Starlink Powered WiFi Brings Broadband to Remote Caravan Site
The UK-based communication solutions provider World Mobile appears to have successfully piloted one of the first Starlink (SpaceX) powered distributed WiFi networks in the UK, which is being used to share low latency broadband speeds of up to 400Mbps across a remote caravan site in Wales.
The Starlink network currently has around 3,270 LEO satellites in a low orbit around the Earth (altitude of c. 550 kilometres) and their initial plan is to deploy a total of 4,425 by 2024. Residential customers in the UK normally pay from £75 per month and £460 for the regular home kit (standard dish, router etc.), but they also offer premium business packages, and we suspect this is what has been used in today’s pilot.
According to the blurb, the Starlink system was deployed to provide “efficient and affordable internet connectivity” to Pencarnan Farm, a remote caravan site in Wales. In short, Starlink’s constellation of LEO satellites act as the backhaul connection for providing internet capacity to World Mobile’s AirNodes (wireless access points).
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The pilot, which was setup in just a few days, is said to have delivered stable connectivity with download speeds of “up to 400Mbps” (Starlink’s performance can vary a lot). When integrated with World Mobile’s network, the connection was transmitted to all outdoor areas of Pencarnan Farm, as well as businesses and guests through mesh Wi-Fi connectivity.
Micky Watkins, CEO of World Mobile, said:
“We are pleased to have successfully conducted our first pilot test using Starlink’s satellite constellation together with World Mobile’s infrastructure to connect Pencarnan Farm in Wales. World Mobile is a unique and dynamic network that uses a wide range of technologies and a powerful sharing economy to deliver affordable and efficient internet access where it is needed most.”
World Mobile is now considering running similar pilot tests elsewhere in the UK, although they seem to be a bit coy on whether this will become an official product. Watkins added: “We will conduct further pilot tests to see how we can potentially incorporate satellite internet constellations into our offering. We have no immediate plans to launch in the UK but given that so many people here have no connectivity or very poor Wi-Fi, we would not rule this out in the future.”
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook and Linkedin.
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How on earth is “caravan site gets satellite broadband connection” newsworthy? I look after the distributed WiFi system at a holiday site that’s been using Starlink as it’s connectivity for months (replaced an almost unusable 6mb/s VDSL), and installed one at another holiday site just last week (replacing a tree clutter impacted FWA connection). There must be dozens, if not hundreds of distributed WiFi systems already connected with it by now…
Your PR department didn’t invite the right people to the press briefing obviously 😉
A bit of work on your marketing department might help Gareth, since this is the first PR we’ve had in our inbox of a Starlink based distributed WiFi network in a rural part of the UK. Mind you, now that’s done, we’re less likely to cover it again so soon, as it’s quite niche.
Yes, I know of 4 different caravan/camping sites using it too. I also know several shops, a cafe and even a small hotel. Do they all deserve their own news story!
Potentially Jack, yes, at least if they’d got in their first with the PR and made it interesting / detailed enough to write about.
You are, after all, on an information site that is dedicated toward covering all things broadband and mobile / telecoms related, both for the industry and consumers alike. You can of course skip stories that don’t interest you.
But we do also miss a lot of stories due to daily workloads – I only have one pair of hands, so there’s no guarantee of coverage without more writers, which I can’t afford.
This is complete rubbish. I know this site and they already have gigabit fibre and wireless.
The mesh they’re talking about is a Unifi Outdoor Mesh AP, on 1 access point. Hardly a challenge is today’s climate and hardly a mesh network!
…nevermind the fact it’s an omnidirectional antenna with a piece of metal behind it (pole). Oh the reflections!
This maybe an attempt to promote their crypto currency.
Go on the openreach checker and look for SA62 6PY – postcode of the farm, you can see they do not… idiot
Just checked… FTTP WLR 1000 available with active service.
If you look a bit more, you’ll see duplicate OR records.
Also a WISP in that area delivering gigabit wireless without the 1TB CAP!
The farm does have FTTP as gf mentioned so you are the real idiot Jon!
Won’t be long until they hit the Fair Use Policy no doubt
Starlink do not have a dealer network in the UK or world.Tech suuport direct can takes days if not weeks for simple support. Heaven forbid if the single Ubiquity device has a problem and Starlink gets blamed… pfft. This customer is not being fully supported.
Looking forward to the guys connecting more and more on the ball.
Big things comming up. Gogo WM !
Not sure how this is newsworthy.i installed starlink and a ubiquity mesh network in my house about a year ago, I’d you fancy announcing that for the masses too?
Next up, caravan site in Cornwall buys new router and tries turning g it off and on again…
I do have to agree with the others. This is not a new thing here in Devon. Plenty of campsites and holiday parks have this type of thing set up.
It’s not new.