purpose today. The unintended consequences of wheel discovery is the ability to grind grain, but that's a different story :) I hope this clarifies the point I was trying to make :)
@@JAMAICAWITHIRIE I actually didn’t realize how seriously intentional you were being regarding the unintentional consequences of electricity, lol. Tho, I’m now reminded of what the early US government termed, ‘manifest destiny’…a belief and philosophy that it was justifiable and inevitable for its nation to expand and advance, even by any means necessary. Relevance?…well, the same could be said about electricity…it is but part of mankind’s manifest destiny to observe and learn from naturally occurring examples, then use each new ‘discovery’ to either enhance existing tools or pivot towards the invention of new ones. So, I guess man’s ‘invention’ of electricity could be viewed as an unintended consequence of trying to capture lightening in a bottle. Airplanes and orbiters an unintended consequence of wanting to imitate birds. Invention of the wheel, an unintended consequence of wanting to roll down a hill like an armadillo.
I believe ALL of man’s efforts to imitate The Creator are intended and destined, not consequences. Bless.
Every day i look for your program
Flow as fiber lines now it’s really fast I can’t complain now I love your videos keep up the good work tho
Fast yes but not consistent. We still have outages
Hi great video. I’m interested in getting StarLink here in JA but my only question now becomes; what about clearing the package via customs? Are they going to charge duty on the package, and if so how much did you pay?
It's supposed to be duty free, however, I will know for sure only after I have received it.
From I switched to Digicel I never look back at Flow. I live in Spanish Town and Digicel is in St. Catherine as well as Kingston. Starlink is something I have been following for awhile. Great video.
i offer IPTV service with great channels,if you need the service we can hook you up once you have a compatitble device
Irina, stellar presentation as usual....I learnt a lot. Also, kudos to my fellow subscribers for providing additional info on this topic. I was particularly interested in donating a starlink to a communuty and will check it out.
Good for them now fix the transportation issues. They need to train drivers and hire drivers for local bus. I don’t live in Jamaica but I am Jamaican and I know this issue still exist.
They have Knutsford Express which is a decent transportation bus service with ac, TV, wifi. She is talking about internet as a foreigner who made Jamaica her home and you are likely a born Jamaican and is so condescending of the land of your birth. 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇯🇲🇯🇲🇯🇲
Ireeeneeee!!!! I love your channel. Can you make it 10-15mins in Parts so I dont feel guilty about my screen time 🤭.
Blessed up Irish - I touch down in MoBay a few days ago from Canada and connect to the net right away service is excellent. ❤🇯🇲
if you need good affordable cable in Canada i can hook you up,the good thing about it you can take the service with with you to Jamaica or anywhere there is internet
Thank you for this content, objective as always. Looking forward to see the results of the test.
I love star link ...hope they reduced the price to access it...that way more people in Jamaica can afford to use starlink
Wow I felt like I was in a class. Was vary attentive as to what you were saying. I now have a better understanding about internet and the way it really operates. Thank you again always informative.....Miami in house.
Well explained Irena, I work in the telecommunication industry and your information is correct.
Thank you Irina. This is truly informative. Top class UA-cam channel
Hey! I've had flow at my house in Montego Bay for $5,800 Jamaican for about a year now. I am very interested in the starlink, but since I'm not there full-time I'm not sure how I can get it build correctly if you have to be there to pay for it. We can only get back three times a year for now. However that upfront fee for starlink is a little rich for my blood. Also I had one problem with the cable box that I believe got hit by lightning and their customer service was fantastic and it was replaced in one day. This video was fantastic I appreciate all you do
Payments for starlink are all done online, you can be anywhere and still have it running in Jamaica. I'm not sure if Starlink can be "paused", but this should be the option, so you'd only pay for it when using it.
hey Steve would you like to add IPTV channels to your internet here in Jamaica?fact that you're not here all the time ,you can take or use the service overseas with you,it comes on a device so you can basically take it with you anywhere you have internet access
Excellent video again
One word to describe this presentation-impressive.
All that you say is true, Irena, and, as always, very educational. However, there is a downside of Starlink that has nothing to do with telecommunications. Astronomy. I am a lifelong amateur astronomer (a passion of mine) and am bothered by Light Pollution. Musk is putting up thousands of Starlink satellites in low orbit and this affects millions of astronomers (amateur and professional) all over the world. Imagine spending several hours one night taking a photo through a telescope only to see one or more satellite tracks across your image. Scale that up to the multi-billion dollar telescopes used by professionals and it is a major problem that PhotoShop can't fix. Musk promised to do something about it, but his solutions have not been satisfactory so far. So yes, Starlink is a great telecom innovation (and have been a boon to The Ukraine though I hear Musk wants to drop that coverage or have a government agency pick up the cost). But for astronomy, it's a growing problem. If it comes across that I am not a Musk fan, that too is true.
