Giving Starlink the boot!

SargeW · 09-14-2023, 08:39 PM

I jumped on Starlink not after it came out. The promise of internet anywhere was too good to pass up. Even though it definitely was not cheap, the promise of advanced technology available anywhere seemed like a dream come true I was still RVing 9 months+ a year, and some were very remote locations. The service was fairly fast, no speed or data caps, 50-100 meg download speeds, but it could drop down quite a bit in urban areas but it was usually possible to stream video. The initial price after buying the equipment at $600 was $110 month.

That plan was a "Fixed Plan" that was assigned by your home billing address. Then they came out with "Portability" which allowed roaming with your dish for an additional $25 a month. Speeds and data were still unlimited. You could turn off portability from month to month when you returned to your home address. That's the plan I had for about a year. Then in June of 2023 the plan increased to $120 a month, plus portability if you used it. Speeds in other than your home area were a minimum of 20 GB download during peak times.

Recently when we went on a 10 day trip to Ca, we took the Starlink as we were going to stay in a few remote areas. While setting up the system and booting it up, I received a message that I was out of my home area, Portability was no longer offered, and the only choice other than go back home was "Mobile Regional". The cost was $150 a month, no speed guarantee, only what was called "best effort". During an evening of trying to stream a TV show, after continual buffering I did a speed check on the Starlink app to discover that their best effort was 1.9 meg of spotty service.

Once you changed, you could not change back to your previous fixed plan, if you wanted to have a minimum speed guarantee you would have to opt in to "Mobile Priority" for 50 GB maximum, for $250 a month. And then for heavy users, 1 Tera Byte of data is $1000 a month, and 5 Tera Byte is $5000 a month.

What once was a pretty good idea, is now kind of a joke. The only advantage to the "Mobile Regional" plan is that you can turn it off and on at will for 30 days at a time. I still have the system, but for now it's in a box, deciding if it has any value at all for us. As a side note, we are using a T-Mobile home internet whole house router. The plan is $40 a month, no data caps, no throttle, and no speed caps.

RickV · 09-15-2023, 02:10 AM

You may be able to take your T-Mobile Modem on the road with you. We have Verizon Home Cellular and brought it up to our RV property here in Western NC from Florida and it worked. Only problem was the speed was a little on the slow side, the nearest tower is only 1.5 miles away but there is a mountain in the way that effected signal. The Guy we bought the property from lives on an adjoining property and has 200MbPS Fiber Internet so we worked out a deal, $20 month. I installed a TP-Link EAP 225 range extender on a pole which is about 250' away from my RV I get around 60MBPS inside it.

SargeW · 09-15-2023, 07:32 AM

Yeah, I didn't put it in the first post since it was long already, But I have been using the T-Mobile home internet on the road and it has worked remarkably well. Much better than my previous Inseego router.

This newer router gets remarkably good signal. I opine that it is due to being a larger more sophisticated router that the internal antenna's are better.

dutchmensport · 09-15-2023, 07:35 AM

I think this is the first post I've seen on any RV forum with a dissatisfied Star Link customer! But, what you have shared does not surprise me at all. That's the way it goes. "They" sucker you in offering a low price (whatever it is) and then you learn you are really limited. In order to get the desired results you expect, you have to pay more for a beefier service plan that costs more. Then in time, those rates increase too. In the end, you are suckered into a system that still does not provide what you really want and you are obligated to multiple years of contract.

Dish TV and Direct TV did the exact same thing to us. If we do not have cell phone service for hot spot wifi, we simply turn the television off. If you are camped in a very remote location, to get away from everything and every one, why do you want to be connected? Aren't you "out there" in no-where-land to get away from all that stuff?

SargeW · 09-15-2023, 07:43 AM

Fortunately there is no contracts, it's all month to month. And I could even tolerate the price, although I am not happy with it. But the "best effort" service is a ridiculous. By modern standards, that is about "dial up" speed. For that cost, not a chance.

Badbart56 · 09-15-2023, 01:26 PM

We use it Star Link at the house and love it. Nothing else works here in southwest Georgia. And we've had it for almost 2 years and the price went from $99 to $110 but that's still cheaper than the ones we had that didn't work. I'm running 8 cameras, 2 computers, 2 smart TV's, and an alarm system. Oh, and 2 phones. It's pretty amazing actually.

LadyCPA · 09-15-2023, 04:47 PM

I am curious to know what others are using for internet/streaming. We plan to be full time in the RV next year, and we don't want to live in isolation. We would miss Mandalorian and the rest of our Star Wars friends.

RV Vacation · 09-15-2023, 05:55 PM

Whoa... a topic I can not pass by. It is said "you can not teach and old dog new tricks" but being 73 years young and together with this thread, just might change that ole adage. I am not interested with StarLink but the T-Mobile caught my ear.

