Like everyone else living here, I have felt the dearth of solid broadband Internet over many years. Dropped calls. Buffering video. 404 website errors, looooong web page load times, poor Zoom calls with frozen video and stuttering audio... we've all experienced these things.

So on the horizon looms Starlink . By now you probably know about it.  It's Elon Musk's fabled satellite Internet service. Set up a small dish. run a cable into the house, and Bob's your uncle. The problem, of course, is successfully launching 12,000 geosynchronous satellites and keeping them in stable orbit. So far, Starlink has successfully put over 2,000 satellites up, so we're about a sixth of the way there globally.

So what about Espanola? We're looking forward to having "big city" level 200 Mbps Internet connections, but it's a waiting game for now. Plunk down your deposit on the website and wait. I signed up about a year ago and I'm still waiting just like everyone else in New Mexico.

If you'd like to see how the project is coming along, there's a lovely, crowd sourced LIVE map of the whole global Starlink network at  satellitemap.space where you can see the satellite build out in real-time. If you zoom in to New Mexico, you'll see that there's only one satellite over New Mexico at this point, along with some empty hexagons. Each hexagon on the map represents a satellite beam, so there's a way to go yet.  Perhaps we'll get lit up later this year, but knowing Musk's habits, I'm not counting on it.

Oh, there's one more thing.  I had a call from Krishna Singh this morning saying he had received an email from Starlink saying the window to pay for his antenna/router kit must be paid in the next 24 hours or he would lose his place in line. This is a SCAM. Unfortunately, it appears some scammers are taking advantage of the long wait to prey on Starlink customers who have not yet received their ground kits, so be aware. UPDATE This turned out not to be a scam after all 😒Krishna Singh took it gracefully, but, man, 'twas my booboo. Thanks for being kind about it 🙏

So, until Windstream lays last-mile optical fiber and Elon Musk delivers on his promise of global high-speed access, we will all make do with our "Espanola Internet" which has now become known worldwide on our Zoom calls.

All Love, ..... Guruka Singh