Which Starlink receiver?

[fxykty]

Originally Posted by LouK

Pardon my ignorance, but will Starlink support cell services?

Some.

T-mobile in the US is apparently offering or working on offering a satellite-based cell service to provide coverage where there aren’t cell towers.

In New Zealand One NZ (formerly Vodafone NZ) are working on providing Starlink-based cell service where there aren’t any towers, which is most of NZ away from cities and towns. The coverage map includes near coastal.

There are probably others. They may require new phones or new SIMs/plans.

[SV Siren]

There is new news in terms of rates and charges that Starlink just changed, as of the last few days.

Do some research pls, as a few friends of mine who have Starlink, are really pissed off that the data/fee structure has skyrocketed for their plan(Ocean).

Do your due diligence, as things are in flux right now.

[BG305]

Interesting how they have you download an app to your smartphone to search for satellite reception.

[Statistical]

The app doesn't search for sats. The app just knows where it is (GPS) and uses your phone camera to look for obstructions because it knows where the sats will be.

It is to avoid people doing dumb stuff like putting their dish under a tree and complaining about dropouts.

You don't need an account to try it out. It actually is pretty cool feature.

[Escape Plan]

The new selection matrix only recommends the HP dish with the mobile plan. So far we have had no issues with the RV plan, but we’ve been on the ICW so far. My friend has a trawler with the RV dish, but upgraded to the maritime plan ($250/month) and is currently well offshore (Savannah to Wilmington) and has had no issues.

[SV__Grace]

We are full time cruisers who live at anchor most of the time and signed up for the RV service when it was first introduced last year in April or so.

Rectangular "dishy," worked fine at anchor. Once turned on it oriented North then did not reorient at all afterwards with no loss of connection.

We did not use it underway even though we knew it would work as we didn't want to violate the terms of service and don't want to spend $2.500.00 for a new dish and more per month for a higher priced plan.

Starlink recently renamed this plan "Regional Roam" and upped the price to $150.00 per month.

Starlink also introduced "Maritime Mobility" for $250.00 per month and sent us an email invitation to upgrade. When I clicked on the link there was an important little check box for "Use existing Starlink dish" or some such (can't remember the exact wording) so I decided to give it a try because the TOS also said you can switch back and forth as desired.

And it worked, immediately we were upgraded to 50GB of priority service and Starlink's blessing to use our unit while underway on the water.

When the 50GB priority data are used up the unlimited deprioritized data service (same as "Regional Roam") kicks in but since we are now paying for "Maritime Mobility" I'm assuming we continue to have their blessing to use it while underway on the water (works fine at slower displacement hull speeds) as the TOS doesn't say otherwise.

So far so good!

Bottom line- as a "Regional Roam" customer we got Maritime Mobility without buying a $2.500.00 dish. Might work for new subscribers as well? Start at the lower tier then upgrade if desired (just be sure you can use your existing dish).

[Statistical]

Originally Posted by SV__Grace

We are full time cruisers who live at anchor most of the time and signed up for the RV service when it was first introduced last year in April or so.

Rectangular "dishy," worked fine at anchor. Once turned on it oriented North then did not reorient at all afterwards with no loss of connection.

We did not use it underway even though we knew it would work as we didn't want to violate the terms of service and don't want to spend $2.500.00 for a new dish and more per month for a higher priced plan.

Starlink recently renamed this plan "Regional Roam" and upped the price to $150.00 per month.

Starlink also introduced "Maritime Mobility" for $250.00 per month and sent us an email invitation to upgrade. When I clicked on the link there was an important little check box for "Use existing Starlink dish" or some such (can't remember the exact wording) so I decided to give it a try because the TOS also said you can switch back and forth as desired.

And it worked, immediately we were upgraded to 50GB of priority service and Starlink's blessing to use our unit while underway on the water.

When the 50GB priority data are used up the unlimited deprioritized data service (same as "Regional Roam") kicks in but since we are now paying for "Maritime Mobility" I'm assuming we continue to have their blessing to use it while underway on the water (works fine at slower displacement hull speeds) as the TOS doesn't say otherwise.

So far so good!

Bottom line- as a "Regional Roam" customer we got Maritime Mobility without buying a $2.500.00 dish. Might work for new subscribers as well? Start at the lower tier then upgrade if desired (just be sure you can use your existing dish).

For anyone looking to signup now SpaceX has renamed stuff (seems like they do it once a month at this point). Roam is now Mobile. Maritime is now Priority Mobile. Starlink website is still a mess right now with references to both new and old plans.

[billdomb]

Originally Posted by bstreep

Also note the changing terms of service. Elan is going to ping cruisers, I suspect.

Yep; they just contacted us complaining we were using the service in the Bahamas and between there and Florida.

Unfortunately, the company is REALLY screwed up with minimal customer service access and, apparently, they have us with two accounts that will not PERMIT the upgrading.

Finally gave up and sent Spacex a physical letter. Good luck.

[billdomb]

Originally Posted by akopac

My 2 cents from starlink using RV Roaming at
3°26′48″ N 124°26′6″ W
If you have RV and roaming do not change you plan. You are grandfathered in for now and I think it works pretty well out here.
My antenna is facing straight up. Attachment 274470

Not so sure about the grandfathering. Starlink just sent a nasty letter complaining about our offshore use to the Bahamas.

[Statistical]

Originally Posted by billdomb

Not so sure about the grandfathering. Starlink just sent a nasty letter complaining about our offshore use to the Bahamas.

Yeah there is no granfathering except the very rare Residential + Portability add on. They may have let people keep the old price but there is no RV anymore. RV became Roam and Roam just became "Mobile".