I presently have the infamous "Verizon Orbic" for our router/internet. It works and gets us by, but it sure is not without it's problems away from the big cities.

Am I hearing T-mobile has the same type of system for internet and internet only?

Remember, I am an old dog, so going to a store and have to listen to sales spiels by sales people, reading from computer screens, trying to sell me stuff I do not want tends to make me snarl and growl. So I have not checked T-Mobile out.

lol. I will appreciate any information you may find helpful with acquiring a highspeed, unlimited internet system that does work in rural areas throughout the US. No phones, no lines, just a router and wifi in my RV.

Max23 · 09-15-2023, 06:09 PM

I can tell you, t mobile is a cell phone service. It'll be just like your Verizon. It'll work great in areas they have great coverage and not to great in areas their coverage is not to great. For us, Verizon works the best because they have the coverage here. T mobile isn't even available for us here, no coverage. Soooo, go with what works for the areas your in. Also, you have to watch for tiers of service. Certain cell providers say, we have the same coverage because we use the same towers. Well, this is true, they use Verizon towers or whoever towers. Those "lower service" tiers are sold to those companies to use by the tower owners and give much less speed and power to that tier. It's all a game they play. Even some of those "low cost" service providers are owned by the big guy so they can sell that lower tier service to customers themselves to make money off that poorer service tier area. Just watch your coverage.

vampress_me · 09-15-2023, 06:15 PM

On the flip side, I’m sitting here in our camper completely satisfied using StarLink to surf the internet and type this. But, there is no cell service at our campground. So, Dishy goes up on a pole on the ladder and we are good to go for any internet needs, such as work unfortunately.

For us, I love that when we’re done camping for the summer, I can pause service and not pay for it until next spring. Also, they have kept everyone with SL updated all the way through by emails when they took portability away (unless you had it turned on at the time, then you were grandfathered in to keeping it), when the pricing was going to change, and when they change the TOS.

dutchmensport · 09-16-2023, 06:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LadyCPA

I am curious to know what others are using for internet/streaming. ...

Use use Visible and have our AT&T phones as a back-up when the Verison network is sketchy.

We purchased a very cheap ZTE cell phone that is used ONLY for a hot spot. Yes, the thing vibrates all the time (ringer turned off) and the few times we've answered it's always telemarketers. So, this phone never is used for a phone. We use our AT&T phone for that.

Then we have the Visible plan ($40 a month). The "glitch" with Visible, only 1 device can be connected at a time. To get around this, we plug in a small portable router (1 device) hard wired into the phone. The router allows multiple devices to connect at the same time and sends out a wifi password protected signal. We run multiple devices at the same time this way, often 2 televisions streaming at the same time and never had a glitch.

For those areas with weak cell phone coverage, we purchased ($500) a WeBoost phone booster system. We don't use it very much, but we have a few times when the signal strength was low. With the WeBoost, we've had great success everywhere. (OF course we do have to have a phone signal. As stated above, if there is no signal, you're dead in the water).

Anyway, that's what we do. We never, ever depend on campground wifi. We depend on our own resources.

In the end, no system works good everywhere. Even StarLink has it's own problems. If you camp in the deep woods and have no clear sky, you are screwed! If you have cell phone hot spots and you camp in the middle of the desert, 50 miles from the closest cell phone tower, you're screwed. If you are in a busy metropolitan area, city campground, or some highly commercialized campgrounds, and you attempt to connect your phone, you're screwed.

In the end, there is no 100% system that works 100% of the time for anyone. Pick your poison and try it. If it doesn't work, change to something else. Nothing says you have to stay with one system, especially if you are not happy with it.

Good luck!

Raptor Dave · 09-16-2023, 10:05 AM

We are considering changing to starlink and I have made it a point to try and talk to everyone I see using it to get their opinion.
Out of roughly 20-25 people I've spoke with, not one disliked the product.

firestation12 · 09-16-2023, 03:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SargeW

I jumped on Starlink not after it came out. The promise of internet anywhere was too good to pass up. Even though it definitely was not cheap, the promise of advanced technology available anywhere seemed like a dream come true I was still RVing 9 months+ a year, and some were very remote locations. The service was fairly fast, no speed or data caps, 50-100 meg download speeds, but it could drop down quite a bit in urban areas but it was usually possible to stream video. The initial price after buying the equipment at $600 was $110 month.

That plan was a "Fixed Plan" that was assigned by your home billing address. Then they came out with "Portability" which allowed roaming with your dish for an additional $25 a month. Speeds and data were still unlimited. You could turn off portability from month to month when you returned to your home address. That's the plan I had for about a year. Then in June of 2023 the plan increased to $120 a month, plus portability if you used it. Speeds in other than your home area were a minimum of 20 GB download during peak times.

