is STARLINK worth it? (2 Viewers)

[1911]

Conversation for those keeping it fixed…

I’m home-based with Microsoft Teams calls/video/screen sharing a constant. A couple TVs will be streaming something throughout the day with wife/kids. No time for games, so I really don’t think that level of speed/latency is a driver. Just looking for consistent and no surprise bandwidth throttling. Relatively rural and building the home in the middle of the woods. Clear view of sky, but not horizon - just up.

I like the idea of Starlink, but I’m not impressed with their vague descriptions and tiered offerings that are seemingly in place to mitigate their lack of commitment to deliverables. Price history seems to indicate about a 20% bump in monthly expense over the past couple years, but I guess what hasn’t? Would love to hear from some actual users.

I have had mine for 1.5 years now, and am 100% satisfied/happy with it. I am self-employed, work from home and download tons of data for my work, and it has never disappointed me yet. Was also a game changer for home entertainment; we can stream anything we want to. Any buffering slowness we have ever experienced was traced back to the streaming service (Apple TV in this case). I can't compare it to any kind of wired or wifi service, because we have lived out in the country for the last 20 years and these were not options for us. We had previously used Hughesnet all those years, and that sucked donkey dicks but it was the only option until Starlink. Starlink is the same cost as Hughesnet, but allowed us to drop a $160/month Dish Network sub too, so has saved us a lot of money besides being great service. Less affected by rain/snow/weather than either Hughesnet or Dish Network. No installation cost (easy to do yourself), only the initial cost of the antenna and router.

Anyway, a very happy customer here. I have recommended it to everyone I know in a similar situation (rural application).

 

[spazzyfry123]

I have had mine for 1.5 years now, and am 100% satisfied/happy with it. I am self-employed, work from home and download tons of data for my work, and it has never disappointed me yet. Was also a game changer for home entertainment; we can stream anything we want to. Any buffering slowness we have ever experienced was traced back to the streaming service (Apple TV in this case). I can't compare it to any kind of wired or wifi service, because we have lived out in the country for the last 20 years and these were not options for us. We had previously used Hughesnet all those years, and that sucked donkey dicks but it was the only option until Starlink. Starlink is the same cost as Hughesnet, but allowed us to drop a $160/month Dish Network sub too, so has saved us a lot of money besides being great service. Less affected by rain/snow/weather than either Hughesnet or Dish Network. No installation cost (easy to do yourself), only the initial cost of the antenna and router.

Anyway, a very happy customer here. I have recommended it to everyone I know in a similar situation (rural application).

Thanks for the insight!

Which plan do you have? I’ve had my eye on the standard ($120/mo?) with the $600 satellite. I believe there is the lowest end of Priority ($140/mo), but they say you need $2500 in hardware. That comes with 40GB of their “Priority data”, but I’m reading you don’t get to choose when that’s used. Seems overly complex and opens the door to potential overages I won’t have control over. I just want to pay for internet and receive. Any idea of speed?

What about trees? I’ve cleared probably about a 130x150 space in the woods for the house we’re building. Aside from the driveway, the rest is relatively dense, mature hardwoods. Will a clear shot to the sky cover it? Or will we need to see the horizon?

Thanks!
Tyler

 

[1911]

Thanks for the insight!

Which plan do you have? I’ve had my eye on the standard ($120/mo?) with the $600 satellite. I believe there is the lowest end of Priority ($140/mo), but they say you need $2500 in hardware. That comes with 40GB of their “Priority data”, but I’m reading you don’t get to choose when that’s used. Seems overly complex and opens the door to potential overages I won’t have control over. I just want to pay for internet and receive. Any idea of speed?

What about trees? I’ve cleared probably about a 130x150 space in the woods for the house we’re building. Aside from the driveway, the rest is relatively dense, mature hardwoods. Will a clear shot to the sky cover it? Or will we need to see the horizon?

Thanks!
Tyler

We have just the basic $120/month plan. Before that was available in our area, I had the $150/month RV plan, but the equipment (and service as far as I can tell) are identical. The RV plan is an option though if they tell you the regular plan is not available.

Our speed varies; when I first got it, I tested it a lot, but since I've never not been able to do whatever I wanted at decent speed, I quit testing. So with the RV plan I was getting 30-75 Mbps download pretty regularly, sometimes well over 100. I haven't seen any difference with the standard plan; tested it just now and got 65 Mbps download and 11 Mbps upload, with 45 ms latency. It will vary, depending on how many satellites are in view at that moment, but again, I can't tell any difference or degradation in performance ever in day-to-day use.