Pretty sure if those "I have the old RV" users open up the App it says Regional Mobile not RV. Likewise Maritime is gone. It is now Priority Mobile.

For all cruisers new and old there are effectively five plans

Regional Mobile - $150 (and can pay for priority data @ $2/GB as needed)
Global Mobile - $200 (and can pay for priority data @ $2/GB as needed)
Priority Mobile 50GB - $250
Priority Mobile 1TB - $1000
Priority Mobile 2TB - $5000

I wouldn't jump the gun and upgrade plans. For most people Regional Roam plus PAYG $2/GB only when in "ocean" hexes or in-motion (if SpaceX starts enforcing that) is going to work out cheaper.

[chubby]

Originally Posted by SV__Grace

We are full time cruisers who live at anchor most of the time and signed up for the RV service when it was first introduced last year in April or so.

Rectangular "dishy," worked fine at anchor. Once turned on it oriented North then did not reorient at all afterwards with no loss of connection.

We did not use it underway even though we knew it would work as we didn't want to violate the terms of service and don't want to spend $2.500.00 for a new dish and more per month for a higher priced plan.

Starlink recently renamed this plan "Regional Roam" and upped the price to $150.00 per month.

Starlink also introduced "Maritime Mobility" for $250.00 per month and sent us an email invitation to upgrade. When I clicked on the link there was an important little check box for "Use existing Starlink dish" or some such (can't remember the exact wording) so I decided to give it a try because the TOS also said you can switch back and forth as desired.

And it worked, immediately we were upgraded to 50GB of priority service and Starlink's blessing to use our unit while underway on the water.

When the 50GB priority data are used up the unlimited deprioritized data service (same as "Regional Roam") kicks in but since we are now paying for "Maritime Mobility" I'm assuming we continue to have their blessing to use it while underway on the water (works fine at slower displacement hull speeds) as the TOS doesn't say otherwise.

So far so good!

Bottom line- as a "Regional Roam" customer we got Maritime Mobility without buying a $2.500.00 dish. Might work for new subscribers as well? Start at the lower tier then upgrade if desired (just be sure you can use your existing dish).

this is one of the few "accurate" posts about maritime mobility on this foru,..since starlink began "soft" enforcing a TOS that every user agreed to..


i said it before.. the tiers are just for priority. (the HP dish *will* deliver better performance however)

[fxykty]

Originally Posted by SV__Grace

…
When the 50GB priority data are used up the unlimited deprioritized data service (same as "Regional Roam") kicks in but since we are now paying for "Maritime Mobility" I'm assuming we continue to have their blessing to use it while underway on the water (works fine at slower displacement hull speeds) as the TOS doesn't say otherwise.
...

Not quite. Only the Mobility Priority data is for ocean use. So after you use up your 50GB of MP data and if you don’t pay for more MP data per GB, then you will no longer be able to access the internet with the deprioritised data while you are on the ocean.

It’s good to hear a first hand account that the rectangular dishy is capable of using MP data. That’s great.

And we certainly haven’t had any issues using the rectangular dishy in-motion at sailboat speeds. Unless we all get a second email saying that we’re violating the TOS by using the service while in-motion, it seems that sailboat speeds are below the in-motion threshold.

[chubby]

Originally Posted by fxykty

Not quite. Only the Mobility Priority data is for ocean use. So after you use up your 50GB of MP data and if you don’t pay for more MP data per GB, then you will no longer be able to access the internet with the deprioritised data while you are on the ocean.

It’s good to hear a first hand account that the rectangular dishy is capable of using MP data. That’s great.

And we certainly haven’t had any issues using the rectangular dishy in-motion at sailboat speeds. Unless we all get a second email saying that we’re violating the TOS by using the service while in-motion, it seems that sailboat speeds are below the in-motion threshold.

are you sure about that?

[Statistical]

Originally Posted by chubby

are you sure about that?

Per SpaceX TOS he is correct.

Maritime Service Plans. Maritime Service Plans are allocated a certain amount data for “Priority Access.” Priority Access data under Maritime Service Plans are given network priority over Residential Priority Access on the Starlink network. See Starlink Specifications for details on Starlink expected performance per Service Plan.

After Priority Access data is exhausted each month based on your data limits set per Service Plan, the behavior of your Service will depend on the area in which you are operating.

For inland coverage (including lakes and rivers), Maritime Service Plans will receive Basic Access after Priority Access is exhausted, which will result in slower speeds and degradation of bandwidth intensive applications during times of network congestion.

In open waters (such as the ocean), you will be unable to connect to the internet and limited to accessing your Starlink Account on www.starlink.com, where you may purchase additional Priority Access so that you may reconnect to the internet.

The 50 GB Priority Mobile (aka Maritime) plan is a pretty terrible designed plan unless someone is using it exclusively offshore and using LTE while coastal. SpaceX really needs to give it some love. Either give the option to only use priority data where basic service it not available or double the data to 100GB or both.

Also there is no official support for in-motion with anything other than the High Performance Flat Panel antenna not matter what plan is selected. That being said at least at sailing speeds unofficially it currently works and may continue to do so but that is likely true of normal mobile plan as well.

Mobile Priority ("Maritime") service plans are designated for in-motion use with Flat High Performance Starlink.

In motion use in not permitted for all other service plans, as described in Starlink's Fair Use Policy.

Mobile Regional and Global service plan (available on "Roam") users will have the ability to opt in to Mobile Priority data as you need it on a per GB basis in order to use designated Starlink hardware in motion.

[sailcrazy]

following; been looking at the system for a while, but have not jumped as our TMobile MiFi has been doing OK---but we need to move on!