Starlink, is it a good option.

[AntonyA]

This June, we're planning to travel extensively around Europe for about five months. Fortunately, we're not restricted by the 90-day Schengen limit. Our main concern is reliable internet access while on the road.


We're considering two options: Starlink or a SIM card setup with a router. We've seen some attractive eSIM data deals, but we're unsure whether there are routers that support eSIMs—or if it might be better to use a spare mobile phone with a data-only SIM and hotspot it to our laptops and TV. Starlink seems reliable but expensive.


Any advice or recommendations would be greatly appreciated. We will be traveling to France, Italy, Switzerland, Croatia, Thanks in advance!

 

[BrochMike]

Those must be long movies to take 50Gb! Also, what is the screen size you are watching the movies on?
I wonder if streaming in HD would save a lot of data and still be useful. Trying to figure out the best data strategy for myself.

Also, this is from ID Mobile website:

Terms and Conditions

1. 30GB limit if your UK allowance is 30GB or more. Roaming subject to fair usage & open data policies.

How did you manage to overcome this restriction?

Currently waiving the 30Gb limit

EU Roaming Fair Usage | Help & Advice | iD Mobile Network

Read everything you need to know about our fair usage policy designed to prevent our inclusive EU roaming feature from being misused.

www.idmobile.co.uk

 

[Peregrinator]

I've also been benefiting from ID Mobile's current 'use all your data abroad' offer.

I just hope there aren't too many others doing the same volume as yourselves, or they'll have to reinstate their roaming restrictions !!

Out of interest, what device are you using for watching 4K movies? Seems like overkill in a small space.

We watch films on the 4k computer screen, 4k gives clarity and detail of the image, and more important closer viewing distances without losing image quality, as the individual pixels are less noticeable. Hardware is GL.iNet GL-X3000 (Spitz AX) 5G Cellular Gateway Router and XPOL-1 antenna on roof.

 

[Randomstop]

Speaking about streaming - why not download as many movies as you possibly could watch during your trip (in 4K, if that’s your thing) while on home connection? Without streaming I think 5Gb a day or 150Gb a month is more than enough (100Gb a month should be fine too).

 

[Randomstop]

Currently waiving the 30Gb limit

EU Roaming Fair Usage | Help & Advice | iD Mobile Network

Read everything you need to know about our fair usage policy designed to prevent our inclusive EU roaming feature from being misused.

www.idmobile.co.uk

That’s great! …but you are at their mercy, they can stop doing it at any time.

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[Randomstop]

This June, we're planning to travel extensively around Europe for about five months. Fortunately, we're not restricted by the 90-day Schengen limit. Our main concern is reliable internet access while on the road.


We're considering two options: Starlink or a SIM card setup with a router. We've seen some attractive eSIM data deals, but we're unsure whether there are routers that support eSIMs—or if it might be better to use a spare mobile phone with a data-only SIM and hotspot it to our laptops and TV. Starlink seems reliable but expensive.


Any advice or recommendations would be greatly appreciated. We will be traveling to France, Italy, Switzerland, Croatia, Thanks in advance!

Getting a physical esim card might help. Just google esim card or physical esim card.
Usually you would need an Android phone and an app to setup esim on the card and then transfer the card to your router.

 

[BrochMike]

.

That’s great! …but you are at their mercy, they can stop doing it at any time.

Agreed, at which point you can shop around.
And it's also a good reason not to abuse it and force them to re-evaluate...

 

[Randomstop]

.

Agreed, at which point you can shop around...

Agreed, but at that point there might be not much available to shop for. If ID still offers unlimited roaming while other companies are much stricter, imagine the environment when ID gets stricter…

 

[Peregrinator]

That’s great! …but you are at their mercy, they can stop doing it at any time.

That goes for any supplier.

 

[ian27]

Currently waiving the 30Gb limit

EU Roaming Fair Usage | Help & Advice | iD Mobile Network

Read everything you need to know about our fair usage policy designed to prevent our inclusive EU roaming feature from being misused.

www.idmobile.co.uk

I just read this. its only applicable if you joined before june 2023? so obviously fine if that applies to you, but no use for the rest of us ;-)

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[BrochMike]

I just read this. its only applicable if you joined before june 2023? so obviously fine if that applies to you, but no use for the rest of us ;-)

Nope.
Applies to all (for now).

