Is Starlink worth it for RVers?

[Jim]

Even for residential users it's not really a "cap"; it's just a limit on the quantity of priority data that you receive.

Yes, @docj is correct, and I guess I should been a bit more clear as to the explanation of "cap". Starlink is following the path of the other satellite Internet providers by offering "unlimited Internet", with a cap on priority data.

But in a layman's definition, once you hit the "priority cap" you sill have Internet connection, but the usability of that connection is questionable and the degree of frustration raises quickly.

 

[docj]

But in a layman's definition, once you hit the "priority cap" you sill have Internet connection, but the usability of that connection is questionable and the degree of frustration raises quickly.

After you reach the "priority cap" your data will be exactly the same as what the RV Plan subscribers have all the time. There are Starlink RV plan subscribers who say they are satisfied; others less so. So the jury is out.

 

[Jim]

After you reach the "priority cap" your data will be exactly the same as what the RV Plan subscribers have all the time.

I wasn't aware there were any plans. Is this new? Or are you referencing the type of Starlink service you want to buy? With Hughes and ViaSat, you can buy plans, and those plans offer certain amount of "priority data" before your speeds are diminished.

With Starlink business, residential and RV users all get the same data allowances. The only difference was speed, but that wasn't dictated by a plan, it was governed by the dish that you were using. The older dishes were slower, the newer ones are faster. Business services got the newer dishes by default.

The differencing attributes between the services was that RV speeds were downgraded first, residential went next, and business services remained unscathed. Thus the difference in pricing.

Since the 1tb data cap on priority data, your speeds are diminished when you hit the "cap", unless you opt to buy more "priority data". As far as I know, this is the same for all users of the Starlink program, regardless of whether you are a business user, residential user, or RV user.

As a user of satellite Internet for many years, I can attest that very few people are ever satisfied with speed and dependability of non-priority data.

 

[Scotttkd2]

Hi Jim, I haven't read the legalese lately on the Starlink site, but my understanding of how the "plans" work is residential is full speed and quality monitored for number of users and usage, and they don't allow new users in that area until capacity is increased. Portability add on to residential gives you the ability to access service outside of your home area "IF" bandwidth is available. I read that as them saying they could potentially deny you access on portability if a cell is already at max capacity. In real world use though, I don't recall ever reading anyone posting about being denied, so it can't believe it is happening much if at all. The RV plan guarantees you service anywhere they offer their service but at a de-prioritized state. That is my plan and it manifests itself during high traffic times (evenings) as slower speeds. I have never been denied service, but do suffer some in the evenings. However, I have never had an instance where I couldn't stream video with little to no pixelation or buffering. If that has changed I need to re-educate myself but frankly I haven't invested much effort in that as the service is solid for my needs and has allowed me to downsize my backup and "while mobile" cellular plans in my pepwave far more than the cost of the Starlink service, so a win for me.

 

[Jim]

Hi Jim, I haven't read the legalese lately on the Starlink site, but my understanding of how the "plans" work is residential is full speed and quality monitored for number of users and usage, and they don't allow new users in that area until capacity is increased. Portability add on to residential gives you the ability to access service outside of your home area "IF" bandwidth is available. I read that as them saying they could potentially deny you access on portability if a cell is already at max capacity. In real world use though, I don't recall ever reading anyone posting about being denied, so it can't believe it is happening much if at all. The RV plan guarantees you service anywhere they offer their service but at a de-prioritized state. That is my plan and it manifests itself during high traffic times (evenings) as slower speeds. I have never been denied service, but do suffer some in the evenings. However, I have never had an instance where I couldn't stream video with little to no pixelation or buffering. If that has changed I need to re-educate myself but frankly I haven't invested much effort in that as the service is solid for my needs and has allowed me to downsize my backup and "while mobile" cellular plans in my pepwave far more than the cost of the Starlink service, so a win for me.

Agreed. I know of no one that has been denied either. Deprioritized, yes, denied, no.

