Starlink's definition of "ocean"

[Peregrine1983]

Hi all,

Jumping off a thread I started about remote boat monitoring, I'm curious which of the new Starlink plans are good for coastal cruising the US East Coast. We have a 2021 Starlink RV dishy that we activate seasonally for cruising.

When these plans say "not for ocean use" I'm wondering how they define "ocean"... is it 1 mile from shore... 20 miles from shore?

Does anyone have any insight into the cheapest plan that would work well for coastal cruising New England?

[Statistical]

Nobody can link to it directly but if you go here and search for "ocean" you can see SpaceX definitions.

https://support.starlink.com/

Land: All areas labeled as "Available", "Waitlist", or "Coming Soon" on the Starlink Availability Map are considered land regions. Regional Mobile plans can be used on land within your continent (see continent map), while Global Mobile plans can be used on land anywhere Starlink has service around the world.

Ocean: All areas colored as black on the Starlink Availability Map are considered ocean regions, including islands unless they are labeled "Available", "Waitlist", or "Coming Soon". Only Mobile Priority Data can be used on the ocean, including on these unlabeled islands. Use in local territorial waters, is contingent on government approval.

Short version is "land" is any non-black hex on the availability map which includes most but not all of the chesapeake bay. Includes all inland waterways (except parts of great lakes). Also includes essentially all anchorages, marinas, coastal waters, etc.

Note the quote in your screenshot is vague to the point of being misleading. Mobile Regional DOES work in ocean (black) hexes but you need to enable pay as you $2/GB for priority data. It would be a lot clearer if they had worded it to say "By default mobile regional does not work in ocean however you can opt into priority data as needed to enable ocean access".

If you are cruising coastally in New England almost certainly the cheapest plan is going to be Regional Mobile ($150) and opting in to the $2/GB Priority Data ONLY for the infrequent brief periods you move into a black hex. Alternatively don't opt in accept you will be temporarily without service and it will auto-resume when you get back to a non-black hex.

[Peregrine1983]

Thanks, Statistical. That's super helpful. I didn't think they'd spell it out on a map since, as you said, it seemed intentionally vague.

[Statistical]

Originally Posted by Peregrine1983

Thanks, Statistical. That's super helpful. I didn't think they'd spell it out on a map since, as you said, it seemed intentionally vague.

Despite SpaceX being terrible at communicating anything the map has proven surprisingly accurate.

I do wish they had a dedicated marine map though with slightly better color scheme because seeing the coverage lines vs land is tough in places. Also doesn't apply in your situation but Starlink doesn't work in notational waters of any country that has prohibited it (i.e. Cuba, Turkey, China, Venezuela). Would be nice to have a map with that explicitly marked not just implied.