 

[Peregrinator]

Agreed, but at that point there might be not much available to shop for. If ID still offers unlimited roaming while other companies are much stricter, imagine the environment when ID gets stricter…

Then you shop around, what's the issue? I always shop around to get the best deal, even if it means buying a sim aboard, my router can take upto 8 esims, so you will always be protected with the best deal.

 

[Donkster]

I have the star link mini, pay the £96 pm and pause when not needed, as I look after 49 online businesses it’s perfect for my needs, I don’t have it’s fixed just pop it out on the roof by hand , it’s reliable and I’m delighted with the speed. It’s down to personal choice staying connected to family is also important to me.

 

[Ray-Vic]

I must admit that turning on my Starlink, plopping it on the floor outside or even on the roof through a skylight if you are in an aire with limited space, waiting 3 minutes for it boot and then using unlimited internet access seems, on the face of it, significantly less faff than the plethora of SIM based contracts, allowances, eSIMs, physical SIMs to load the eSIMs on etc I'm reading about. My ability to pause it when not needed is also very easy via the app.

I think people who say they have never had signal issues during all their travels using cellular data are either the luckiest people alive and should do the lottery, or are being disingenuous and/or forgetting all the areas which still remain across the UK and Europe which are black spots, and there are plenty of them as I can testify from personal experience. For example, Norfolk is very well known for patchy service, with Norfolk County Council commissioning a survey which showed only 82% of call connections being successful. Similar figures for data when averaged across all networks (some better than others). If you happen to be on Vodafone in Norfolk you will probably be ok, but move on to another area with Vodafone now having switched off pretty much all of its 3G service and, if not covered by 5G, you could be struggling again. Many people have been complaining to Vodafone for some time about this (this affects Three as well).

I just came back from a month touring France and I had lots of places in rural areas where mine and Vic's phones, on different networks, switched to satellite emergency use only, so without Starlink we would have had no internet.

Of course there is an age-old argument about Starlink and trees, but I simply park accordingly. Even then it comes with a pretty long lead and I've yet to find a spot where I can get no view whatsoever of the sky.

As I said earlier in the thread, these topics are so subjective as everyone's essential requirements, preferences and tolerance is different, and any final choice must be based on specific needs (even when including budgets). For some, as is my case needing to run my business whilst away, having an internet connection is absolutely critical. For others who only want it for browsing or streaming etc, some level of patchy connection is perfectly acceptable, even forgettable.

 

[Peregrinator]

I must admit that turning on my Starlink, plopping it on the floor outside or even on the roof through a skylight if you are in an aire with limited space, waiting 3 minutes for it boot and then using unlimited internet access seems, on the face of it, significantly less faff than the plethora of SIM based contracts, allowances, eSIMs, physical SIMs to load the eSIMs on etc I'm reading about. My ability to pause it when not needed is also very easy via the app.

I think people who say they have never had signal issues during all their travels using cellular data are either the luckiest people alive and should do the lottery, or are being disingenuous and/or forgetting all the areas which still remain across the UK and Europe which are black spots, and there are plenty of them as I can testify from personal experience. For example, Norfolk is very well known for patchy service, with Norfolk County Council commissioning a survey which showed only 82% of call connections being successful. Similar figures for data when averaged across all networks (some better than others). If you happen to be on Vodafone in Norfolk you will probably be ok, but move on to another area with Vodafone now having switched off pretty much all of its 3G service and, if not covered by 5G, you could be struggling again. Many people have been complaining to Vodafone for some time about this (this affects Three as well).

I just came back from a month touring France and I had lots of places in rural areas where mine and Vic's phones, on different networks, switched to satellite emergency use only, so without Starlink we would have had no internet.

Of course there is an age-old argument about Starlink and trees, but I simply park accordingly. Even then it comes with a pretty long lead and I've yet to find a spot where I can get no view whatsoever of the sky.

As I said earlier in the thread, these topics are so subjective as everyone's essential requirements, preferences and tolerance is different, and any final choice must be based on specific needs (even when including budgets). For some, as is my case needing to run my business whilst away, having an internet connection is absolutely critical. For others who only want it for browsing or streaming etc, some level of patchy connection is perfectly acceptable, even forgettable.

You don't have to try to convince anyone why you are paying more for the same service, but you would be a fool if you didn't use satellite services when running a Business while on the road.

Those must be long movies to take 50Gb! Also, what is the screen size you are watching the movies on?
I wonder if streaming in HD would save a lot of data and still be useful. Trying to figure out the best data strategy for myself.

Also, this is from ID Mobile website:

Terms and Conditions

1. 30GB limit if your UK allowance is 30GB or more. Roaming subject to fair usage & open data policies.

