Sep 6, 2024 7:28 PM Share by Email 00:05:41 In July, following multiple Northwestel outages, the News’ columnist Keith Halliday and his family decided they needed Starlink as backup and ordered it. Plus, there was a sale on terminals, he said by text while using Starlink from the shores of Atlin Lake. After more outages, such as the mass northern telecommunications disruptions on Aug. 25, Halliday heard Starlink was “at capacity” so he checked the website for himself. When the News input a few different Whitehorse-based addresses on the Starlink website, the company’s same automatic response came up in return: “Starlink is at capacity in your area. Order now to reserve your Starlink. You will receive a notification once your Starlink is ready to ship.” It’s not clear what “at capacity” means. An availability map indicates Starlink is available Yukon-wide. Starlink is a division of SpaceX. The News’ questions to SpaceX went unanswered. In online communications with customer service via the Starlink website, Halliday asked if a lot of Yukoners are signing up for Starlink given the unreliability of Northwestel. “I don’t have information on the number of people signing up for Starlink in specific regions or their reasons for doing so,” the support line responded. When asked if the Starlink antenna works at -40 C, the support line indicated it “may not function optimally.” One possible explanation for what “at capacity” means is provided on an online forum on how to fix Starlink issues. The forum suggests that “at capacity” means that Starlink has maxed out the number of active users in the area. The more people consuming in a specific geographical location leads to drastic speed drops, which can be felt during peak hours, per the forum. Yukon resident James Bronson got Starlink in February 2023. He works remotely from Ottawa in Whitehorse. His family specifically made the purchase so Bronson and his wife could work while camping off grid, in addition to other things, like as backup for when Northwestel goes down. Bronson said it works “great” for the most part, since he figured out how to power it up using a solar generator. “If it’s sunny, and I have two panels, then it’s more than enough to meet Starlink’s needs,” he said. He has experienced outages that he believes are related to obstructions with the device trying to look through tall trees, like at Kusawa Lake Campground. He found they were able to use Starlink better when they were down by the beach and out of the trees. He’s not the only one he’s seeing with Starlink at Yukon campgrounds. At Conrad Campground, he said he spotted four other campers with Starlink perched atop, just in the little loop there. His family typically doesn’t use Starlink at home because he and his wife rely heavily on video calls. “I don’t feel that Starlink would provide the level of service that we need to support that,” he said. “We need a higher level of internet that currently only Northwestel can provide.” The main problem with his Starlink is that it’s not consistent, he said. He finds that the connection is good — then it isn’t good — then it’s good again. He doesn’t know why. “Perhaps people that have mounted their antennas on their roof would have a better experience, more reliable,” he said. Bronson figures that Starlink might be a better fit at home for other people with more modest internet requirements. Bronson has temporarily discontinued his service because his plan allows him to start and stop it, for example, before and after prime camping season. Anecdotally, Bronson is seeing more Starlink around the Yukon compared to recent years. “I know a lot of people aren’t super happy with kind of the monopoly that Northwestel has had for so long on internet,” he said. He added some customers are looking for alternatives. In addition to regular price cuts on equipment at Starlink, Bronson could see Yukoners seriously considering the switch to Starlink, particularly if they're not already on a Northwestel package. Another satellite provider that Bronson heard people were using had a low data rate so it “wasn’t super great,” he said. During a Sept. 5 meeting with the Yukon Chamber of Commerce, Leah Gilbert Morris, a vice-president of Export Development Canada, said Telesat, a private global satellite company supported by the federal government, is essentially trying to rival Starlink technology. “The Canadian government is trying very hard to support that, you know, a major investment,” she said. Bronson believes Starlink will need more satellites, especially at northern latitudes. They are launching new satellites every month, he said. “I was actually quite surprised when Starlink became available in Yukon so quickly, because it's a lot harder to put satellites in (lower) orbits at higher latitudes,” Bronson said. His message to Yukoners thinking of making the switch: “Gather information before you buy. The sale that ends in three days, or whatever it is? There'll always be another one.” — With files from Jake Howarth Contact Dana Hatherly at dana.hatherly@yukon-news.com