Post by: Gary Hatt - Publisher BCM

How many people have, or have considered getting Starlink?  I see more and more people using it in campgrounds and some of my friends have it.  The $600 hardware fee is a bit steep for what you get in my opinion however, when you consider the monthly fee of $150, which seems to keep ratcheting up every few months, it can cost a lot to use this system.  At $150/month, that comes out to $1,800/year to be connected.  Is it worth it?  Only you can make that determination.

If I get it, I will probably use it for at least 10 years, good Lord willing, and that comes to $18,000, and that is assuming no price hikes, which will happen, guaranteed.  My Verizon and T-Mobile hotspots work in about 95% of the places I travel, so I figure it will cost me $18,000 to get connected 5% of the time that I can’t connect any other way.

Also, because I travel and live full-time in my bus conversion, if I park someplace that I cannot get a cell phone connection, then I have a choice. I can either not check my email and the Forum for a few days until I can get to a place where I can get a connection, or I can continue driving until I can reach a location with cell phone service, maybe at the next stop.  There have been very few times that I felt I needed Starlink to be connected.

That being said, I was parked on a beach in Mexico last February where there were no cell phone towers nearby, so the connection was very spotty. Luckily my neighbor had Starlink, and he let me connect to his system and I was able to get my work done.  However, I could have easily driven about a mile into town and connected with my hotspot.

If I were stationary in a remote mountain cabin in the middle of Colorado, then no doubt, I would get Starlink in a heartbeat, but in my current situation, it is hard to justify the $18,000 price tag over 10 years to stay connected.

The other thing about Starlink, unless you mount the antenna on your roof, you must get it out of a protective case (which does not come with the unit) and set it up and run the cable and connect it each time you park.  Then when you get ready to leave, you must take it down, box it up, coil up the cable and store it in your bus. Yes, one more thing to have to make room for in your bus.  If I were to stop in a rest area for the night in the middle of nowhere for a day or two, is it worth setting it up for one night? Besides it may get run over or stolen, although most people know, it will not work for them without an official transfer of ownership. 

You could permanently mount it on your roof, but you need a clear view of the sky in the direction of the satellites, and if you like to park under trees to keep your bus cool in the summer, a roof mount system is not ideal. There is an advantage to having my unidirectional hotspots and just turning on my laptop and instantly be connected 24/7 without having to even get out of the bus.

There at least are a couple of Facebook pages dedicated to Starlink, and if you read those, you will see that there are problems now and then with Starlnk, as they seem to be quite brittle and they get blown off roofs and damaged all the time, then it takes a while to get a replacement unit and if you are continuously traveling, good luck.  But if you are considering one of these units, I encourage you to start following one of the Facebook pages on these to learn all you can before you buy one.

Here is one of the pages I follow that deals with traveling around with one of these units.  https://www.facebook.com/groups/214109926791586 

So, the question is, do you have Starlink or are you planning on ordering it soon?

Post by: bobofthenorth 

We had it in our rental house in Melaque last winter – its great but I’m too cheap to pay the $150/month.

Something you may want to look into though, I can’t remember where I read it, but the mobile systems don’t have as high a bandwidth as the home systems, and they can be selectively degraded further depending on the traffic in the area where they are situated.  For $150/month I’d want to be 100% sure I was always getting my 100+ MB download speed.

For Mexican data its simple to get a Telcel phone and use Carlos’ data.  It’s so cheap we actually use it in the U.S. and Canada as well, but the Canadian roaming is pretty sketchy. 

Post by: windtrader 

I got one last year, a couple months after the product was released. It was in use for a few months last season as there was zero reliable data service nearby. There was good service in the park but that was a half mile away. It was not a necessity but a huge luxury to have high speed 24x7 inside and around the bus. Stream just like home and Wi-Fi cell service was great.

