After working full time for over a month we are ready for our StarLink RV review. This is satellite internet, and we’ve gathered a TON of data for this review!
How we discovered StarLink RV
When StarLink launched the RV version of their popular internet service we were on the road in Durango Colorado.
Knowing that we needed to test the service ASAP, we called up the local UPS and setup the StarLink RV to ship!
Where we’ve tested
At this point we’ve tested our StarLink in all kinds of places. Down canyon roads, in the woods, in the desert, way down dusty dirt roads where there is no cell phone service for miles and miles!
Speeds
What we’ve found is that the StarLink produces an average download speed around 50-100 mbps, and an upload speed of around 3-20 mbps. With the upload speeds usually in the less than 5 mbps range. Hopefully this will improve over time.
For me, I upload a lot of videos, and the upload speed does leave room for improvement. But I am able to plan video uploads and get them done on even the slowest speeds we’ve seen.
I’m very hopeful that the upload speeds will continue to be improved over time.
Times of HIGH Traffic
People want to dwell on the statement from StarLink that your speeds will be lowered if you are outside of your home area during high traffic times. Well, we have found that speed can go down in the afternoon/evening in highly populated areas, but the service is still 100% usable.
Unlike the cellular companies. Where they trottle the heck out of you after a certain amount of data used.
Setup
Setting up the StarLink was about as easy as it gets! You unbox it, place the dish pointing toward open sky, plug it in, setup your network, and you are online!
There is one setup thing that you should consider, and that is where you will run your dish cord into your RV. We are able to run ours through the pop top zip windows, but that might not be as easy for you, and you might need to figure out an innovative way of getting the cord into your RV to the router.
Note: In our new van, we will have a mount on top of the Sprinter van for those times we are parked in an open space. Then we’ll also have the long cord we can route to an open space when we are parked under trees.
Reliability
You will definitely need a big open piece of sky to point the StarLink dish at. We’ve been in areas with too much tree cover and the internet wouldn’t work at all, and places where it would drop in and out.
This is not an issue unless you are stuck to a specific place without the ability to run the 75′ cord into an opening.
Storage
The dish and router are not small. You will want to make sure you have a solid place to store the hardware when you are traveling.
You should absolutely NOT be driving with the dish mounted to the top of your rig. Unless you can figure out a cool way to lay the dish down next to your roof while traveling.
Links from post:
- StarLink RV https://www.starlink.com/rv
- Checkout our Sprinter Van Tour here
Questions
We are using the StarLink RV (almost) every single day. Testing it constantly. If you have any questions that I didn’t cover in the post or video, drop a comment below and I’ll usually get to it within a few hours.
How is the service during storms (rain, cloudy days, snow, etc.)?
Hi Chris,
We haven’t been in snowy weather yet, so no data on that. But during rain, clouds, storms, etc… we’ve experienced some slow downs, but nothing too bad that keeps us from being able to work. I’m not sure that I would want to be doing an important zoom video call during a big storm, but otherwise it’s worth the price of admission for us. 100%!
I was wondering what experience you’ve had in areas that might be considered “low capacity”. We have absolutely terrible Internet service so we were thinking about trying Starlink RV but we’re in a “low capacity” area. Do you think we could still use the service?
Hi Jordan, We think we’ve used it in one or two “low capacity” areas, and the internet was still very usable for us. Although the speeds were much lower. That being said, if I were you… I would want to test the StarLink in the specific area that I was going to use it if that was my full time area. Where are you located? Maybe you can get someone with StarLink RV to gather some data for you.
Hi,
Thanks for responding! There’s not a lot of information out there for my area. I live in the southeast corner of AL, 15 minutes from the FL and GA lines. There’s only one internet provider. My aunt pays over $200/month for 1.5-3 mbps (3 on our best days). The past 3 weeks it’s been dropping constantly. They’ve sent techs out here at least 5 times. She works from home so this has been a major problem for years. Unfortunately, I don’t think I know anyone with Starlink RV to test it out here.
Hmm. Well, it does seem like the monthly price for StarLink would give you better speeds than what your aunt is getting for $200/month. But I do wish we could get someone to test it out there. We did get a 30 day money back guarantee when we ordered our StarLink. You could see if they still have that.
Dose it work good for Netflix
Thanks
Hi Edward, Yep, it works great for streaming Netflix. We also stream YouTube, the NFL games, HBO, and much more.
Have you had issues with zoom calls? That is what I primarily do for work and am curious on Starlink’s performance. I am moving to a rural area with few internet options.
Hi Haley,
I’ve been doing a weekly podcast and mastermind over Zoom since we got the StarLink in June. During the first couple months I would have small service interruptions maybe once and hour. But now that you have me thinking about it… I haven’t noticed any issues like that for a while. That could have been my location, because we are moving every week or so, or StarLink could have improved something.
I did read that there were a lot of complaints about service drops, and that StarLink said they were working on it.
Sorry that I can’t be super conclusive on this. Let me know if you have more questions.
Hi! Thanks so much for all this info!
I love camping in the forests of the PNW. I was traveling in my van for a while, but I was looking for shade, not for open sky! Have you found that it’s difficult to find an open-enough patch of sky when you’re boondocking in a forest? Btw, my work is mainly requiring video calls, so I’m gonna want enough sky to not drop my calls.
As a 2nd question, if I am camping under the trees, I might pack up the whole system and drive out to an open spot to work. I guess that’s just as simple as bringing an inverter in my car, and dragging the router and dish with me, right?
Thanks so much!
Hey Michael, Thanks for the message! We’ve actually been very impressed with how little open sky we’ve needed for the StarLink to work. Since getting it in June we’ve only had to move our van once or twice due to trees blocking our signal. That being said, we have used the 75′ cable to put the StarLink into a field when we were under a tree, and might upgrade to the 150′ cable for this reason.
We have also noticed that we were dropping Zoom calls quite a lot when we first got the StarLink, but have noticed the drops happening much less often the last few months. So maybe they’ve improved something…
Anyway, I hope this helps. If you have any follow up questions, let us know!
Rv mobile do you need to go on line every time you move? Are just plug it in?
Thanks walt
Hi Walt, We unplug our StarLink every time we move, then reposition the dish and plug it back in when we are in our new location. We don’t have experience with it, but the StarLink In Motion hardware could stay on all the time. The downside to the In Motion is that it’s mounted to your RV full time, and cannot be moved if you are parked under a tree.
Hi, I am thinking about getting starlink RV. I spend my time in Colorado mountains and planning on moving to WA state and hoping to use it around the Arlington area were we are building an ecovillage in the remote parts of the land. We already have starlink (not rv) on the more populated part of the property. I saw on the map that these are low capacity area’s. I read some above comments about this but don’t have a clear sense. I do therapy over zoom so need reliable service. What do you think about using this service in CO and WA?
Hi Sarah, We’ve used the StarLink all over Western Colorado and it’s worked great! We’ve used it much less in WA state, but I’d be surprised if it didn’t work well.
The only times that we’ve had issues with our RV StarLink is when we are in populated areas. For example, we were in Park City in an area with poor cell phone service, but a lot of home around. We think that the homes had StarLink and were getting priority during heavy traffic times.
Let me know if you have any further questions that we can help with. Cheers!
I read different things about how long it takes to start up. If you’re moving each day and stopping at night, how long does it take to have service after you turn it on?
Hey Dennis, We haven’t timed it, but I would say it’s usually 5-10 mins to get it up and running. It seems to get going faster the next time you use it if you put it into stow mode prior to taking it down.