StarLink Maritime Way Over Price

[sailingunity]

This is obviously strictly for the commercial market at this point - there are a lot of vessels that would jump on it besides cruise ships, think fishing fleets, offshore barges, etc. My guess is eventually they will come out with a more affordable option for the average Joe - but we are small fish.

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by Student_Driver

I don’t understand the use case for the RV version. I must be missing some facts. Wouldn’t my cell phone wifi hot spot give me coverage virtually everywhere covered by the RV version of Starlink?

Take a look at the coverage map. If you are camping in a city, not much use. Especially out west, there are large areas that are not covered.

https://fcc.maps.arcgis.com/apps/web...bc88a0d1bdd25b

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by sailingunity

This is obviously strictly for the commercial market at this point - there are a lot of vessels that would jump on it besides cruise ships, think fishing fleets, offshore barges, etc. My guess is eventually they will come out with a more affordable option for the average Joe - but we are small fish.

I doubt there will ever be low cost offshore internet. The market is minuscule and not worth bothering about. Certainly rates that might be 10-20% above land based are pie in the sky in my opinion

[capt jgw]

Originally Posted by Student_Driver

I don’t understand the use case for the RV version. I must be missing some facts. Wouldn’t my cell phone wifi hot spot give me coverage virtually everywhere covered by the RV version of Starlink?

I'm currently at Port Charles Harbor on the Mississippi 20 miles north of St Louis. A major metro area, but not only does the marina satellite internet suck, but my ATT phones don't work at all. That's why we need Starlink.

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by capt jgw

I'm currently at Port Charles Harbor on the Mississippi 20 miles north of St Louis. A major metro area, but not only does the marina satellite internet suck, but my ATT phones don't work at all. .

Or maybe you need to change phone provider

Here in Oz my partner and I are on different networks, where one doesn't work the other usually does

Or it doesn't and life goes on.

That's why we need Starlink

You don't need it
It's a want.

The world has survived for thousands of years without internet
And you survived without it until you heard of starlink

[CaptTom]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

I doubt there will ever be low cost offshore internet. The market is minuscule and not worth bothering about. Certainly rates that might be 10-20% above land based are pie in the sky in my opinion

You're probably right. But I do hope you're wrong. If Starlink can light up the whole globe, it wouldn't cost any more to offer mid-ocean coverage than coastal coverage. In fact, since there will be fewer subscribers off shore, it would be taking advantage of unused bandwidth. In theory it should be cheaper. But of course that's the technical side. From the marketing perspective, if they can charge more they will. Until a competitor comes along.

[grayadventures]

Based on the pricing and multi-unit setup required, this is strictly a commercial play by Starlink to convert current off-shore satellite internet customers and give them much faster speeds at the same price point they are currently paying. This is the same as what they've done with on-shore pricing for their service.

The sailing community is quite large, but it goes mostly unseen as commercial vessels dominate most of the attention.

I'm hoping Starlink will provide a similar plan to the RV service they offer for non-commercial vessels, but I'm sure they will need to find a way to distinguish those from larger boats in some way.

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by grayadventures

Based on the pricing and multi-unit setup required, this is strictly a commercial play by Starlink to convert current off-shore satellite internet customers and give them much faster speeds at the same price point they are currently paying. This is the same as what they've done with on-shore pricing for their service.

The sailing community is quite large, but it goes mostly unseen as commercial vessels dominate most of the attention.

I'm hoping Starlink will provide a similar plan to the RV service they offer for non-commercial vessels, but I'm sure they will need to find a way to distinguish those from larger boats in some way.

The sailing community is large as you say but is largely based around the coasts of well developed nations. Hence 4&5G mobile networks will dominate as they are cheap , and the cruisers already have the connectivity.

Offshore cruising is a tiny niche of that market and of that niche the ones who need high speed broadband underway is even smaller.
Hence the market is tiny and not worth bothering about.( at low end pricing )

RVs will benefit from starlinks portability option as few need in motion broadband. Portability might help sailors but portability probably will be limited to bodies like the US or EU and then specific to particular countries.

In-motion I think will not be a big market for low priced offerings. It will be a cherry-picked market.

[FabioC]

Originally Posted by sailingunity

If you look at the coverage map it looks like the maritime version will not be geofenced to 12 miles offshore, whereas the land base terminals stop working after that distance.

