Starlink dishes in forested rural areas lose signal every 10 min from tree obstructions

The majority of rural homes that most need satellite internet are surrounded by trees -- the very geography that makes terrestrial broadband uneconomical also blocks satellite line-of-sight. Starlink requires a clear 100-degree cone of sky, and even a few trees within the field of view cause connection drops every 5-10 minutes lasting several seconds each. The Starlink app's obstruction checker shows red dots that correspond to real outages. The real pain: a homeowner in the Pacific Northwest or Appalachian region installs Starlink on their roof, but mature 80-foot Douglas firs or oaks surrounding their property cause 30-50 brief outages per day. Each drop is only 3-10 seconds, but that is enough to kill a Zoom call, drop a VoIP conversation, or cause a file upload to fail and restart. The only solutions are cutting down trees (often $1,000-3,000 per tree, potentially dozens needed, and may violate local ordinances), installing a 40-foot Rohn tower ($2,000-5,000 installed), or running 200+ feet of cable to place the dish in a clearing far from the house. This persists because satellite internet physically requires line-of-sight, and rural homes are disproportionately located in wooded areas.