A home-school mom looking for faster ways to download coloring sheets. A small business trying to save money on its telecommunications bill. Grandparents trying to get more reliable Facetime calls.
These are just a few of the dozens – if not hundreds – of Chilkat Valley residents who have been ditching their AP&T fiber internet services for the high-speed satellite internet of Starlink.
So far, most of the people who have put up the approximately $700 for the Starlink satellite dish say they’re thrilled about the change, which they say gives them lightning-fast download speeds and more reliable connections, even when cruise ships are in town.
“I have virtually no complaints,” said Phil McAfee, a heavy equipment manufacturing engineer who works out of his home near Mud Bay.
McAfee had been following the development of Starlink for years before the service was offered in Alaska this winter. He jumped at the chance.
When the package arrived, he was excited to open the box. Inside were a couple cables, and two sleek white plastic squares. One was the satellite dish, about a foot across. The other was the router to set up in his house.
“Everything worked flawlessly. Within an hour, I’d say it was up and running,” he said.
On top of that, his monthly bills for internet dropped by about $20 per month. Starlink currently charges $90 per month.
Starlink’s success is attributed to founder Elon Мusk’s development of cost-effective satellites that don’t burn up when they return to orbit.
The company deployed more than 5,000 satellites that beam in data signals that are captured by the satellite dishes. The technology means that customers don’t have to rely on fiber connections, which are expensive to install in sparsely populated areas.
McAfee’s internet speeds sped up by about 10 times, he said. Other recent Starlink converts echoed his enthusiasm.
“It was crazy fast – faster than anything we’d had before,” said Lilly Ford, a seamstress and home-school mom who said her previous AP&T service would cut out so often it could take her a half an hour to download a simple worksheet.
“You wanna be able to print out a coloring page without having to struggle,” she said.
AP&T did not respond to requests for comments on this story about its service. In an email, vice president Jason Custer noted that AP&T “has customer service representatives and technicians available locally at our offices in Haines and Skagway who are at the ready to help resolve any issues that our customers may have. Respectfully, AP&T is unable to provide commentary on individual customers’ circumstances, for privacy reasons.”
It’s not just individuals -businesses and other organizations have taken note of Starlink’s promise.
A Starlink dish recently appeared on the roof of the SEARHC Clinic in Haines. (SEARHC did not respond to a request for comment). Canadian border agents reportedly were spotted installing one a few weeks ago.
The Haines Borough investigated switching, but is sticking with AP&T, at least for now, said manager Annette Kreitzer.
“There are networking features through our contract with AP&T that are not available to us through Starlink,” she wrote in an email. She added that the borough is always looking for cost savings.
CVN uses AP&T and pays more than $200 most months for two phone lines, internet, and occasional long-distance charges, but has been discussing the possibility of Starlink.
Cost savings were a big motivator for some, including Zen Bathworks, which makes luxury wood hot tubs in Haines. Owner Kent Larson, speaking from a remote moose hunting camp in Interior Alaska over a wifi connection provided by Starlink, said Zen Bathworks uses internet for “practically everything we do.”
He said AP&T’s requirement for having a landline – which adds close to $40 per month – was a big factor in his decision to switch. His phones are configured to make calls through the internet.
“We didn’t have a whole lot to lose,” he said. He estimated it would take just 10 months to recoup the upfront hardware costs at his $90-per-month plan.
His only issue has been the placement of the satellite dish. He said the dish was “finicky” with obstructions like trees. Zen Bathworks had to relocate the dish, but Larson said there are very few service interruptions, and most aren’t even noticeable.
Despite the promise, many are still skeptical. The biggest concern is price. Hardware costs close to $700. The dishes have a 12-month warranty, but there’s no guarantee that the technology won’t change and the company could require a new dish.
There’s also no guarantee that the price won’t rise. In more urban regions, the service costs about $110, but the price was reduced in Haines this spring to $90, which makes it about $10 less than AP&T’s cheapest package, which includes the required landline. Of course, AP&T doesn’t have those guarantees either.
For some, the habits that attracted them to Haines in the first place make switching feel harder. Mardell Gunn lives at Mile 38. She’s a light internet user, but her AP&T rates rose by about $10 on Sept. 1 to about $100 a month and she started looking into other options.
“A little bit is just resistance to change, and then there’s the practical reality of changing a phone number you’ve used for 25 years,” she said. “Our phone is really important when you live out the road – you don’t see people at Howser’s.”
She said she hasn’t made a decision yet on what she’ll do and is hoping that AP&T can find a way to cut down its rates and boost its service. But she’s not hopeful at the moment.
Ultimately, AP&T is constrained by the technology it’s using, she said.
“I don’t know if there is anything AP&T can do to make it better,” she said.