How did you manage to overcome this restriction?

Brought from curry's, you have to watch their ad's carefully, when they advertise free European roaming, with no mention of fairplay usage. They done that on a two year contract pay monthly, so I bought three sims, but if you don't cancel after the second year, it justs rolls over and continues until cancelled. I do get a couple of phone calls & texts now and then after 65 days, I just remind them that they signed a contract with me, and if they attempt to break that contract I will take them to court, it seems to work.

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[Peregrinator]

At the Woodside Rally at the moment, done a test again on mobile and on the Router/Hub which has the antenna on the roof, not sure where the mast is, tested first the mobile own signal(first photo), then tested the modile via hub wifi(second photo), signal not bad but could be a lot better.

 

[Robbo72]

Wanted to post on this but couldn’t with my old user for some reason.

My view on this, if you want the best choose Starlink. It’s reliable and you’re connecting pretty much anywhere. Plus it’s giving you stable enough speeds to do pretty much most things online. I know so many users who swear by theirs.

From a personal perspective I’ve avoided it for the numerous reasons stated already and I’m not opening up that can of worms. Instead I’ve stuck with a Mifi unit. I did a good bit of research and ended up with the ZTE 5120. It has proved to be a great purchase. We’re new to MH’ing, thus haven’t been abroad yet. The past 2 locations we’ve visited the ZTE was connecting 5g at around 100-200 Mbs, when our phones were only getting 4g connections.

Hope it helps somebody.

 

[Robbo72]

At the Woodside Rally at the moment, done a test again on mobile and on the Router/Hub which has the antenna on the roof, not sure where the mast is, tested first the mobile own signal(first photo), then tested the modile via hub wifi(second photo), signal not bad but could be a lot better.



View attachment 1088135

View attachment 1088136

Pretty much aligns with what we see with our ZTE 5120, even without external antennas. It’s the difference between a device that’s designed to do multiple tasks and one that does a single thing.

 

[Ray-Vic]

You don't have to try to convince anyone why you are paying more for the same service,

I'm not trying to convince anyone of anything, I don't need to. To suggest it's "the same service" is the exact reason posts like mine are important.

I'm simply quoting facts so that people can read this post and make their decisions based on these facts and their needs, and not simply people posting information from where they happen to get a good GSM signal, and failing to mention the very many places they don't

 

[Randomstop]

At the Woodside Rally at the moment, done a test again on mobile and on the Router/Hub which has the antenna on the roof, not sure where the mast is, tested first the mobile own signal(first photo), then tested the modile via hub wifi(second photo), signal not bad but could be a lot better.



View attachment 1088135

View attachment 1088136

Hello! Those are great numbers!

I’m curious, are you organizing a competition to determine the fastest internet connection? Personally, I only need a stable connection with a speed of 30-100 Mbps.

Do you feel any difference between your first and second case? I bet you don’t.

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[Randomstop]

I'm not trying to convince anyone of anything, I don't need to. To suggest it's "the same service" is the exact reason posts like mine are important.

I'm simply quoting facts so that people can read this post and make their decisions based on these facts and their needs, and not simply people posting information from where they happen to get a good GSM signal, and failing to mention the very many places they don't

And Starlink service is not available (geofenced) in Turkey, as Turkey refuses to grant Starlink a license to operate. Gotcha! ;-)

P.S. While I don’t appreciate arbitrary price hikes, I must admit that if you desire a nearly 100% internet connection in every location at all times, Starlink emerges as the sole viable option (unless, of course, you choose your destinations based on the strength of the 5G/LTE signal). On my last trip 2 out of 5 places I stayed at had no service (5G/4G/3G/2G) at all. No cellular towers, but lots of mountains. I like nature.

 

[Ray-Vic]

And Starlink service is not available (geofenced) in Turkey, as Turkey refuses to grant Starlink a license to operate. Gotcha! ;-)

P.S. While I don’t appreciate arbitrary price hikes, I must admit that if you desire a nearly 100% internet connection in every location at all times, Starlink emerges as the sole viable option (unless, of course, you choose your destinations based on the strength of the 5G/LTE signal). On my last trip 2 out of 5 places I stayed at had no service (5G/4G/3G/2G) at all. No cellular towers, but lots of mountains. I like nature.

