Starlink experience to consider

Just FYI, Starlink says you can no longer put mobile RV systems on boats, and their geotracking seems accurate enough to detect violations. So we put a marine system on our new boat despite the $250/mo charge (pausable). What I've found is that it's not workable for anything other than emails because the data limit is 50GB. Normal web browsing and an occasional movie download involves lots of back and forth between the unit and the satellite, almost doubling the download data count. Long story short, we ran out of data in 5 days, and the only options became paying $2/GB or shifting to a $1000/mo data plan. So we are using a cell phone router with an unlimited plan for everything other than email in remote locations, where there's no cell phone access. I put the system on pause and turned off the router, but the unit continued to consume small amounts of data for the rest of the month (a pause takes effect on the first day of your next billing cycle). Next time I will depower the unit completely and only power it up when needed. If you aren't thinking about going into remote locations without cell coverage, I'd forget about Starlink and put the money in a good cell phone booster and data plan.

It's really unfortunate how confusing Starlink makes this, and how many people get pushed to the Mobile Priority plan ($250/mo, 50GB) when the Mobile Regional plan ($150/mo, unlimited data) works fine for 90% of boating, and for the remaining 10% you can turn on "Priority" data for $2/GB to enable global coverage.

And you can operate either plan using either the $600 "standard" dish, or the $2500 High Performance Flat Dish.

You might try to change your plan from Mobile Priority to Mobile Regional, though I know some people who have been unable to do that. I know at least one person who is planning to cancel his service, and start new service with Mobile Regional, using his old dish. I don't know if it's been successful, but I can't imagine it's not possible.

Just to be clear, there is no way that Starlink knows what its equipment is sitting on. It does know its equipment’s location. As long as the hexagon region you are in has a spec of land then you are good to go with the Regional Mobility Plan. Fortunately, Starlink did not create the hexagon map so we won’t need to worry about them manipulating it to shut out marine traffic.

I am reasonably sure the motorized antenna has accelerometers in it and the other models possibly. If they were worried about boats using the system while in motion they would not base it on location. If they are down on boats across the board using the regional mobile plans, the precision of the land portrayal in the is comparable to the charts we use to make the determination if a system is on land or water. TT’s analysis seems to fit the way Starlink has been operating the system for more than a year. Changing it to force marine systems into higher priced plans won’t make them any more money and probably less. Right now he needs cash flow to keep the Falcon 9s flying with Starlink’s on board and not unhappy consumers. His goal is to get Starlink to an IPO. Hope I’m not wrong.

I was told that mobile regional was terrestrial only, and that boats using mobile regional would soon have their services cut off. The choice was marine coastal or global. Tough to claim you are terrestrial in the middle of Puget Sound or at Dixon Entrance.

I am confused (not surprising with Starlink) and also disappointed as we planned to get it later this summer. But on their website I still see "Starlink for Boats" with $150 unlimited plan for stationary usage (good enough for me): Starlink | Boats

Am I missing something or is the post #1 issue only relevant for usage underway? (Or third option: Starlink themselves are random and confused.)

Ric said:

I was told that mobile regional was terrestrial only, and that boats using mobile regional would soon have their services cut off. The choice was marine coastal or global. Tough to claim you are terrestrial in the middle of Puget Sound or at Dixon Entrance.

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Where did you read that Mobile Regional is terrestrial only and that services will be cut off? I hope it's not true. Mobile Regional definitely does not cover not off-shore, but it's unclear where the boundaries are. For a while there was an excellent map that showed colored hexagonal patched if you zoomed in, and the plan stated very clearly that blue patches were cover in the Regional Plan, and that black patches required "priority" service through one of several means. But the patches have disappeared from the map, so unclear where the lines are exactly. But for example I have run from Puget Sound to the north end of SW AK and never lost coverage.

I haven't seen plans called "marine coastal" or "marine global". Only Mobile Regional and Mobile Global.

There is Starlink Maritime at $250 for commercial usage but that is intended for a different audience (or always has been so far) : Starlink Business | Maritime

I agree the $150 consumer plan still appears to be available and relevant, from the website. They change things every month it seems :-/

@Ric where are you getting your information. Allow me to give you an update. My SL works just fine on the boat, have had it up to 12 knots for about 5 minutes without loss of service (OK, maybe not long enough). What I have noticed in the last few months is it is evolving. Instead of just pointing north, it has pointed east and south. All this while no loss of signal. AND, I have been at 8 knots and it went flat, no loss of signal and did not return to a angled position until I docked.

