Recent Starlink install ?

[chopper602]

Anyone recently installed Starlink?

I live in a largish village which has a smattering of FTTC, but it seems to be very slapdash in coverage. Openreach tells me my address isn't scheduled for fibre at all. I tried a BT broadband connection but could only get 6-7Mb (so that was binned within the 14 day cool off period).

I currently use a 4G router with '3' unlimited data, (5G in the area isn't due for another couple of years) but it's less than satisfactory with four adults in the house, one of which is permanently WFH.

Before I shell out on Elon's box of bits are there any other methods of broadband connection that I might have missed and is Starlink now a good solution for someone with little to no other choice?

[Defcon5]

Could you get another 4G router and split the devices between them? Not sure how cost effective that would be from a monthly payment perspective

[geeks]

Before going down the starlink route have you exhausted the 4G options? Having recently moved from somewhere with FTTP to an area where BT will only guarantee a 1mb connection we found that EE provided a stable 200 down and 40 up over 4G when coupled with a decent router. 3 here for example maxes out at 25mb down and O2 2mb down.

[pmanson]

Borrowed one from a friend for 6 weeks whilst we waiting for OpenReach to sort our connection (4G / general mobile signal is poor when where we live).

I was very impressed, we got the occasional drop out but otherwise pretty reliable. We're not gamers though so just general streaming/video calls etc

[Captain_Morgan]

This might give you a idea of other options available to you.

https://bidb.uk/

[chopper602]

Captain_Morgan said:

This might give you a idea of other options available to you.

https://bidb.uk/

yeah, it's pretty dire

[chopper602]

geeks said:

we found that EE provided a stable 200 down and 40 up over 4G when coupled with a decent router. 3 here for example maxes out at 25mb down and O2 2mb down.

Doesn't look like that round here. By the time I add another contract onto the existing one, I'm at £65 a month, only £24 off the Starlink option . . . (if you forget about the £500 purchase price of the hardware!)

Edited by chopper602 on Tuesday 26th July 13:56

Edited by chopper602 on Tuesday 26th July 13:57

[BertB]

I recently changed from an EE 4G router to Starlink.

Reasons were that whilst the 4G was very good if a couple of devices were active it struggled. I was also on a 200GB cap which we hit a few times.

Starlink costs 90 a month which feels like a lot when compared to other options, but it really is next level.

The installation is a breeze but I had a long wait for the ethernet adapter and official wall mount, once I had those hooking up to the house mesh was very simple, but you do lose some of the application functionality.(you have to put their router into pass through mode) Starlink offer their own mesh nodes now but they lack ethernet ports so seem a bit pointless to me.

[Captain_Morgan]

chopper602 said:

yeah, it's pretty dire

TBF you’ve got potentially good 4G coverage from three networks, it’s worth trying a the other two to see if you can improve your throughput.

[Captain_Morgan]

Smarty is based on the three network.
GifGaf are based on o2.

I can’t recall who resell Vodafone & EE but there are ones like the two above who resell unlimited data only plans on 30 rolling contracts for ~£20pm.

Definitely worth some digging given the starlink costs

[geeks]

chopper602 said:

geeks said:

we found that EE provided a stable 200 down and 40 up over 4G when coupled with a decent router. 3 here for example maxes out at 25mb down and O2 2mb down.

Doesn't look like that round here. By the time I add another contract onto the existing one, I'm at £65 a month, only £24 off the Starlink option . . . (if you forget about the £500 purchase price of the hardware!)

Edited by chopper602 on Tuesday 26th July 13:56

Edited by chopper602 on Tuesday 26th July 13:57

I would suggest nipping out and grabbing a couple of PayG sims, it's what we did. EE quote 31 for here as well but realistically it's just a guess you wont know until you test it out. I just got one of their standard 4G contract sims for £35 a month unlimited. Worth a test.

I do however know a few people on starlink (plus the guys on here with it) and it reviews very well, had we not had a decent 4G solution we would have gone down that route too.

[BertB]

chopper602 said:

Doesn't look like that round here. By the time I add another contract onto the existing one, I'm at £65 a month, only £24 off the Starlink option . . . (if you forget about the £500 purchase price of the hardware!)

Have you looked for any broadband grant schemes? Where we live in Wales we're classed as a not spot and were able to get funding for the our original satellite broadband (few years ago now).

[Kuroblack350]

chopper602 said:

Anyone recently installed Starlink?

I live in a largish village which has a smattering of FTTC, but it seems to be very slapdash in coverage. Openreach tells me my address isn't scheduled for fibre at all. I tried a BT broadband connection but could only get 6-7Mb (so that was binned within the 14 day cool off period).

I currently use a 4G router with '3' unlimited data, (5G in the area isn't due for another couple of years) but it's less than satisfactory with four adults in the house, one of which is permanently WFH.

Before I shell out on Elon's box of bits are there any other methods of broadband connection that I might have missed and is Starlink now a good solution for someone with little to no other choice?

We’re in pretty much the same boat - you may have already done this, but we had a massive speed and capability improvement switching to a beefier 4G router. I posted some details on the 3 4G thread, but compared with the standard offering, we went from a limited capacity 12mb connection, to 80mb minimum, and it’s running two linked routers, Sonos and every device in the house.

[Muppet007]

Went from a external 4G aerial plus router to Starlink (still running both side by side).. upload speeds area about the same but DL speeds are much better on Starlink.

It's pretty solid, one or two drop outs a week (for about 30s) but the latency is much better than 4G and seems to handle multiple devices much better.