Holy Sputnik, Elon Musk seems to have solved my internet access woes.
Readers will recall me lamenting (whining) about my problems with providers of internet connections. It continued to amaze me that, sitting here in the Johnstown suburb of Southmont Borough late in 2025, providers were inconsistent, nonexistent for me, or combinations of both.
It reminded me of a time years back when my brother and mother lived in Lorain Borough and any time it rained, got windy, or was sunny, their electrical service was about an even bet to fail.
Said my brother at time, it was like living in Baghdad.
My problems getting a reliable way to connect my computers to the internet gave me similar emotions.
As a quick recap, Breezeline for years had provided me a slow speed of broadband that both sales and tech people alike were amazed still was available. And, that slow service was intermittent at best. I had signed up to get text alerts about outages and let me say the old cell phone got a workout from those.
My most agonizing problem was the time in mid-September when I was preparing to buy 1,000 shares of OPEN stock, but got a text from Breezeline about outages in my area. Although my internet still was working, my wife alerted me to a Breezeline truck parked directly across the street in front of our house.
This was late in the trading session, shortly before 4 p.m. I wanted to babysit the trade, monitoring it closely both at the end of the regular session and into the extended hours, which runs from 4:05 until 8.
Side note: One can often get great executions in extended market trading because, while volume is low, some people put in market orders instead of limit orders, and so can buy at inflated ask prices.
Investors know that if you put in a hard stop-loss order at any time, others on higher levels of stock information can see that, target the stop to blow out your position, then allow the stock to run under their new ownership.
I passed on the OPEN buy due to the internet access uncertainty. Shortly after the regular session ended and extended trading began, it was announced a former CEO of OPEN was returning and the stock rocketed up more than $4 a share. So, in about 20 minutes I missed the opportunity to make a quick $4,000.
Color me miffed, and incentivized to do something.
T-Mobile was available for $75 a month and I tried, only to find after the fact the $75 rate was NOT available in my area, but, magically, $165 or so was. I returned my T-Mobile equipment during the 14-day free trial and now am attempting to get them to stop billing me for $165 or so.
I canceled Breezeline Sept. 29, but their policy is to prolong things a month. I still am getting angry texts from them about owing money. I do not, other than the $8 or so I was quoted as a pro-rated amount.
AT&T wireless is not available to me, nor is Blade, or other services.
A cousin, whose options are few due to living in a rural area, had contemplated Musk’s Starlink satellite option, based on internet research and word-of-mouth endorsements. He ended up getting it. His early reports were positive in the extreme, so I took the plunge.
Allow me to warn you Starlink customer service is virtually nonexistent, and you need to be tech savvy, or have a tech savvy source (my son), to help with the details.
But, bless Musk and his fleet of nearly 8,000 Starlink low-orbit satellites, a number supplemented by 29 in a late October rocket launch (celebrating my arrival as a customer?), I’ve been a user for about half a week now and I’m impressed.
Musk is the quintessential entrepreneur – identify a need and act to fill it.
Thank you, Elon, for being an intelligent and efficient free-marketeer.
And so, after my son and I ( mostly my son) spent time mounting the satellite receiving antenna with a clear view of the sky, and orienting it properly using a cell phone app, running the cable into the house to connect to the modem, and attending to other miscellaneous tasks, which included me buying a much-needed new desktop computer, I’m a Starlink fan.
Plus, using a short-term promotion, there was no upfront equipment cost and my monthly rate is $59 for the first year, moving up to $80 after that.
Allow me to reiterate, I’m more than happy with the service so far. If you are reading this, know that this post was made using Starlink.
With any luck, Starlink will keep performing until my death, which I hope occurs sometime past when the $59 introductory rate period ends.
Sam Ross Jr's site 