Vocal Voices

I was getting some comments that my voice was dropping out on meetings so I decided to do some diagnostics on my Starlink. The connection to the internet is solid but I'm getting some serious variability in the upload to the router. I tested on two different phones. Actually the faster the Android phone the larger the discrepancy.

Talking to support I duly gave all the info, all the screenshots and I also did some diagnostics where I plugged one of the mobiles into a Type C docking station and used the Ethernet LAN with wifi off and tested the ethernet port. There is no Windows app.

Support said something about address allocation which didn't seem right to me and simply sent me a new router and closed the ticket.

I'm like doo what.... OK I love the service and there is no messing about, they want people to have a good experience and are determined to make sure they do. However this doesn't really diagnose or resolve the problem. Eventually simply "sending a router" will not be a viable resolution with, say, 100m customers and also if there is a simple software fix which will resolve things it would be better for everyone that they do so.

So I talked to the senior exec I talk to from time to time and within 4 hours I had two senior techs on the line asking me to do more diagnosis and suggesting I don't plug in my new router yet and get ahold of an iOS device just in case they have problems with the Android app.

I borrowed the iPad from my daughter and ran the tests. To say that the app is a totally different beast from the Android app is a severe understatement. Clearly the entire dev team have iOS devices and they port the app to Android without much in the way of optimisation. Speed results were between 100% faster and 200% faster to the router depending on which phone I compared it to. This was interesting because the older the Android phone the worse the results. Showing that the porting is putting a heavy load on the Android phone and only the latest and fastest phones will compete with the iOS app.

I've sent the details off to SpaceX. Will get the new router between the 29th and the 2nd Sept and will fit and test again. SpaceX has done what I suggested and they want the router back for RCA (Root Cause Analysis), in the case that it has issues.

Oh they also gave me a free month (worth £85), for the hassle.

It is always a pleasure doing business with SpaceX. The senior management listen. The team works hard to try and make sure that you get a good service. I haven't seen anything like this in the tech world for a long time.

Yes, there is a problem twixt and between Android and IOS. I often notice a delay when speaking with someone who is working from home in their iEveything home "office". We end up speaking over each other and it is hard to get them to understand that they need to have a break once they have finished speaking to let me get a word in, and vice-versa. Speaking to Scottish Power I once reverted to military comms "over" and "roger" until the problem sank in at the other end.

The thing is that a lot of the script kiddies have iThis and iThat, they are what they are used to so code for what they are comfortable with first and foremost. It doesn't help that Android on Samsung machines sucks as well.

I am on A 12 'Snow Cone' but if I could go back to A 4 'Ice Cream Sandwich' I would jump at the chance.

My phone's range from 10 to 14. The latest, when I get it back, will be 15 soon.

I already knew that most American tech guys can't see past iOS. But Elon's companies seem to be very focused on it. I was pleased that hey recognised there might be an issue with their Android port.