First of all, thank you so much for sharing the point about Astronomy and all the issues this situation is causing to our ability to run observations. In fact, the network of satellites that Starlink is building will only get bigger and can have an even more serious consequences and I hope Elon Musk will indeed do something about it.
By the way, I'm not a Musk fan either, on the contrary. Especially after the comments he made about Ukraine, American politics, free speech vs hate speech and many more. All of them showed that despite Elon's multiple talents in business and technology, he lacks knowledge and education when it comes to history, sociology and politics. Sure, it's ok not to know some things, but the fact that he acts as if he knows them when he actually doesn't is really sad, because it means that he's not as intelligent as I once thought he was. Spreading nonsense in Twitter to multimillion audience is irresponsible to say the least.
Having said that, I still admire his work and/or the work of his team when it comes to technology. That's why when I was writing the script for this video I tried my best to keep my negative opinion of Musk as a person to myself, so it would not influence my opinion of Starlink as a service.
@@JAMAICAWITHIRIE Bravo. That's a very hard thing to do - to write without exposing personal negative opinions - very hard. Even when I was tutoring astronomy, it was difficult to talk about idiots and their ideas about Dark Matter, String Theories and Multiple Universes. The idiot string theorists touted math proving the presence of 6 dimensions, then 7, then 10, then 12 - now nobody talks about them. And there I go calling them idiots - you see, it's hard. Chuckle, chuckle.
Yes my dear sister Irie,J.P.S. is next!!!!! Oh my gosh,we need this badddddd.
Goodb. With more options and competition, this will be better for the people. There’s no way internet should be out upwards up to three days in this day and age.
Can't wait for your starlink review,keep up the great work
We recently switch to flow fiber optic. East Portland, speed maybe a little faster, but every day we have multiple outages, sometimes for days. No compensation 🤷
P.s. my mobile data is faster than fiber optic 😂😂😂 and more reliable 🤷
Thank you for sharing and yes... the outages, inconsistent service etc.. I don't think Flow has proper fiber in Portland, maybe some parts of their network, but not the whole line... My LTE/4g mobile often works better than landline as well..., during the peak hours for sure, but it's not fiber, just regular flow cable.
@@JAMAICAWITHIRIE definitely not the whole line.🥴
Had my modem replaced today, I only had it for 3-4 months 🤦
We leave for Jamaica on Tuesday November 22nd! Super Excited!
I love your channel Irena, I really do, But I would not get so excited about Starlink. While it is a great option for rural areas, Starlink is a satellite service. If you watch LTT channel, you will see that they(Starlink) are getting to be A$$holes. They lower speeds unusable speeds(deliberately)and won't even care to explain why. As you stated, Starlink is owned by Elon Musk. Think about that.
That's why I'm glad she stated that she will buy it herself and test it out. I don't think anyone should run out and buy something just because she gave them some knowledge on a possibility.
Always positive news from you ! Thank you so much for keeping us informed ❤❤❤
A very informative video! I just had a couple points and clarifications I wanted to make in order of how I heard them regarding Starlink. I want to just preface this by saying, you're right when you say it is currently better than whatever you can get outside of Kingston and the only options for remote areas IF you can afford it. Everything mentioned is based on my own research spanning from about a year ago until recently as like you I'm very much interested in the technology. I do not have a PHD in internet and networking etc so I am very open to corrections.
1. While there aren't any problems with consistency issues because of other users or out of date cables persay, eventually starlink will become saturated as this is a service offered globally and speeds will continue to slow. You can google "starlink speed" and you will see the reports of it already taking place. They currently as of Nov 2022 have 2300 satellites in orbit which provide roughly 46tb/s of data, so 20gb/s each satellite. For this example let's assume everyone is home using the internet and an average of 50mbps for each customer (the global average speed as of July 2022), that would mean 400 customers per satellite or under 1 million total serviceable customers as of right now. In order to service more they would have to launch more sats or continue to reduce speeds. Sidenote: SpaceX/Starlink's goal is to launch 10,000 total by (I believe it wasthe year) 2029.
The other issue is that most of these satellites will spend the majority of their time over oceans when they're circling the earth, as 70% of our planet is water. Using USA as an example. America takes up almost 2% of surface area which means currently at any given time there will be 46 satellites over America able to service only 18400 customers assuming they're maintaining 50mbps. Jamaica has an even smaller footprint.
I have watched a few reviews by now which showcases that while full outages are not common, what happens is the connection will drop for a few seconds (I've seen up to 15 seconds if I recall, the number fluctuates) regularly throughout the day sometimes every hour which can and will impact certain internet activities like calls, videochats, livestreaming, gaming etc.
