Former Aereo CEO Chaitanya "Chet" Kanojia tried to shake up the cable TV industry by transmitting over-the-air network TV signals to Aereo subscribers. That plan eventually failed, and now he’s set his sights on the broadband Internet sector by launching a new wireless service that promises speeds of up to one gigabit everywhere. That service is called Starry Internet, and is rolling out in the greater Boston area as a beta starting this summer.
The idea behind Starry Internet is to sell equipment directly to consumers that they can install themselves rather than lease the hardware on a monthly basis. The new Internet service is based on millimeter wave active phased array technology and uses the underutilized (freely available) high-frequency spectrum to deliver the wireless broadband signal. To receive this signal, consumers must place a “smart” antenna outside their window, aka the Starry Point receiver, as shown above..
“By using OFDM modulation coupled with MIMO as a foundation, along with active phased array RF front ends, Starrys technological architecture enables it to leverage OFDM radio technology, including MU-MIMO, in a dense architecture across multiple licensed spectrum bands, including ultra-high frequency millimeter waves, to deliver high speed broadband to your home or business through a self-installed home receiver,” the company explains.
The benefits, according to Starry Internet, is that there will be no data caps and no contracts to sign. The actual wireless broadband signals will be broadcasted by a MetroNode, or what the company calls the Starry Beam beta, which converts an Internet connection into a millimeter-wave signal. This is what is picked up by the Starry Point receiver sticking out the consumer’s window.
In addition to announcing the Starry Internet service, the company also revealed the Starry Station, a new Wi-Fi hub that connects to the Starry Point and provides the Internet to all of your wired and wireless devices. This too will be sold directly to consumers, and is compatible with Wireless AC devices and older.
Outside its triangular shape, the Starry Station’s biggest feature is its 3.8” capacitive touchscreen. The spec sheet indicates that the hub also features dual-band, concurrent 4x4:3 MIMO Wireless AC radios, a dual-core processor, a dual-core display processor, 1.5GB of RAM and 8GB of flash storage. There are two Gigabit Ethernet ports (one in, one out), a speaker and a microphone, a proximity sensor, and support for future 802.15 Internet of Things devices.
According to the product page, the screen will show the health of each device connection using blue and red orbs: blue for healthy and red for troubled connections. Even more, the larger the orb, the more data the connected device is apparently using. If there’s a problem, the hub will supposedly tell how the consumer can resolve the issue. The proximity sensor is used to change the information on the screen when the user approaches, showing things like the Health Score, the Internet speed and so on.
The Starry Station seems to have its sights set on Google’s OnHub router, another “hub” released last year that aims to make setup and management easy on consumers. While there’s no built-in screen on the OnHub, users can access the router’s interface using the Google On app for tablets and smartphones. The TP-Link model includes a dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 4GB of internal storage, two Ethernet ports and a USB 3.0 port. We spent four weeks with the device, which you can read about right here.
As for when the Starry Station will be available, customers can reserve the device for a meaty $350 at Starry.com until February 5. After that, customers can purchase the device directly from the website or pre-order it from Amazon Launchpad. The router doesn’t actually ship until March 2016, the company says.
From maximumpc
