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Thinking of getting Starlink, but have some questions

Slammy

Pro Member
Hi, I'm thinking of switching to starlink because I'm a pretty heavy data user and need the data.

Is there any fair use policy via starlink if I use 1-1.5 TB of data per month? Will it get cut off if I use too much data?

What is the speed difference between priority and deprioritised traffic? On the standard residential plan (£75 per month, it seems to be 40gb of priority traffic, but unlimited depriority data?)

Any chance of sticking the satellite antenna in the loft or will it not work up there? Does it have to be on the roof or can I just stick it on the side of my house. Quite a tall roof, not willing to go ontop.

Any cheaper better satellite net plans you guys recommend?
 
You need a clear view of the sky completely unobstructed. Not even by a window. You can’t put it in the loft but it doesn’t necessarily need to be on the roof. Download the app and it will show you if your proposed location would be ok or if something would be blocking the view. You may even get away with having it down at ground level. Otherwise you can pay for a professional install to put it on your roof or pole mounted if you aren’t comfortable to do these things yourself.

Data isn’t capped. But without priority the more you use the more you’ll be deprioritised. If you’re quite heavy on the use you’ll be given a much poorer experience especially if their satellite network is already quite congested where you are.

There is no set rule though. If the network is good and has plenty of capacity then you may not even notice that you’re no longer on priority data.

The only way to find out is to try it out and see if it works well for you. And if you need to buy priority data or you can get away with the standard allowance.

As for recommending others - There isn’t another viable option. Starlink only works as well as it does because it’s a low orbit system with so many satellites now up there. Traditional satellite internet doesn’t compare to this and will give you single digit download speeds, super high latency, and often a non-UK IP address too. Back when this was the standard for satellite connectivity it was an absolute last resort option. You’d take a fixed line even if it was only ADSL, or mobile broadband even if it was only 3G. Because either of these would be significantly cheaper and better if you could get them.
 
and although you could argue that it's up to starlink to manage their network by deprioritising heavy users, arguably anyone who is rinsing the connection to that extent is ruining it for their neighbours too
 
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180 is too much.

I've spoken to some starlink users on discord who assure me they regularly use up to 3TB without having any connectivity issues or slowdowns. I can't imagine many people near me have it, so I think I'm good.

Ordered it, will have to just push it extra hard over the first 30 days to see if it's good.
 
Starlink is great. If you don't have other options, or your options are slower, or if you plan to move around and want internet pretty much wherever you go. If you can see the sky, you can get starlink. I was never a big Elon fan (I'm still not) but I have to give them credit for doing something that the other providers didn't do before them. Namely give people high speed internet at reasonable (relatively speaking) prices, with low latency. One simply cannot compare starlink services to the likes of tooway or viasat or even the new alleged high speed services that Europe has. They're not even comparable. I can start and stop my starlink at any time. Anywhere I go, I can just plop the dish on the ground, and if it can see the sky, I'm going to get internet. The days of dropped connections etc are basically gone now. I've never experienced a starlink outage. I'm not saying they don't exist, but in the UK, I've not seen them. And as for latency? as good as virgin media HFC cable internet was. Definately.

The dish sucks down the juice, this is true. You can mitigate this a little bit by getting some converters and cutting out the starlink router, but at least gen1/gen2 are still going to consume a lot of power compared to a regular broadband connection.

I pay absolutely 0 attention to people who also say "you're not the target market" . Starlink themselves literally say it's for use in cities, rural areas, on the move, on boats etc, but online you see people screeching at you that you're not a target market if you can get some other form of connection. Starlink disagrees, and so do I. I was stuck with DSL for many years, this is why I bought it. OK I combined it with DSL and 5G but still, i'm glad I got it. And now that I have the kit I know i can take it where I want and it will work, providing it can see the sky.

It's not bad kit. It's a bit expensive in the UK and the support is crap (but hey, it's better than BT or Virgin Media lol) . And best of all there's no contract. Mine is currently paused as i've got 1.6Gbps Vodafone ordered to be installed in 2 weeks so we'll see how that goes. But I have a camping trip coming up and I plan to reactivate it for that.

If you have any further questions on it, i'll be happy to answer. But it looks like your main questions are already answered. If you can't get FTTP, or very fast 5G, I'd say go for it. You can always stop the service and sell the kit if you're unhappy. The Gen2 kit with actuators is actually gone now from most retailers, so it's going for more than I paid for it on eBay right now
 
Starlink is great. If you don't have other options, or your options are slower, or if you plan to move around and want internet pretty much wherever you go. If you can see the sky, you can get starlink. I was never a big Elon fan (I'm still not) but I have to give them credit for doing something that the other providers didn't do before them. Namely give people high speed internet at reasonable (relatively speaking) prices, with low latency. One simply cannot compare starlink services to the likes of tooway or viasat or even the new alleged high speed services that Europe has. They're not even comparable. I can start and stop my starlink at any time. Anywhere I go, I can just plop the dish on the ground, and if it can see the sky, I'm going to get internet. The days of dropped connections etc are basically gone now. I've never experienced a starlink outage. I'm not saying they don't exist, but in the UK, I've not seen them. And as for latency? as good as virgin media HFC cable internet was. Definately.

The dish sucks down the juice, this is true. You can mitigate this a little bit by getting some converters and cutting out the starlink router, but at least gen1/gen2 are still going to consume a lot of power compared to a regular broadband connection.