Not sure the 12-mile thing will hold for long... Maybe now it is like that, but in reality they can control connectivity down to the "sector" (i.e., the smallest hexagon in their coverage map), and the sector has only a diameter of a couple of miles.

I suspect that soon they'll start enforcing the RV version as much as possible "on land", thus the coverage will reduce to 1 or 2 miles offshore.

That way, they'll create more separation between RV and exorbitantly-priced maritime.

I think they are slowly pricing themselves along the competition for satellite service, so Starlink may not turn out the huge game changer that was expected...

I am on the $99 waiting list for a terminal in my area, but I must confess I am having second thoughts, maybe my "old" $50 5G for when there is signal + iridiumGo for when there is no signal was not so bad after all...

We'll see where this ends up.

[mark_morwood]

Originally Posted by FabioC

but in reality they can control connectivity down to the "sector" (i.e., the smallest hexagon in their coverage map), and the sector has only a diameter of a couple of miles.

I don't know their actual architecture, but I had assumed they could control connectivity down to a couple of meters if they wished. I can't imagine there isn't a GPS unit in the antenna itself being used to report the units location (and velocity).

A minor technical thing is that for offshore connectivity where the satellite is typically not in range of a ground station, they do need to be using the newer satellites that can bounce the signal from satellite to satellite before connecting to the ground. So the "cost" on the system is somewhat higher, though as has been discussed, this is obviously value based pricing, not cost based pricing.

[CarlF]

Originally Posted by sailingunity

My guess is eventually they will come out with a more affordable option for the average Joe - but we are small fish.

The problem is that Starlink RV is so fast that most target customers for the Maritime product (super yachts, commercial boats) would be more than satisfied with 150Mbs of the RV version (or a future cheap offshore version). To get them to pay $5000/month, Starlink will have to limit the RV coverage. If you look at the RV "availability map" - that looks like their plan. The great majority of private boat owners stay within a few miles of the coast. Those going far offshore are a very, very small market.

[frantzjoe]

Regarding RV use. Being as we are in our RV now……We are boondocking in Northern California now. Boondocking being the equivalent of anchoring out. No plugging in to electrical or water. Like not being in the Marina.
However, just as on the boat, we sometimes have need to connect. I had a Zoom meeting I needed to do tonight.
So tonight we had to drive around to park at a place with good wireless phone reception. We don’t neeed WiFi, just cell service.
We were in Death Valley recently, trying unsuccessfully to find service.
Our neighbor had Starlink and was able to work.
Last night, out on BLM land we saw another rig with Starlink while we had no service.
On our boat it has prevented us from doing a lot of trips we would otherwise do.
Santa Cruz Island is our favorite destination anchorage and there is generally no service in the many anchorages.
When there were family “situations” such as elderly parents with medical conditions we could not go.
We are getting Starlink for the RV so we can freely continue our boondock lifestyle. We aren’t RV park people.
We’ll do the same on our boat when/if it becomes available for a price similar to the RV. We are not Marina people.
We have Dish on the RV. Useless compared to Starlink.

[Factor]

Originally Posted by Sailingwithgil

Has anybody check out the cost for Starlink Maritime on the web site the cost is to high for the average Joe to pay.www.starlink.com/maritime. There is no way I am going to pay 5K a month for the service and 10K for the hardware. We need to Blast Elon Musk's with a Bunch of emails saying we can not pay this kind of money for your service way to high for the average Joe to pay.
I hope In time it comes down to $135 a month that is OK for the cruising world to pay.

Yep way overprice, I would go with a competitor that offers the same service and flexibility. Oh Wait - there isn't one.

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by grayadventures

Based on the pricing and multi-unit setup required, this is strictly a commercial play by Starlink to convert current off-shore satellite internet customers and give them much faster speeds at the same price point they are currently paying. This is the same as what they've done with on-shore pricing for their service.

The sailing community is quite large, but it goes mostly unseen as commercial vessels dominate most of the attention.

I'm hoping Starlink will provide a similar plan to the RV service they offer for non-commercial vessels, but I'm sure they will need to find a way to distinguish those from larger boats in some way.

Why would starlink do that. The number of ocean going small boats is vanishingly small and few of those need high speed internet.

If you think trans ocean internet is on the horizon for < $ $$$$$$ a month , dream on there no competition , starlink can charge what it likes.

[more]

this is not for me
Croatia only for resident
4G 22,5€ month unlimited internet only
5G 28€ month unlimited and 5000 minute roaming 10 gb
tourist
10€ 10 days unlimited all