So I ask again, where are you getting your information. And where are you, as that may make some difference too.

I have been talking to Starlink Support, who told me what to order and what my options were. There was no mention of a regional plan for boats. I was told that the regional plan was for RVs not vessels, and that boats using RV mobile gear would be shut down. I have just started a Support thread asking about changing plans; will report on any response.

Ric said:

I have been talking to Starlink Support, who told me what to order and what my options were. There was no mention of a regional plan for boats. I was told that the regional plan was for RVs not vessels, and that boats using RV mobile gear would be shut down. I have just started a Support thread asking about changing plans; will report on any response.

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and where are you in this world? So SL staff tell you what we are doing cannot be done and you believe it. Again, where are you? That may make a difference. The same SL staff told me if a hexagon I am inside of touches land, then I am on land. But that was before the push to sell the more expensive model.

Seattle

The RV mobile will work for you.
Starlink satellite tracker zoom in on seattle, most of the hex is land.

Ric said:

I have been talking to Starlink Support, who told me what to order and what my options were. There was no mention of a regional plan for boats. I was told that the regional plan was for RVs not vessels, and that boats using RV mobile gear would be shut down. I have just started a Support thread asking about changing plans; will report on any response.

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Sometimes it's better not to poke the bear. Follow the advice here and get the RV or mobile whatever they are calling it this month. It works.

Portage_Bay said:

Sometimes it's better not to poke the bear. Follow the advice here and get the RV or mobile whatever they are calling it this month. It works.

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... for now...

Hopefully the service rep OP spoke with is misinformed. Would really suck if they forced boaters off the RV plan. I don't want to have to go back to cellular!

Ric said:

I was told that mobile regional was terrestrial only, and that boats using mobile regional would soon have their services cut off. The choice was marine coastal or global. Tough to claim you are terrestrial in the middle of Puget Sound or at Dixon Entrance.

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You were told correctly but you interpreted the information incorrectly. A boat headed out to sea with a regional mobility plan will loose its service some where around 12 miles out to sea. Boats operating in hexagon regions that contain land are considered terrestrial RV’s and the mobility plan will continue to work just fine. Customer service is just reading from a play book. When you say boat they go to the marine page and give you the marine response, If you had said RV they would have gone to the RV page and said yes it will work in any hexagon that has a spec of land in it.

Don’t tell them you are putting it on a boat, it just confuses them.

The actual words used by starlink are “not permitted for use on the ocean”. They define ocean as any hexagon that contains no spec of land. This means you can find random hexagons in the Great Lakes or randomly in the Straight of Georgia. I haven’t seen starlink mention that you can’t put it on a Boat.

I’ve been using regional roam between Fiji and Marshall Islands with round dish. I activate priority when away from land. Works perfectly.

Elon has a way of continuously ratcheting down the value per dollar across all his business ventures. Their data collection and management is done in real time and when they identify a revenue stream that can be ramped up they will do it. I drive a Tesla and see this happening with the cars too. Elon likes monthly subscriptions for everything, as it’s predictable revenue.
I can easily imagine they will fine tune the starlink availability for boaters and require a different plan. They know exactly where you are. I can find my car with the app and it’s dang accurate.

Intrepid said:

I’ve been using regional roam between Fiji and Marshall Islands with round dish. I activate priority when away from land. Works perfectly.

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My experience as well in blue water. Lost the signal 12 miles or so offshore, even though on mobile priority data, but, according to SL, that was a glitch that corrected after powering down and restarting. After that, perfect service for 6,000 miles, paying the upcharge for excess data.

tiltrider1 said:

Just to be clear, there is no way that Starlink knows what its equipment is sitting on. It does know its equipment’s location. As long as the hexagon region you are in has a spec of land then you are good to go with the Regional Mobility Plan. Fortunately, Starlink did not create the hexagon map so we won’t need to worry about them manipulating it to shut out marine traffic.

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Starlink could easily know that, right? If so, how can you be confident that they do not.

MYTraveler said:

Starlink could easily know that, right? If so, how can you be confident that they do not.

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But why would they? I mean suppose they know, well they do know that I have it on my boat, because I discussed it with them. Why would they turn off service that I am willing to pay for when I will just leave it turned off and they get nothing.
Those of us within spotty cell service area already have cell phones and would revert back to spotty cell service if that happened.
If you are offshore where cell does not work then maybe you are the candidate they may target with the OFF switch and force onto the marine plan.
There is a difference in a recreational boat and one that is commercial or always in motion on the water. I wish that RV plan would also say RV/RB.