We have tons of big trees on our place, but the space we cleared to build our house is open enough to keep the antenna happy. It was easy to mount it near the ridge line of the metal roof of the barndominium we are living in now. But we are pretty much surrounded by trees. When we finish our main house, I will transfer to the roof of that. If you download the (free) Starlink app, there is an "Obstructions" function that uses your phone camera and location to tell you if your "view" of the sky in the correct quadrant is sufficient. For what it's worth, here in north Texas the antenna points a bit to the northeast, so it would be beneficial to have fewer trees in that direction. It does not need to see the horizon. Our house is down in a valley, and the valley is surrounded by trees on every side. If you want, you can see some photos of our land and houses here:
Building a new house and shop - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/building-a-new-house-and-shop.957253/

Hope this helps -

Lee

 

[spazzyfry123]

We have just the basic $120/month plan. Before that was available in our area, I had the $150/month RV plan, but the equipment (and service as far as I can tell) are identical. The RV plan is an option though if they tell you the regular plan is not available.

Our speed varies; when I first got it, I tested it a lot, but since I've never not been able to do whatever I wanted at decent speed, I quit testing. So with the RV plan I was getting 30-75 Mbps download pretty regularly, sometimes well over 100. I haven't seen any difference with the standard plan; tested it just now and got 65 Mbps download and 11 Mbps upload, with 45 ms latency. It will vary, depending on how many satellites are in view at that moment, but again, I can't tell any difference or degradation in performance ever in day-to-day use.

We have tons of big trees on our place, but the space we cleared to build our house is open enough to keep the antenna happy. It was easy to mount it near the ridge line of the metal roof of the barndominium we are living in now. But we are pretty much surrounded by trees. When we finish our main house, I will transfer to the roof of that. If you download the (free) Starlink app, there is an "Obstructions" function that uses your phone camera and location to tell you if your "view" of the sky in the correct quadrant is sufficient. For what it's worth, here in north Texas the antenna points a bit to the northeast, so it would be beneficial to have fewer trees in that direction. It does not need to see the horizon. Our house is down in a valley, and the valley is surrounded by trees on every side. If you want, you can see some photos of our land and houses here:
Building a new house and shop - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/building-a-new-house-and-shop.957253/

Hope this helps -

Lee

Fantastic info. Thanks, Lee.

Love the digs!

 

[janyyc]

Since this is MUD and we’re mainly a Toyota forum, for most applications on a Toyota base I’d say it’s too bulky and power hungry to be useful. I know of a few people who bought them for travel - and these are internet-savvy and -requiring travellers - who stopped using it due to those very factors (despite having built rigs). For RV’s and (gasp!) Sprinters (!) it’s probably perfect if you’re living on the road.
I’m sure one day soon we’ll have a smaller device which will be perfect for “overlanding” and texting via satellite directly from your phone and without a standalone communicator should be possible even sooner.

 

[MCtree]

My two cents:
It’s not worth it. I have it and have camped with it a couple of times, but in general, leave it at home.

It works great! I have used it camping in West Texas, Utah, and Wyoming. Never had an issue.
And it’s really fast. You can stream zoom meetings or HD TV no problem.

That said, I have come to realize I don’t like being connected when camping. Perhaps I just need more self control, but it’s tough not to vacuously surf the internet when you have it along.
I camp to leave that crap behind.

So I only bring it if my wife or I have work that needs to be done in areas where we don’t have internet. Otherwise, it’s a burden on a trip.

 

[spazzyfry123]

I've been using it here at the house for the past month. I have a temporary mounting solution as this is fully intended to be a stop gap until permanent fiber is connected to the house. That temporary mount is likely the driver of 90% of my woes as it would likely have a much better view of the sky were it mounted on the roof of the house for example.

It's great how easy it is to set up. Pretty fool proof.

The speeds are inconsistent - I've understood it to be "throttling", but I'm doing one, maybe two video calls a week while the kids are streaming cartoons. The rest is me doing Teams calls, E-mail, and general internet. I'm home-based for work, so this is five or six days a week. Wife and I will watch a couple episodes of something before bed. It doesn't really seem like we are anywhere close to heavy users, but we can be 200+ mbps in the morning, and 50 mbps in the afternoon.

I've had some drop outs here and there. Worst was last week when my Teams call would drop at least three or four times each hour every day. Without making any changes, this week is significantly better, so not sure why.