 

[docj]

I wasn't aware there were any plans. Is this new? Or are you referencing the type of Starlink service you want to buy? With Hughes and ViaSat, you can buy plans, and those plans offer certain amount of "priority data" before your speeds are diminished.

With Starlink business, residential and RV users all get the same data allowances. The only difference was speed, but that wasn't dictated by a plan, it was governed by the dish that you were using. The older dishes were slower, the newer ones are faster. Business services got the newer dishes by default.

The differencing attributes between the services was that RV speeds were downgraded first, residential went next, and business services remained unscathed. Thus the difference in pricing.

Since the 1tb data cap on priority data, your speeds are diminished when you hit the "cap", unless you opt to buy more "priority data". As far as I know, this is the same for all users of the Starlink program, regardless of whether you are a business user, residential user, or RV user.

As a user of satellite Internet for many years, I can attest that very few people are ever satisfied with speed and dependability of non-priority data.

With all due respect, your explanation is not entirely correct. Only residential Starlink customers get a priority data allowance (1 TB/mo). Since RV users don't get ANY priority data, they don't have a cap to exceed. I'm pretty sure this is also true of residential customers who take their system outside the area. Once you are outside your area, you receive only deprioritized data.

Since RV pricing is higher than residential I can't understand your comment that the prices has to do with downgrading of performance. RV accounts are automatically deprioritized regardless of usage.

I've also never seen anything that indicated that there was a performance difference between the older round dishes and the rectangular ones. Starlink changed designs presumably to lower production cost. One thing they also did was make the Ethernet port an extra-cost accessory.

 

[Jim]

With all due respect, your explanation is not entirely correct. Only residential Starlink customers get a priority data allowance (1 TB/mo).

What about business users? No data allowance for them?

 

[Jim]

It does appear that SpaceX is making the rules up as they go along. First sold as no data caps, business and residential now have a 1tb cap. And as @docj pointed out, that's not a cap on the amount of data that you can use, it's only a cap on the "priority data" that you get.

This is actually a misnomer as non-priority data is basically useless, but advertising it as "non-priority data" sounds better that saying the date rate is all but useless for anything other than checking emails.

It also appears that RV uses are not currently subject to that "data cap", probably because they were not guaranteed any "priority data" in the first place, they aren't subject to the priority data cap restrictions.

My guess is that as more and more residential users "game" the system, and put RV accounts on their homes, that Starlink will implement the data cap for RV accounts as well.

Either way, as this thread is about RV usage, I stand corrected as RV users aren't limited with the 1tb cap.

 

[Gizmo]

We have the RV service and were disappointed in the thruput. During the prime time speed test dot net was giving us around 1 to 3 in the evenings and maybe 10 to 20 during the day. In the area we are snowbirding in you can not order the residential version of Starlink says coming in 2023. I was seriously considering returning the Staklink on the 30-day trial period. After I ran a speed test I saw you can change servers so I tried several other servers and found that I'm getting between 100 and 150 during the day and 50 to 100 during prime evening hours. I check several other servers and got similar results then went back to the original server that speed picked and back to do a poor performance. Century Link server is the only server I can find that reports really low numbers for Starlink and suspects it's their network and not Starlink.

 

[Scotttkd2]

Gizmo......and now we have stumbled into the heart of the matter, internet is a two way transaction, and the other end you are talking to is just as able to affect your perceived speed as your end is. Different speed test sites and apps will give wildly different results, and yes, the nearest server that the app selects (typically nearest is used in their search algorithms) is not necessarily the fastest. Glad you were able to discover this before turning in your equipment.

 

[docj]

I usually suggest to people that the "real" speed test is whether or not they can use their internet connection for their desired purposes. Online speed tests can provide a guide, but the real "bottom line" is whether you can accomplish a task like streaming video without lots of rebuffering. If you can, then IMO your speed as measured by a speed test is rather irrelevant.