The purchase price is a one-time sunk cost. Just another bill to pay being a bus owner. The monthly charge is not trivial, so the price depends 100% on what it is worth to you. If you were a remote worker, 40 hours a week online in your bus, most would probably see sufficient benefit for the cost. On the other end, if you camp a couple weekends a month where there is no service, then it probably is more a luxury.  But if you need to stay connected for business [or for medical reasons] then it may very well be offering sufficient value. Closing one business deal might easily pay for years of service.

As to the setup. Mounting permanently makes it harder to get clear sky.  If you park under the tree for shade, you get no service. Placing the dish outside where there is clear sky is very simple. It’s not anywhere the nuisance made out earlier.  There is one cord and the dish and stand. Unwind the cord, put the dish down, hook up inside, and you’re done.

Now, all that said; This season, I have still not hooked it up. Everywhere the bus goes, there has been good 5G cell service.  Streaming services and hotspots are all good. Service is month-to-month but there is a 30-day cycle and if you miss the window, you’re facing another month’s charge. Again, it all depends on the value it offers you.

Post by: Van 

Been a year and a half now and no complaints, works great! We have the mobile plan with Dishy mounted on a pole.  I’m getting ready to wire the coach so I can plug the cord in down in the bay. I heard you can pause service if it’s a mobile plan. It works for us as we are full-timers. 

Post by: luvrbus 

I don’t have Starlink.  I don’t work from home.  I don’t watch many movies or watch YouTube, so I don’t need it.  I have a friend with a good income plus his Social Security and asked why he didn’t have the service.  He told me it would cost him one month a year of his S/S and he had other things on which to spend the money.  I checked into Starlink per Van but could not see where it would be a cost that I could justify.  In addition, I can see where the price will keep going up.  With more subscribers the speeds are slowing down. I signed up for a new high-speed internet service from the power company.  When it reaches our area, it will only cost me $19.00 a month with unlimited service.  That includes cell phone service.  

Post by: rusty

When we went to Alaska this summer, I looked into a satellite phone because I don’t like being out of touch for a couple of reasons.  After comparing the price of rental or buying a satellite phone it worked out that Starlink was not that much more, and we were connected to the net. We bought Starlink equipment and were happy with the service.   A little pain to set up and tear down but at no time were we out of touch. Now we have to decide if we want to replace our service at home for 40 dollars a month more or put Starlink on standby for four bucks a month until we need it in the bus.

Post by: chessie4905 

The monthly service fee is not that big a deal, since millions of people blow more than that on Dish subscriptions. 500 channels and nothing to watch. If Starlink works that great, just cut back on booze and CBD.  I finally dumped our Dish, along with land line last spring. They were not missed. We do have Sirius-XM lifetime service though, until it goes bankrupt. 

Post by: lvmci 

Our house in Williams, Arizona has no reliable cell service, especially when the families come up from phoenix to get out of the heat. The bandwidth is used up by the kids on their cell phones who are bored with the surrounding forest. HughesNet was bad from the beginning, also unreliable and costly.  And even worse on cloudy and rainy days. Starlink has less problems with the rain and snow. And now the family can use it to do Zoom calls all over the world or teach classes from home when needed. 

Post by: lostagain 

We have two houses and a bus.  Starlink replaces the subscription at both houses. That comes out cheaper. And we have great service while traveling in the bus anywhere.  It only takes 10 minutes to set up. Zip-tie the antenna to the top of the ladder.  Put the router in a baggage bay with a 110V outlet. Internet in another five minutes. Win-win. 

Post by: luvrbus 

When we were traveling a lot, the Internet and TV was something we never thought about.  We enjoyed the ride and sights along with fishing reels.  Musk, the richest man in world won’t miss my $150.00 a month.      

Post by: Dave5Cs 

We don’t have Starlink. We use our T-Mobile phones or 100 GB T-Mobile hotspots and cable those to the TV for streaming.  No setup and works below trees too.

Editor’s Note:  I finally bit the bullet in October, and ordered Starlink so I can keep connected with my fans and so far, I am very impressed, most of the time at least here this week in Benson, Arizona.