Last summer a day after being 15 miles off the Washington coast I got an email that I needed to upgrade or loose service in the ocean. I did nothing, keeping roaming plan. We had no issues all the way up to Glacier Bay and back until transiting the Washington coast (south bound). The app had a message that we were in an unexpected location. Once we pulled in to Westport we reconnected.

We were well within the hexagon that covers the Washington coast when they disconnected our service, if the map they show is a true representation.

Starlink has responded that I could cancel my Priority plan and go to the $150 plan, but that it would involve various downgrades in service. Then when I went to look at the plan options to see what the downgrades were, I saw that the Priority plan includes unlimited near-land data, same as the $150 plan. So now I have asked them how come I got charged for 50GB + 8GB overage for data use while tied to a dock 50' from shore in downtown Seattle. No answer as yet.

tiltrider1 said:

The actual words used by starlink are “not permitted for use on the ocean”. They define ocean as any hexagon that contains no spec of land. This means you can find random hexagons in the Great Lakes or randomly in the Straight of Georgia. I haven’t seen starlink mention that you can’t put it on a Boat.

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That appears correct and in fact they specifically sell the same equipment package + service plan as RVs except explicitly intended for boats: Starlink | Boats

As for why the OP got a different answer from them ...

What some people are experiencing here is the inflated price when you mention boat. As many have found you can get the same part cheaper when available for a land based item. Just a different price list for you rich boaters.

SteveK said:

But why would they? I mean suppose they know, well they do know that I have it on my boat, because I discussed it with them. Why would they turn off service that I am willing to pay for when I will just leave it turned off and they get nothing.
Those of us within spotty cell service area already have cell phones and would revert back to spotty cell service if that happened.
If you are offshore where cell does not work then maybe you are the candidate they may target with the OFF switch and force onto the marine plan.
There is a difference in a recreational boat and one that is commercial or always in motion on the water. I wish that RV plan would also say RV/RB.

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If Elon and his organization are as calculating and greedy as some believe, they would recognize an opportunity to force boaters into a more expensive service plan. Now, you might say "why bother, why not force everyone, starting with RVers, into a more expensive plan". The reason is price discriminations and the goal of getting each consumer, or at least each consumer group, closer to the max amount they will pay. Boaters, at least those who venture more than 12 miles off shore, can likely afford to pay more (and are therefore willing to pay more) than the typical RVer. But, my question was only how anyone can be certain that Starlink doesn't know why equipment any particular consumer is using (and whether that has ventured more than 12 miles off shore).

OK, I agree, if I venture 12 miles offshore I will pay more. I guess that is why I can choose priority at extra cost and ensure service. I have that on/off switch in the RV plan.

Starlink doesn’t know your equipment is on a boat until you venture into an ocean hexagon. Until you do that they can’t know if it’s on a boat or an RV. They don’t seem to care as once a boat gets back to land they are happy to reset your plan to standard or regional mobility.

Granted, what is happening today is no guarantee of what it will be in the future. Starlink has been know to make changes with out warning.

Regional Mobility is unlimited data but you loose priority. I have never noticed the difference between when I have priority and when I don’t.

Another interesting fact. Starlink is at war with the FCC and cell tower providers. It is working hard at improving Latency and Jitter. It wants to compete with cable providers for the Rual Community Grant money and it wants cell phones to use their satellites instead of using cell towers. This could inadvertently lead to competition that would benefit us remote users.

twistedtree said:

Where did you read that Mobile Regional is terrestrial only and that services will be cut off? I hope it's not true. Mobile Regional definitely does not cover not off-shore, but it's unclear where the boundaries are. For a while there was an excellent map that showed colored hexagonal patched if you zoomed in, and the plan stated very clearly that blue patches were cover in the Regional Plan, and that black patches required "priority" service through one of several means. But the patches have disappeared from the map, so unclear where the lines are exactly. But for example I have run from Puget Sound to the north end of SW AK and never lost coverage.

I haven't seen plans called "marine coastal" or "marine global". Only Mobile Regional and Mobile Global.

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From the poster #13 link, the Starlink map shows no hexagons on the BC Central Coast. Did you have coverage from Cape Caution to Prince Rupert while at anchor?