Starlink - Should I?
Discussion
My place falls into the current Starlink Rural Promotion @ £99 for the hardware..... so it seems like a bit of a no brainer but I'm struggling to justify it.
Current internet connection is via Three Mobile (we don't have any copper/fibre connection to the property) and whilst we're in the middle of nowhere we do have a convenient phone mast on the top of the hill which we just have LOS to. As such even with the boggo Three router and no external antennas we see a pretty consistent 45-50MBPS down/20MBPS up and don't suffer any contention issues as the mast mostly covers a section of motorway on the otherside of the hill, hence whilst heavily used the data load is pretty low. Uptime is pretty faultless bar the odd network service thing at 3AM. Kicker here is that we're on some sort of grandfathered in deal that's £20 a month unlimited. So sub £250 a year.
Starlink would apparently get us 100 - 150MBPS down, maybe even more but does appear to have some reliability issues as well as issues in heavy rain/snow. Even at £99 hardware cost it's £900 quid a year for service so a big chunk more than Three.
We never struggle for bandwidth as it is and the entire house runs of it so am I missing something critical/future proofing or is Starlink just not worth it for us?
Current internet connection is via Three Mobile (we don't have any copper/fibre connection to the property) and whilst we're in the middle of nowhere we do have a convenient phone mast on the top of the hill which we just have LOS to. As such even with the boggo Three router and no external antennas we see a pretty consistent 45-50MBPS down/20MBPS up and don't suffer any contention issues as the mast mostly covers a section of motorway on the otherside of the hill, hence whilst heavily used the data load is pretty low. Uptime is pretty faultless bar the odd network service thing at 3AM. Kicker here is that we're on some sort of grandfathered in deal that's £20 a month unlimited. So sub £250 a year.
Starlink would apparently get us 100 - 150MBPS down, maybe even more but does appear to have some reliability issues as well as issues in heavy rain/snow. Even at £99 hardware cost it's £900 quid a year for service so a big chunk more than Three.
We never struggle for bandwidth as it is and the entire house runs of it so am I missing something critical/future proofing or is Starlink just not worth it for us?
I don't think it's worth the investment for you.
I'd rather invest in a proper external antenna, pointing towards the mast, to improve your 4G bandwidth.
In the past, I was able to get 150Mbps down and 60Mbps up, when I was on 4G and this was about a kilometre away from the mast, no LOS, using a cheapy MIMO external antenna.
I'm on 5G now, newer antenna and getting 600Mbps down and 100Mbps up
I'd rather invest in a proper external antenna, pointing towards the mast, to improve your 4G bandwidth.
In the past, I was able to get 150Mbps down and 60Mbps up, when I was on 4G and this was about a kilometre away from the mast, no LOS, using a cheapy MIMO external antenna.
I'm on 5G now, newer antenna and getting 600Mbps down and 100Mbps up
I have had starlink in for a while and although the speeds are better than yours, at 100mbps+ it is never fully utilised. The latency can occasionally make remote connectivity a bit slow to start, and I have seen outages very occasionally, up to a few minutes once, but usually a few seconds. (Never seen any issues snow/weather related). So if your current setup works more reliably than that I’d stick with it, especially for the price.
Hi Matt,
I am in rural Northamptonshire not a million miles from you as the crow flies I believe.
We also use 3 with one of their bogging routers and it was generally fine , with occasional buffering when our kids were home. Wdd Ed then had the opportunity to get GIgaclear fibre in our village as it was installed due to some rural access b
ks policy. It really fly’s now and at £17 inc vat per month I can work from home uploading and downloading video for my e-commerce business and large CAD models for my engineering company.
I am in rural Northamptonshire not a million miles from you as the crow flies I believe.
We also use 3 with one of their bogging routers and it was generally fine , with occasional buffering when our kids were home. Wdd Ed then had the opportunity to get GIgaclear fibre in our village as it was installed due to some rural access b
ks policy. It really fly’s now and at £17 inc vat per month I can work from home uploading and downloading video for my e-commerce business and large CAD models for my engineering company.Luke. said:
Very interested in this as qualify for the rural discount. But what are people doing about drilling holes in walls and whatnot to install the thing?
