ConnectNYC vs Starlink · verified 26 July 2026
Where exactly would the dish go?
Starlink’s own terms require outdoor equipment with “a clear field of view of the sky,” and make getting the landlord’s permission your responsibility. In a rented Upper West Side apartment, those are the two questions to settle before price or speed matters.
Source: starlink.com/legal — checked 26 July 2026.
From Starlink’s own pages
Four things to settle before you order.
All read on 26 July 2026, all published by Starlink.
Source: starlink.com/legal — checked 26 July 2026.
Source: starlink.com/specifications — checked 26 July 2026.
1. It needs open sky, outdoors
A window ledge over an airshaft, a fire escape with six floors above it, or a rear wall facing a courtyard does not give a clear field of view of the sky. In a prewar block, those are often exactly the options an apartment has.
Ours mounts on the building, once. A node and an outdoor switch, installed by our crew — nothing on your windowsill.
2. Permission is your problem
Starlink’s terms put the obligation on the customer to obtain landlord or owner approval and comply with the lease before installing. Where the roof is a common area controlled by a board, that permission is often hard for a tenant to obtain.
The building conversation is ours. We reach agreement with the owner or board and install to the building. You just need the right to permit work inside your own unit.
3. Upload: 5 to 20 Mbps
That is Starlink’s own published typical figure. It is the half of the connection that carries your video call, your backup, and every file you send.
Ours is 50, 100, or 200 Mbps depending on plan — published on the plan, on the label, and covered by the speed guarantee.
4. Latency: 25 to 60 ms
Also Starlink’s own published figure for land service. Your traffic goes to orbit and back, which is remarkable engineering and unavoidable physics.
Ours is about 10 ms — a rooftop radio a few blocks away, then fiber. That is the difference between a call that feels live and one that keeps stepping on itself.
Side by side
For a rented apartment.
Each company’s own published figures, 26 July 2026. Starlink’s pricing and hardware cost vary by address.
| In a UWS rental | ConnectNYC | Starlink Residential |
|---|---|---|
| Building path | We check the building first; if roof path and access work, we handle the owner or board agreement | Needs outdoor equipment with clear sky view, and landlord approval you obtain |
| Published upload | 50, 100, or 200 Mbps | Typically 5–20 Mbps |
| Published latency | About 10 ms | 25–60 ms on land |
| Speed commitment | Written guarantee on download and upload, with credits | None advertised |
| Taxes and fees | Taxes included; no fees added to the monthly price | Quoted separately from service pricing |
| Hardware cost | None required — use your own router, or buy ours once for $149 | Kit priced per address, quoted only after you enter it; rental advertised at $10/mo in select markets |
| Monthly price | $89 / $119 / $149 | From $55 for 100 Mbps download, listed as select areas only; Residential Max $130 |
| Money-back window | None on the install charge | 30-day trial with full refund |
| Contract, termination, data caps | None, none, none | None, none, none |
| Where it works | Our published Upper West Side coverage zone | A broad service footprint where the required sky view and permissions are available |
Source: starlink.com/legal — checked 26 July 2026.
Source: starlink.com/specifications — checked 26 July 2026.
Source: starlink.com/us/residential — checked 26 July 2026.
Credit where it’s due
Starlink is extraordinary — somewhere else.
It puts a real connection on a boat, a ranch, a job site, and a disaster zone. It solved a problem the wired industry failed to solve for forty years. If you have a country house, own your roof, or want a backup path that shares no infrastructure with your wired line, buy it without hesitating — and their 30-day refund is a better risk reversal than ours.
It also starts cheaper than we do, and its footprint is far broader than our published coverage zone.
None of that changes the question at the top of this page. In a rented apartment with no roof rights, the comparison is not really between two products.
The short version
Nothing on your windowsill.
No dish in your apartment and no sky survey for you to run. We handle the building agreement; you get a connection with both speed numbers published and latency around 10 ms.
And we operate the whole path — IP space, transport, radios, the cabling in your hallway. One company answers for it, and it is the one that bills you. How the network is built →
Thirty seconds. Real answer.
Check my area.
Live now on the Upper West Side — W 57th to 110th St. The checker answers for the area, not the exact building. If yours is inside it, one apartment is enough: request the building check. A person checks the exact building, then replies by email with the result. If a survey is the next step, we can offer one as soon as the next day — and we handle the building conversation.