Indeed, I suspect if you're heading to Turkey then you wouldn't be thinking of using Starlink there at this point. It seems there is no statement saying they don't want it, it's just the Government hasn't granted the license "yet"

Thing is, I have a very good Mifi router installed, with a rooftop antenna. I desperately wanted that to work as it wasn't cheap at all, more than twice the cost of my Stalink for the hardware/installation, but my experience with it is far from those who say they've never had a signal issue, especially those that use their phones as hot spots. On some trips it felt like I was in the twilight zone! I'm certainly not some Starlink fanboy, all I'm doing is being honest and noting my personal experience of both options as I have both and have used both a fair bit.

As a simple test I just tried switching off my wifi (Starlink) on my phone to see what happens. I'm in the New Forest and my phone shows 3 bars and 4G. I go to open a google browser page and a speed test page and get the message "Safari can't open the page because the server stopped responding." No internet connection at all. Now on the other side of the site I know the connection works as I've used the internet in the bar there. So connections can simply be down to your location on a campsite, not even villages or towns.

I accept and have clearly acknowledged that Starlink is expensive, I'm certainly far from wealthy so cost is a consideration for me in everything, hence owning a Bailey motorhome, but that's all part of it when deciding how critical your connection is to you when touring.

 

[Robbo72]

Indeed, I suspect if you're heading to Turkey then you wouldn't be thinking of using Starlink there at this point. It seems there is no statement saying they don't want it, it's just the Government hasn't granted the license "yet"

Thing is, I have a very good Mifi router installed, with a rooftop antenna. I desperately wanted that to work as it wasn't cheap at all, more than twice the cost of my Stalink for the hardware/installation, but my experience with it is far from those who say they've never had a signal issue, especially those that use their phones as hot spots. On some trips it felt like I was in the twilight zone! I'm certainly not some Starlink fanboy, all I'm doing is being honest and noting my personal experience of both options as I have both and have used both a fair bit.

As a simple test I just tried switching off my wifi (Starlink) on my phone to see what happens. I'm in the New Forest and my phone shows 3 bars and 4G. I go to open a google browser page and a speed test page and get the message "Safari can't open the page because the server stopped responding." No internet connection at all. Now on the other side of the site I know the connection works as I've used the internet in the bar there. So connections can simply be down to your location on a campsite, not even villages or towns.
View attachment 1088654View attachment 1088653

I accept and have clearly acknowledged that Starlink is expensive, I'm certainly far from wealthy so cost is a consideration for me in everything, hence owning a Bailey motorhome, but that's all part of it when deciding how critical your connection is to you when touring.

Firstly, in complete agreement that if you want a reliable connection Starlink is the only way forward. If and when I start using our MH as my work from home location to extend our weekends away I may have to consider this. Even I may have to consider feeding the egomaniac.

The only thing I will add though is do not consider what your phone gives you signal wise as what a Mifi unit will. Our ZTE is giving 100-200Mbs in locations our phones are barely pulling in 10Mbs. It’s not reliable though because of too many other factors come into play.

 

[Ray-Vic]

Firstly, in complete agreement that if you want a reliable connection Starlink is the only way forward. If and when I start using our MH as my work from home location to extend our weekends away I may have to consider this. Even I may have to consider feeding the egomaniac.

The only thing I will add though is do not consider what your phone gives you signal wise as what a Mifi unit will. Our ZTE is giving 100-200Mbs in locations our phones are barely pulling in 10Mbs. It’s not reliable though because of too many other factors come into play.

I know, it was a simple example that internet connections using cellular data are still not reliable.

Many people on here (the forums, not just this thread) only use their phones as hot spots and report zero issues. My point was that, even with my ZTE unit with an external antenna that isn't my experience

 

[Randomstop]

I know, it was a simple example that internet connections using cellular data are still not reliable.

Many people on here (the forums, not just this thread) only use their phones as hot spots and report zero issues. My point was that, even with my ZTE unit with an external antenna that isn't my experience

I recently took a short trip around Spain. The cellular connection was strong near major cities and towns, as well as along highways and roads. However, the 4G signal was marginally useful in a village surrounded by many other villages and small towns, not far from a major highway. The 5G signal was at about -110 dBm, and the other 5g connection parameters were not better. A few nice nature spots had no mobile coverage at all because there were no towers and lots of mountains. Teltonika router with external Panorama antenna.

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[edgewood175]

Pitched up on a CL site this weekend. No phone signal, no tv signal. Out came the Starlink for the 1st time and 5mins later we were on fast wifi and able to stream movies etc without issue. Have now paused the subscription until we are next on our travels.