All depends on how your house is made, what the access is like and what other options you have for power. A friend recently put most of the stuff in to his garage and we just ran some CAT 6 out to it so a much smaller hole.
somouk said:
Luke. said:
Very interested in this as qualify for the rural discount. But what are people doing about drilling holes in walls and whatnot to install the thing?
All depends on how your house is made, what the access is like and what other options you have for power. A friend recently put most of the stuff in to his garage and we just ran some CAT 6 out to it so a much smaller hole.
The headache with the starlink for running the cable from the starlink dish to the Starlink router is the size of the connectors/plugs at each end of their cable. I mounted my starlink on a gable end using a pole and ran the cable under a roof tile and into the loft void.
Edited by M1AGM on Sunday 21st May 23:48
Edited by M1AGM on Sunday 21st May 23:49
I'm similar to others on here. Our only connection is via a 4G router with '3'. Some neighbours have fibre to cabinet, but not us (Open Reach says no).
Speeds are *ok*, but with 2x adult kids there are often 4x streams going on at the same time, so can get flaky.
I've ordered the Starlink kit and will give it a bash, it's due to be dispatched on Wednesday
I'm thinking of putting it on the same pole as our directional aerial for the 4G router and take the cable the same route into the loft void with the kit installed in a bedroom wardrobe (!), but I might have to get it professionally installed as I'm not going on the roof!
Speeds are *ok*, but with 2x adult kids there are often 4x streams going on at the same time, so can get flaky.
I've ordered the Starlink kit and will give it a bash, it's due to be dispatched on Wednesday
I'm thinking of putting it on the same pole as our directional aerial for the 4G router and take the cable the same route into the loft void with the kit installed in a bedroom wardrobe (!), but I might have to get it professionally installed as I'm not going on the roof!
I bought Starlink last night.
Current speed from 4G router (one in house, one in office) comes in at 12.6 download and 2.25 upload... hoping for an improvement.
The office is about 100 metres from the house... can I put the dish in the middle and have a router in both the house and the office running off the one dish?
Current speed from 4G router (one in house, one in office) comes in at 12.6 download and 2.25 upload... hoping for an improvement.
The office is about 100 metres from the house... can I put the dish in the middle and have a router in both the house and the office running off the one dish?
AndyC_123 said:
I bought Starlink last night.
Current speed from 4G router (one in house, one in office) comes in at 12.6 download and 2.25 upload... hoping for an improvement.
The office is about 100 metres from the house... can I put the dish in the middle and have a router in both the house and the office running off the one dish?
The starlink firewall/router/switch/wireless accesspoint device does not have Ethernet by default have you ordered the adapter?Current speed from 4G router (one in house, one in office) comes in at 12.6 download and 2.25 upload... hoping for an improvement.
The office is about 100 metres from the house... can I put the dish in the middle and have a router in both the house and the office running off the one dish?
You would need a weather proof enclosure of sufficient size to house the starlink firewall/router/switch/wireless accesspoint device & another switch to feed both buildings. This enclosure will obviously need mains power.
In each building you will then need a wireless accesspoint & a switch if you plan on using any wired devices.
It might be simpler to deploy starlink to one building & then if <100m use ethernet to connect the other building or if >100m you have the option of if just over trying ethernet or deploying fibre in stead of ethernet cabling or a wireless point to point bridge.
With the price reduction, I also ordered a kit last weekend as a stopgap before FTTP becomes available.. Due to arrive any day and looking forward to getting it set up.
For those concerned about hole sizes, there is a masonry plug/infill kit also available as an accessory but there’s no getting away from the fact that the connectors are going to necessitate larger holes than might otherwise be needed.
It is well worth checking out the app before ordering and running the positioning test. I was surprised that it complained about a few trees that I thought were far enough away from my preferred spot.
For those concerned about hole sizes, there is a masonry plug/infill kit also available as an accessory but there’s no getting away from the fact that the connectors are going to necessitate larger holes than might otherwise be needed.
It is well worth checking out the app before ordering and running the positioning test. I was surprised that it complained about a few trees that I thought were far enough away from my preferred spot.
Captain_Morgan said:
AndyC_123 said:
I bought Starlink last night.
Current speed from 4G router (one in house, one in office) comes in at 12.6 download and 2.25 upload... hoping for an improvement.
The office is about 100 metres from the house... can I put the dish in the middle and have a router in both the house and the office running off the one dish?