I think it's a fantastic solution for someone living in a rural area with no other options or someone that has the option to travel all over maybe in a camper or something but still needs to work. My situation is a new construction in a somewhat rural area. Surrounding area has established infrastructure with ours tucked away on previously untouched land. I'd imagine the throttling would be more prounounced if others in the area were scrambling for the same satellites, but it's really just me.

Bottom line, it is THE best option when nothing else of substance is really an option. Neighbor uses one of those Mifi things from Verizon. He met the data cap within a couple weeks and is spending twice if not more than what I am with no data cap - not to mention he has to pay for the extra used. Equipment charges were almost a wash between us.

I figured maybe I'd hang on to this once we get fiber to have for trips, but like @MCtree , I really can't see why I would want to take this with me on a camping trip. Isn't it the point to disconnect?

 

[CruisinGA]

@spazzyfry123 A neighbor and I both tested starlink at our houses outside Blue Ridge GA. I couldn't get a clear view of the south and sold it to another neighbor who can, he's happy. I am sticking with "double DSL" until fiber comes to our location (supposed to be within a year).

My neighbor made a roof saddle mount with ~6' pole extension to get the starlink dish high enough to get over the trees and he's 1.5yrs in with good results. This might be worth trying.

We found that double dsl is lower latency and more consistent but starlink has higher upload speeds.

 

[spazzyfry123]

@spazzyfry123 A neighbor and I both tested starlink at our houses outside Blue Ridge GA. I couldn't get a clear view of the south and sold it to another neighbor who can, he's happy. I am sticking with "double DSL" until fiber comes to our location (supposed to be within a year).

My neighbor made a roof saddle mount with ~6' pole extension to get the starlink dish high enough to get over the trees and he's 1.5yrs in with good results. This might be worth trying.

We found that double dsl is lower latency and more consistent but starlink has higher upload speeds.

Funny. My situation is the opposite, and I hadn't researched the directional requirements. I have a great look to the south with the trees I have cleared for my driveway and such, but StarLink requires a north-facing dish - which aims at a ton of hardwoods.

I had purchased the (non-saddle) roof mount thinking that StarLink would be a semi-permanent solution for a TBD duration. The day before I had planned to climb up on the roof, we got notification that the infrastructure was being installed for my house. For now, my 80 is parked outside while I get the garage situated. It makes for a decent StarLink dish mount for the time being.

 

[CruisinGA]

whoops- you are right it is north facing.

 

[dogdaysindurham]

I have been really happy with it as my partner and I periodically have to remote in to do work even on vacation (le sigh...)

There has only been a few times where it hasn't work well due to the extensive tree coverage at our campsite. I have gotten an 20 ft extended flag pole hitch mount from Harbor Freight to try and alleviate this issue.

I do wish they offered it with a 12V DC adapter and not have to run the off the inverter. But recently I got an Ecoflow Delta 2 which has reduced the burden on my truck's batteries.

 

[Corbet]

I dumped two dedicated DSL lines for Starlink almost two years ago and never looked back. Roughly 10x the speed for less money. We work from home. I have not purchased a RV set up. If we decided we wanted to be able to work remotely from the camper I wouldn’t hesitate to go with Starlink.

 

[peesalot]

Just got the Roam, anntena has a little kick stand, super easy plug & play outa the box, speed was really fast, I got the $150 a month service. I got a 400w inverter to run it on 12v for temp use. If I was going to use it full time on the truck I would do the Unique Conversions 12v mod. They convert the system to run 12v ( Not a 48v transformer ) straight 12v. Then its similar to a fridge, you can run 24/7 given batts/solar are adequate.

 

[ravencross]

It's not worth it if you don't use it too often.

 

[peesalot]

I like being able to direct connect anywhere. The stationary antenna seems to get service really good, at house, on the go at camp, on top of vehicle, for me it has worked well. I pay more for comcast at my house which we use the Starlink now cause its so much faster, ditching comcast.

Does anyone know if you can buy an additional antenna and link it to same account for service so I dont have to move it from vehicle to house ?

 

[wahoowad]

How much a month for that Mini version if you don't have any other services?

 

[peesalot]

If you mean the 12v conversion, its not cheap. The mini hardware itself, no idea, I have seen different sized modems but all the antenna's I've seen are similar or identical andnot what i would call mini.

 

[MRB21]

Maybe it's not as relevant but found the thread and heck, why not give my two cents. my brother lives in rural Costa Rica, a place called Playa Camaronal, middle of nowhere, literally almost jungle. No internet services can help him, so he got Starlink. Works wonders.