Starlink cuts satellite dish price from $600 to $300 in excess-capacity areas

The $600 standard price was replaced with regional pricing of $500 or $300.

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It seems a shame they removed the automatic alignment from the newer dishes in order to save money.

I'm not sure what the auto alignment is really good for. Aligning a gen 3 antenna is a 2 minute operation at setup, and doesn't need to be changed after initial setup, according to SpaceX. Simpler really is better here.

 

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How well does that work installing on a tower or three story roof?

Well, if you're installing the antenna, you're already up there on the roof or tower, in nearly all cases (the only exception I can imagine is you're mounting it on a tip-up style radio mast). Aligning it is as simple as pointing the antenna North, waiting for it to connect, then looking at the app to determine if you need to rotate it on the mount, before tightening the mount down. The adjustment is only on the vertical rotational axis - the gen 3 "dishes" are designed to flat relative to the horizon. So, it's pretty simple. It's probably the least complicated or daring part of doing a mount at height.

(They also work pretty darned well when misaligned, for what it's worth. I checked mine at 15 degrees out, and saw no real degradation).

 

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I think that could have been explained clearer. From what I can see, the antenna isn’t flat relative to the horizon but rather tilted at a 20 degree angle and you aim the title according to the app by rotating, which makes much more sense.

Yes. The actual antenna flat plate surface is at angle of about 20 degrees from the horizontal plane, but that angle is fixed. If you're setting it on a flat surface, the mounting points are flat to the horizon, and if you're using a standard pole mount bracket, the bracket enforces the tilt relative to the horizon. The only adjustment required or expected is a rotation around the vertical axis.

 

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My use case. National ISP close to me just can't be bothered to hook me up, not at any price.

I'd bet just that alone is probably a few million customers in the US alone.

Starlink is a great solution for those few million customers too. It is utterly absurd, however, that we're in this situation. We have near universal electrical service to residences, and used to have nearly universal wired phone service. South Korea pretty much requires that every residential unit have fiber to the doorstep. We could do the same, if we weren't married to the idea that having multiple, overlapping but incomplete information service grids that all compete for the "easy" connections and leave the rest hanging is the best way to manage this national asset (or, at least to generate profits for the ISPs).

Right now I use Starlink. But the Rural Electric Cooperative which provides power out here in the boonies is upgrading their physical plant to include fiber to all its customers, running alongside the power lines. So Starlink is a temporary solution for me.