The starlink firewall/router/switch/wireless accesspoint device does not have Ethernet by default have you ordered the adapter?Current speed from 4G router (one in house, one in office) comes in at 12.6 download and 2.25 upload... hoping for an improvement.
The office is about 100 metres from the house... can I put the dish in the middle and have a router in both the house and the office running off the one dish?
You would need a weather proof enclosure of sufficient size to house the starlink firewall/router/switch/wireless accesspoint device & another switch to feed both buildings. This enclosure will obviously need mains power.
In each building you will then need a wireless accesspoint & a switch if you plan on using any wired devices.
It might be simpler to deploy starlink to one building & then if <100m use ethernet to connect the other building or if >100m you have the option of if just over trying ethernet or deploying fibre in stead of ethernet cabling or a wireless point to point bridge.
Got it installed over the past couple of days and it’s quite impressive.
Mounted just above the apex of the roof using a J bracket on the wall and tube mount adapter. A ubiquiti J mount is a mere £6, the starlink tube mount adapter several times that. The bore of the J tube is such that the starlink post would drop straight in but wouldn’t lock without cutting a hole in the tube for the clip to latch into. If I didn’t already have the pole mount adapter / nagging children I probably would have saved the cash on the adapter and got the dremmel out.
Hardest parts were:
1) routing cable (to keep it need had to get it through a 3.5m inaccessible ceiling/roof void using a set of rods) above first floor level, not helped by the connector being both large and odd shaped.
2) fixing the cable. The cleats supplied with the pole mount adapter have crap screws. Ended up changing the screws.
3) being able to access the advanced router features to get it into bypass mode (to connect it to a larger networking system). The instructions were a bit vague and it took a while for me to twig that the ‘’device settings” the app referred to (with respect to network access) were not the settings in the app but the settings for the app in the apple/iPhone settings menu.
Speed tests are showing well north of 100, often >150, but will be interesting to see what real world performance is like.
Delivery driver who dropped mine off had a couple more in his van so there’s obviously a few being sold. Hopefully an increase in user numbers won’t affect speeds.
Mounted just above the apex of the roof using a J bracket on the wall and tube mount adapter. A ubiquiti J mount is a mere £6, the starlink tube mount adapter several times that. The bore of the J tube is such that the starlink post would drop straight in but wouldn’t lock without cutting a hole in the tube for the clip to latch into. If I didn’t already have the pole mount adapter / nagging children I probably would have saved the cash on the adapter and got the dremmel out.
Hardest parts were:
1) routing cable (to keep it need had to get it through a 3.5m inaccessible ceiling/roof void using a set of rods) above first floor level, not helped by the connector being both large and odd shaped.
2) fixing the cable. The cleats supplied with the pole mount adapter have crap screws. Ended up changing the screws.
3) being able to access the advanced router features to get it into bypass mode (to connect it to a larger networking system). The instructions were a bit vague and it took a while for me to twig that the ‘’device settings” the app referred to (with respect to network access) were not the settings in the app but the settings for the app in the apple/iPhone settings menu.
Speed tests are showing well north of 100, often >150, but will be interesting to see what real world performance is like.
Delivery driver who dropped mine off had a couple more in his van so there’s obviously a few being sold. Hopefully an increase in user numbers won’t affect speeds.
LooneyTunes said:
Delivery driver who dropped mine off had a couple more in his van so there’s obviously a few being sold.
I think that's because everyone in the UK qualifies for the £99 discounted 'rural' price?I'm half tempted, not for use at home but next year I plan to get a motorhome and go touring around Europe and Starlink would be good for that. Presuming you can buy the hardware now and postpone the activation.
mids said:
I think that's because everyone in the UK qualifies for the £99 discounted 'rural' price?
I'm half tempted, not for use at home but next year I plan to get a motorhome and go touring around Europe and Starlink would be good for that. Presuming you can buy the hardware now and postpone the activation.
It’s unclear if the £99 is valid for roaming subscriptions, the roaming subscription while allowing you to pause the service is more expensive @ £95pm vs £75 for residential subscriptions.I'm half tempted, not for use at home but next year I plan to get a motorhome and go touring around Europe and Starlink would be good for that. Presuming you can buy the hardware now and postpone the activation.
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