This site may earn affiliate commissions from the links on this page. Terms of use.

Update: The Starry router is called "Starry Station," and will be optional. No need to drop $350 on information technology. The actual antenna is called Starry Point, and will be arranged with the service when it launches. This story has been adapted accordingly.

Aereo's Idiot box streaming service may be dust, but former CEO Chet Kanojia hasn't given upward on the idea of providing new kinds of service at a improve price than customers currently receive. Kanojia's latest projection is called Starry, a wireless broadband ISP that he's claiming will be able to deliver gigabit operation without requiring a wireline.

The new service will rely on transmitters dubbed MetroNodes, which must exist stationed within 2km of Starry'southward customers. Starry volition buy bandwidth from local fiber optic providers when information technology beta tests its service in Boston afterwards this twelvemonth. You'll exist able to use the service with your existing router, or you can buy a fancy, $350 touchscreen-enabled router, dubbed Starry Station.

Kanojia has shown off the router already, but the demos that were given featured its interface, not bodily performance. At that place are some significant questions surrounding the Internet service, including monthly cost and build-out scale. Gigabit wireless isn't new in and of itself, but Kanojia is challenge he tin deliver it for much less than the $lxx per month Google Cobweb currently charges.

I'chiliad not certain that'south possible. Whatever start-upwardly of this sort faces high initial costs, and the low range capability means that the number of customers Starry can attach to any given transmitter is going to exist express. Deploying in high-density areas helps with this, merely only to a point. Customers on contracts won't be free to test the product, and enough of others won't desire to switch abroad from a known service until Starry has proven itself.

True, the company is offer gigabit wireless, simply we take no information on real-world operation or how hands the Starry network tin cope with heavy load on a single MetroNode.

The Starry Night base station and antenna

The Starry Indicate base station and antenna; the latter hangs out your window.

Apparently Starry'south plan is to apply frequency in the unlicensed 38GHz spectrum to deliver extremely high performance, simply at a severe range punishment. There's null new about the concept of offer wireless broadband service, simply efforts to tap loftier frequency spectrum take oftentimes run into headaches. Nearly 20 years ago, WinStar Communications made like promises only to collapse in the backwash of the dot-com implosion. I of the things that killed the company was its massive capital expenditures — expenditures Starry will still have to contend with if it wants to build its network.

The trouble with 38-60GHz networking is simple: The millimeter waves don't penetrate other materials very well, and the problem gets worse at college frequencies. Rain tin can benumb the signals, as tin windows and doors built to modern specifications.

Attenuation1

The chart above shows how signal strength is attenuated past various materials as the frequency increases. A 38GHz betoken is unable to penetrate a 17.v-inch physical wall, while even modern doors and windows noticeably attenuate the betoken.

I'yard no fan of the modern status quo when it comes to Internet service, but ultra-loftier frequency wireless has yet to demonstrate a sustainable concern model. When rain, dust, and fog can dampen your connectedness, it's hard to imagine any provider can manage a suitable service uptime without charging the customer far more than than your average Comcast or AT&T bill. Gigabit operation, if available at all, would likely deport a slew of caveats and "all-time effort" clauses to shield the company from liability.