 

[Gizmo]

I usually suggest to people that the "real" speed test is whether or not they can use their internet connection for their desired purposes. Online speed tests can provide a guide, but the real "bottom line" is whether you can accomplish a task like streaming video without lots of rebuffering. If you can, then IMO your speed as measured by a speed test is rather irrelevant.

I guess you do your way and I'll do my way. Since I have 4 ways to connect to the internet I not going to try one and see if it works during the day and during prime time and if not switch to another one. I start with my T-Mobile connection and if I'm getting 300 to as high as 500 plus on the speed test I'm done if not going switch to SIM B Verizon which lately has been less than 5 on the speed test then Starlink and last AT&T phone hotspot. If all else fails I use Plex on my local network.

 

[Neal]

I usually suggest to people that the "real" speed test is whether or not they can use their internet connection for their desired purposes. Online speed tests can provide a guide, but the real "bottom line" is whether you can accomplish a task like streaming video without lots of rebuffering. If you can, then IMO your speed as measured by a speed test is rather irrelevant.

I agree, we get caught up with bars and speed tests and they have "some value" but can you do what you need to do is the most important aspect. Services such as Netflix, YouTube, etc. will automatically handle streaming and buffering based on your connectivity and adjust accordingly. I know we all want the hardwired consistency but until campgrounds can give us ethernet ports and services it won't happen. Remember, IMHO, Starlink is still a beta Internet service and expectations should be adjusted accordingly.

 

[Gizmo]

I agree, we get caught up with bars and speed tests and they have "some value" but can you do what you need to do is the most important aspect. Services such as Netflix, YouTube, etc. will automatically handle streaming and buffering based on your connectivity and adjust accordingly. I know we all want the hardwired consistency but until campgrounds can give us ethernet ports and services it won't happen. Remember, IMHO, Starlink is still a beta Internet service and expectations should be adjusted accordingly.

That just doesn't make sense to try to figure out which connections are going to work best by watching Netflix or YouTube and see if they buffer or reduce the resolution. When I pull into the new campgrounds I bring up the Peplink BR1 and check all available connections with either speed test or fast dot com. Then put the fastest one in priority one and the second fastest in priority two and so on and 99 percent of the time I'm good to go. Trying to use Netflix for the fastest connections just doesn't make much sense to me. Here at this campgorund I have Starlink - Campground 5g - Campground 2g then T-Mobile in order of speedtest/fast.com testing.

 

[Neal]

We all do - check the best connection and use that, agreed. The point is what is a good enough connection based on your strongest, can it still do what you need?

 

[DavidL]

Many people these days use much of their roof space for solar cells. If you are interested in boondocking having extra space can be very important. If you are a person who largely stays in RV parks with hookups, this is less of a benefit.

Surprised I haven't seen anyone yet put their Starlink dish on "legs" above their solar panel to get max performance out of Starlink, yet still get some sunlight to the panel below to maximize roof real estate. Curious on the negative effect on solar production being partially blocked by the dish.

 

[Kevin D Pem]

100% reduction of power.
Run this experiment:
Get reading on your controller.
Place a notebook over just one cell on your panel, and get another reading.

This brings down every panel on a single controller.

 

[Joe Hogan]

We will install the new mobile antenna on the new coach.. did not get a regular sat dish. we have Starlink at home and love it. We did find the limit is 1 T per month. Over that you get deprioritized and potential pay more. Not sure if this happens with thev2500 dollar equipment. Certainly a commercial account is not limited.

 

[docj]

Over that you get deprioritized and potential pay more. Not sure if this happens with thev2500 dollar equipment. Certainly a commercial account is not limited.

When you use the in-motion hardware, you automatically get an RV data plan which has no high priority data. All your data is deprioritized. Therefore, you don't have a data "limit" as you do with a residential plan.

 

[Buly]

It was worth it for us. Made out dish service obsolete. For the same price we get all the HD streaming (much much better than dish), Internet and wifi calling when cell is not available.
Best thing for RV customers is, we can turn off the service when back home and not pay for it untill we are back on the road. Overall it costs us $80 less a month with the SL setup.
Your situation may be different?