Starlink is now Portable- What RVers have been waiting for?

[Teamubr]

Starlink internet is officially mobile... for a price.



It will be $25/month extra (on top of the $110 monthly fee)

For those in limited cell coverage areas, this may be the best option, but it isn't cheap and the service will not be on par with 4G (or anywhere near 5G). Here are the details

Key Points:

• SpaceX has now officially launched its "Portability" feature - allowing customers to temporarily move their Starlink to new locations for an extra $25/mo charge.
• Portability allows roaming anywhere Starlink has active coverage, across the same continent as your home service.
• Customers who are using the portability feature to roam should "expect lower service levels" than fixed users.
• SpaceX updated the Starlink Terms of Service to warn that in-motion usage may now be grounds for termination of your account.

My dad has Starlink at his house at the lake. It is a fixed antenna on the roof of his house and has pretty good view of the northern sky. Download speeds were in the 20-30 meg range. Good enough to view the DIS, but barely capable to stream video. Up speeds have been reported in the 5-10 meg range. Not great for posting pics to the DIS, or even your iCloud/Google account. If "portable" customers should expect lower service levels, I don't know if it is good enough to use for work.

A little too expensive for what you'll get for me to consider it.

j

 

[Part-Time Paradise]

Seems like it's really dependent on location. Some folks reporting 200+ download speed in the forums I cruise. I'm sure it's all about how many satellites you're touching.

The biggest thing I'm fascinated with is the low latency. At the house I flirt with 100ms ping over cell some days.

 

[jbrostek]

I believe it will be a great tool for full timers or those that can justify the costs or be willing to turn off internet at home when they travel and take it along. The issue I still see that 4/5G does not have to contend with is clear line of sight. Just like with sat TV you need a pretty unobstructed view of the sky to keep a solid connection. I think that possibility will vary based on location/campground. That means just like 4/5G is wont be a always on item without leveraging multiple technologies/carriers.

@Part-Time Paradise Well you will still flirt with 60-100ms ping times with LEO system as well, though the low earth orbits and lots of nearby ground stations help keep it a bit lower. It is still much better then previous versions of 300ms one way or 600ms round trip for geosynchronous systems in high earth orbit.

I won't be selling my 4g router setup anytime soon. Maybe when they drop the price to around 50-60 a month total.

 

[Teamubr]

The issue I still see that 4/5G does not have to contend with is clear line of sight. Just like with sat TV you need a pretty unobstructed view of the sky to keep a solid connection.

That would be the biggest issue for me. I setup my DirecTV dish everywhere and it is often a challenge to find a narrow window between trees. The Fort is terrible. I ran 200ft of coax in January to get a clean shot. Starlink needs a clear open horizon to horizon view for the best performance. Unless you are camping in the middle of a 10 acre field, there will be limitations.

j

 

[Bishoparc]

It takes a lot to get me excited but they just announced StatLink for RV’s yesterday so of course I had to order it. Super excited to try it out! Great thing is you can pause service if you know you don’t need it the next month. They did that so those that were still on the waitlist could order even if there wasn’t more space on their local cell. https://www.starlink.com/rv

I’ll report back once I have it.

 

[bigdisneydaddy]

Hard pass. Too much $ not enough product

 

[jbrostek]

I think it will be great for many, but not the perfect solution for all. If I where full timing I could see going that route with a low cost LTE solution as a backup for me.

 

[PaHunter]

The service would does not cover us at home and most of PA at this time so not worth it yet.