Recently when we went on a 10 day trip to Ca, we took the Starlink as we were going to stay in a few remote areas. While setting up the system and booting it up, I received a message that I was out of my home area, Portability was no longer offered, and the only choice other than go back home was "Mobile Regional". The cost was $150 a month, no speed guarantee, only what was called "best effort". During an evening of trying to stream a TV show, after continual buffering I did a speed check on the Starlink app to discover that their best effort was 1.9 meg of spotty service.

Once you changed, you could not change back to your previous fixed plan, if you wanted to have a minimum speed guarantee you would have to opt in to "Mobile Priority" for 50 GB maximum, for $250 a month. And then for heavy users, 1 Tera Byte of data is $1000 a month, and 5 Tera Byte is $5000 a month.

What once was a pretty good idea, is now kind of a joke. The only advantage to the "Mobile Regional" plan is that you can turn it off and on at will for 30 days at a time. I still have the system, but for now it's in a box, deciding if it has any value at all for us. As a side note, we are using a T-Mobile home internet whole house router. The plan is $40 a month, no data caps, no throttle, and no speed caps.

We have the mobile version of Starlink here in south Texas. With one bar of Verizon service, our ability to zoom meetings, have cell service, stream video would not be possible. Back home in Mesa, AZ, our 6 boys are using Starlink on camping trips where cell service is spotty or non existent. Next month all the boys and families will be in San Diego near the Mexico border. In past years, cell service was sporadic unless a Mexican cell provider was accessed. The family business keeps Starlink account active for a backup to local cell service. The past 18 months, we’ve stayed in northern Arizona near Show Low on a friends ranch. Were it not for Starlink, there would have zero service for cellular communication.
I didn’t’ see any information posted in the above quote dealing with obstructions to sky view. While no one option seems to make everyone happy, Starlink has a very high approval rating and future launches of satellites will only improve the service. My two cents.

SargeW · 09-20-2023, 01:59 PM

Believe me, if you are using Starlink in a remote, sketchy area it is wonderful. That is exactly what it was designed for. Bring it back to a urban area, and the Mobile Regional plan is terrible. At least if you like being on line and streaming during "peak hours". With no minimum speed floor, you can wind up with dead slow service, at least until everyone else goes to bed.

That is also why changing back to a residential plan is near impossible. You can sign up for it again, and wait to bubble to the top to get residential again. Until you leave the area with it, then it won't work again. I am not trying to talk anyone out of buying or using the service. I just want them to be aware of what the particular's are if you try to take it on trip with you. Easy portability is no longer an option. Unless you were signed on to portability and using it when the switch was made, then you were grandfathered in. Don't ever switch from it though, you will never get it back.

Raptor 429 · 09-21-2023, 07:58 AM

We are in the starlink lovers camp as well. With the recent price increase we do turn off service when we are not using it. Aside from that it's worked everywhere we really needed it to. It's not unusual for us to work remote or the kids to live game on three different tvs. Being able to do that 100 miles from the next human being is remarkable. We would not consider switching to anything else as there is nothing else that will work as well for the price in my opinion. Just my two cents.

Mitch0331 · 09-24-2023, 07:16 AM

We spend the summer in middle MN and Starlink is the only service we can consistently rely on. From time to time when the speeds begin to drop we just deal with it because we can't get any better.

apachewolf · 09-24-2023, 12:50 PM

Spring of 2022 I signed up for T-Mobile internet service. Initally it was way better than Centurylink. But in October 2022 when we returned home (Tucson, AZ) from a trip the speed had gone from about 50 MBPS to 1.5 MBPS and at times no connection. From October 2022 till March 2023 we complained and ranted with T-Mobile to no avail. I filed complaint with FTC and FCC and finally went with COX. There I got 250 MBPS down and up to 15 MBPS upload for a cost of $ 50.00 for the first 2 years. I am not saying it is the best but it beats T-Mobile "service". As for TV I use Dish, have my portable antenna and one stationary at home and NO problems. When I get to a new CG I put out the antenna turn everything on and tell the sat rec where I am and it does the rest. Only once in 8 years have I had to call Dish for help with setting it up since I had somehow lost my home station.
As have been said T-Mobile is internet service on a cell phone network. It just hasn't been developed enough yet. No way would I go back to T-Mobile even if the price ws $ 10.00/m.
Happy camping and good luck.

Kzneft · 09-26-2023, 05:52 AM

We love the Starlink for RV ! We never stay at RV parks, always boondocking, and Starlink just performs well ! Well over 150mbps+ out in the boonies. We stream movies, and everyone in camp uses the wifi for their mobile phones. I like that we can turn on/off the service at anytime. I don't like the $150/month charge though.

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