[Liverpool] Starlink extra info - re: registered address, cell size etc.

[Sebastian Arcus]

I've managed to find some extra info from a couple who travel in a 4x4 
motorhome (currently) around the US using a Starlink dish:

https://www.tuckstruck.net/truck-and-kit/geekery/starlink-for-overlanders/

Lots of interesting info on that page. Among them:

1. The size of a Starlink "cell" for the purposes of the service 
location seems to be about 35km x 35km - so approximately 17.5 km in 
each direction from the registered service address.

2. If you stray away from this area without updating the service 
address, apparently the dish used to refuses to play ball, but after 
recent software updates, now it keeps on working, but the speed is 
slower and slower as you move away.

3. It seems that the dish tries to connect to specific satellites based 
on where it thinks it is - and that is why the speed degrades as it 
moves away from the registered address.

4. Even when Starlink is officially available for a country, it doesn't 
cover all of it. For example the guys above have to "hunt" around for 
available cells when they are travelling around Canada - by trying to 
change their service address at Starlink.com and seeing if that address 
shows as available for service.

At my client, which is in Mossley Hill, from the off, without updating 
the service address, I got about 100-150mbs. I then tried to update the 
service address, and it says "this location is unavailable at the 
moment". I tried other random addresses in Liverpool and North Wirral - 
and they are all unavailable. Then I tried to go down the Wirral 
peninsula - to get closer to south Liverpool in a straight line - and it 
allowed me to pick an address in Port Sunlight. Most South Wirral seems 
to be covered actually. After doing this, the speed almost immediately 
went up to over 200mbs, but after about 10 minutes settles around 160mbs.

Sorry for the long post - I though some people might be interested in 
the above.