I pay absolutely 0 attention to people who also say "you're not the target market" . Starlink themselves literally say it's for use in cities, rural areas, on the move, on boats etc, but online you see people screeching at you that you're not a target market if you can get some other form of connection. Starlink disagrees, and so do I. I was stuck with DSL for many years, this is why I bought it. OK I combined it with DSL and 5G but still, i'm glad I got it. And now that I have the kit I know i can take it where I want and it will work, providing it can see the sky.

It's not bad kit. It's a bit expensive in the UK and the support is crap (but hey, it's better than BT or Virgin Media lol) . And best of all there's no contract. Mine is currently paused as i've got 1.6Gbps Vodafone ordered to be installed in 2 weeks so we'll see how that goes. But I have a camping trip coming up and I plan to reactivate it for that.

If you have any further questions on it, i'll be happy to answer. But it looks like your main questions are already answered. If you can't get FTTP, or very fast 5G, I'd say go for it. You can always stop the service and sell the kit if you're unhappy. The Gen2 kit with actuators is actually gone now from most retailers, so it's going for more than I paid for it on eBay right now
interesting quick review,

It sounds great and not exorbitant but I think it will sell more if ppl could put it against say a window pane and be able to get connected (sort of like a angled view of the sky) for those in flats who don't have access to a garden etc.
 
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Our starlink came yesterday. Ended up just sticking it in the garden. Seems fine, ran all night without issues on the grass. Stuck it on a small pole with cement so it doesn't move too much.

Sitting anywhere from 200-350 down whenever I test. Absolutely over the moon.

Will probably slow down once I go over 40, but anything over 70 is an improvement over the 4G. Plus the ping is lower.

Well worth the high costs for me.
 
interesting quick review,

It sounds great and not exorbitant but I think it will sell more if ppl could put it against say a window pane and be able to get connected (sort of like a angled view of the sky) for those in flats who don't have access to a garden etc.
This is probably unlikely to ever happen. Satellite signals are extremely weak, and they will be attenuated by glass. Some newer glass contains gasses and metallic coatings that would probably block it completely. I have however seen someone using a starlink dish on a balcony in Sweden and that worked ok for them, but that's also going to depend on which way the balcony faces etc. Generally speaking satellites and the antennas for them will need a direct line of sight and an unobstructed view of the sky, so indoor starlink is very unlikely to be a thing, but you never know!

Starlink actually will function with some obstructions, i know this from messing about with mine, but expect to see interruptions and disconnections, slower speeds etc.

Our starlink came yesterday. Ended up just sticking it in the garden. Seems fine, ran all night without issues on the grass. Stuck it on a small pole with cement so it doesn't move too much.

Sitting anywhere from 200-350 down whenever I test. Absolutely over the moon.

Will probably slow down once I go over 40, but anything over 70 is an improvement over the 4G. Plus the ping is lower.

Well worth the high costs for me.
Glad to hear it's working well for you, those are great speeds.
 
This is probably unlikely to ever happen. Satellite signals are extremely weak, and they will be attenuated by glass. Some newer glass contains gasses and metallic coatings that would probably block it completely. I have however seen someone using a starlink dish on a balcony in Sweden and that worked ok for them, but that's also going to depend on which way the balcony faces etc. Generally speaking satellites and the antennas for them will need a direct line of sight and an unobstructed view of the sky, so indoor starlink is very unlikely to be a thing, but you never know!

Starlink actually will function with some obstructions, i know this from messing about with mine, but expect to see interruptions and disconnections, slower speeds etc.


Glad to hear it's working well for you, those are great speeds.
Yeah its been very solid over the last couple of days. Web page loading is much snappier than 4G, which is nice. I've noticed speeds fluctuate a lot minute by minute, but it works to my advantage.

Downloading a game on steam, it saw a peak download of 450 Mbps, which was nice. I should have went this direction years ago
 
Glad to see another happy Starlink customer. It really is great. Mine is now stowed away in my caravan for emergencies when the 5G goes down, but I am glad I have it.
 
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@dee.jay @dabigm so you can freeze/unfreeze the account any time you want. What is required to do that btw, getting in touch with customer service?

Also, how much are you paying per month for it when it's active?
 
You can either fully cancel if you are on a standard plan, but pause if you are roaming.

In my case I went from standard to roaming thinking I could use it between the house and caravan.

You can pause it through the app/website anytime and restart anytime. Roaming is £85 a month.
 
You can either fully cancel if you are on a standard plan, but pause if you are roaming.

In my case I went from standard to roaming thinking I could use it between the house and caravan.

You can pause it through the app/website anytime and restart anytime. Roaming is £85 a month.
so you dont pay whilst paused?
and or daily prorated etc?
 
Nope, it's paused now and costs nothing.
 
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I believe if I were to unpause it today, I would be charged pro-rata for the rest of my billing period, so from now until the 6th September. But it's very handy.
 
im currently paused yep. can unpause when i want. but i did pick the roaming (from France lol) package
 
I believe if I were to unpause it today, I would be charged pro-rata for the rest of my billing period, so from now until the 6th September. But it's very handy.
that's weird, when i paused it said service would continue to work until the next billing period started
 
Same thing isn't it? You get charged from today until your normal period, but if you pause it again you are paid up until then. It's not like a pause/unpause PAYG type deal
 
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