Hands-on with the Starry Station (pictures)
The Starry Station is a $350 Wi-Fi hub that promises wireless delivery of 1-gigabit Internet.
Starry, the new company from Aereo founder Chet Kanojia, debuted the Starry Station at a press event in New York.
The Starry Station is a Wi-Fi router that costs $350. While it works with service from your cable provider, the big appeal is Starry's own wireless Internet service that the company says will deliver speeds of up to 1 gigabit.
The back of the Starry Station appears to have only two Ethernet ports. High-end routers tend to offer four to six Ethernet ports.
The Starry Station will provide a Wi-Fi connection to your smartphones, tablets, computers and other devices. It is also designed to support future devices in the connected home, such as lightbulbs and cameras.
The hub features a touchscreen that lets you monitor your Internet connection and speed.
The device also includes built-in parental controls.
Have a big home? Starry will offer a network extender called the Starry Wing. There is no word on how much the Wing will cost. It's set to be available in late spring or early summer.
To receive the wireless signal, the Starry Station is connected to an antenna located at your window.
You can think of the antenna as your modem. This is what is giving you Internet, while the Station shares it with your devices.
On one side of the glass...
On the other side of the glass...
The antenna in your window will pick up the signal from the Starry Beam. The company plans to mount these on buildings within a kilometer or two of customers.