2. The price. I strongly believe pricing is a barrier to entry for most Jamaicans, especially in rural areas. 60k plus tax is a steep setup cost upfront for the average Jamaican. Then to pay $8500 per month on internet bill alone is again I believe extremely high for a lot of the population. I understand your situation where you were paying I think 12k for your internet but vast majority are not paying that much or even need 100mbps connections.
Starlink draws 50-75 watts. Thats more than the average tv at 58w. Imagine your new light bill at the end of the month.
If you can afford it then I do believe if you're in a rural/remote area then this is your best option. Many will still continue to suffer with Flow simply because of the price.
...thank you. Earlier i was trying to say that majority citizens will find this unaffordable. Everyone jumped on.me . I deleted the whole convo.
A very masterful insight on the subject to compliment Irena's research. Thanks.
RizlaRifle, great additional information. Regarding the Pricing, keep in mind that while "most" Jamaicans might not be able to afford the Monthly Cost, "many" can; including many MOVING BACK HOME and living in Rural Areas (which seems to be where most who move back to Jamaica decide to live).
For example, this option would be "much better" for me when I travel (or move) back to Jamaica. I am from Saint Ann, and when I go back home, I have a difficult time with Internet Service in my Home Town (fortunately, I can use my work phone now; so having access to home internet is not a big deal when I go back home).
Similarly for the one time (I hope) Setup Cost. Many of us who live outside of Jamaica, would be willing to help a Relative get setup (in the Country area), so that we have a more reliable internet service when we go back home.
About the quality of internet with Starlink - when I have it up and running, I'd be able to share more, however, so far the speeds of Starlink are increasing. There is a "drop" in speeds in certain areas when the new areas are introduced, but then it goes back to normal. These "drops" in speed will end once all planet is connected. People over the oceans also need Starlink, maybe even more than us. Starlink satellites move very fast and people get connected to different ones, so there are no dedicated satellites for certain number of users. For more info - simply check the full film of "How does Starlink Satellite Internet Work?" - by Branch Education.
As for the costs - the point I was making was that the prices of Flow service will reduce, which means people who can't afford starlink will STILL benefit from reduced prices, that's why everyone will benefit from Starlink.
If you want to know the real negative effects of Starlink - the night sky gets jammed with these satellites which is not good and causes issues for astronomers. Also there is a potential problem with eventual monopoly that Starlink might hold in the end if everybody switches to Starlink and other ISPs will go out of business.
Very good point about electricity consumption for the dish. It uses up 50-75 watts on average. I was planning to get it connected to some solar electricity source for backup in case of outages, BUT maybe it's worth connecting to solar for the regular use as well.🤔
@@JAMAICAWITHIRIE Funny enough I went to check the video you mentioned and realized it was one of the videos I watched months ago when researching. It goes into a lot of detail.
I'm not sure I understand your statement "These "drops" in speed will end once all planet is connected" and thus you some of mine. Each satellite is limited to sending 20gb/s of data and no more, so as the world gets connected more people will cut into that amount. To counter that, they would need to add more satellites but there is a limit to the amount of satellites they can add ( be it because of money or technology). So as more people get connected the speeds will always slow. Imagine it like a highway, when the road is clear/empty you can go very fast but as you know add a lot more cars and the average speed on that motorway will slow the more cars are using it.
"Starlink satellites move very fast and people get connected to different ones, so there are no dedicated satellites for certain number of users". Again, I don't believe you were understanding my previous USA example. Starlink sats move in sync around the globe in a continuous grid pattern and spread out equally. So if they are always spread equally across the surface of the earth and USA takes up 2% of that surface, then only 2% of starlink satellites will be over USA at any given point in time and able to service customers, a sat over Africa for eg cannot send service to Florida. So technically yes there are no dedicated satellites for a certain number of users BUT the satellites cannot service an infinite number of users concurrently. My example was saying that if all users accessed the service in USA at once then based on the number of sats over USA, the data transfer limit of each satellite (20gb/s) and each user receiving 50mbps then Starlink can only service just under 20,000 customers in USA as of right now. That number can increase as more satellites go up, but it is not infinite.
To possibly get a better understanding or visualization of what I am trying to explain look up "Starlink: BUSTED!! + ALL other Failed Musk promises!" by Thunderf00t on youtube and skip to 19 minute mark. And while he's not very keen on Musk overall, his explanation on the limiting factors of Starlink are based in math/science and easy to understand.
Lastly, I understand your points about costs of flow, I just don't believe Starlink will receive enough customers to warrant a response from flow. Even in the rural areas it would cost Flow so much more to build infrastructure to service the few. Of course I could be wrong.
Anyway, love your content Irena! Always look forward to your thorough history and details surrounding Jamaica! Waiting for the next one.
Proper researched quality information delivered in an easy to understand manner... 👌🏼