Starlink .... thoughts?

[SteamyTea]

I have now got 5G with Smarty (3) and have had 4G with them for a few years now.

£16/months with no restrictions and never made a voice call, ever.

I use a new 90 quid phone as a hot spot. Works very well.

Edited December 14, 2025 by SteamyTea

[gc100]

Just for balance , my house is in to middle of fields about a mile from the local village. There was no way to get a land line and tbh I didn’t want to see a line of telephone poles coming all the way down the land :-).

Anyhow I have about 1-2 bar mobile reception here. I just got a good passive aerial/dish and pointed it towards the nearest mask (looked up online). It’s just plugged into the back of the router that has the sim. I have about 40mb/s down and same up.
 2 kids gaming etc , TV and two of us working from home with no problems. Been 5 years now. 

[Onoff]

33 minutes ago, gc100 said:

I just got a good passive aerial/dish and pointed it towards the nearest mask (looked up online). It’s just plugged into the back of the router that has the sim.

 

Just been told by our leccy supplier though they can fit a smart meter it will only act as a dumb meter as the phone signal is so bad down here. Means I can't take advantage of a lower EV charging tariff. Would the kit you use help?

Edited December 22, 2025 by Onoff

[Adrian Walker]

56 minutes ago, Onoff said:

 

Just been told by our leccy supplier though they can fit a smart meter it will only act as a dumb meter as the phone signal is so bad down here. Means I can't take advantage of a lower EV charging tariff. Would the kit you use help?

Do you have any mobile phone signal at all?  If so you can ask for an T3 External Aerial to be added to a smart meter. I wouldn't take no for an answer, the national network (DCC) is required to cover 99.25% of all premises. Demand a Technical Site Survey or a physical visit. Tell them you want an engineer to test the signal at the actual meter point, not just a desk-based estimate. Additionally, when a meter is faulty or reaches the end of its life, the law states the supplier must replace it with a smart meter unless there is a valid reason not to.

 

Edited December 22, 2025 by Adrian Walker
Updated

[JohnMo]

14 hours ago, Adrian Walker said:

wouldn't take no for an answer

I had loads of trouble with signal, be a 'dog with a bone', keep calling them out to resolve the issue. It took 4 attempts before they got the correct kit in. They have to try 3x before they get permission  install some better kit.

[Adrian Walker]

2 hours ago, JohnMo said:

I had loads of trouble with signal, be a 'dog with a bone', keep calling them out to resolve the issue. It took 4 attempts before they got the correct kit in. They have to try 3x before they get permission  install some better kit.

In Scotland and in the North of England they often don't use cellular, instead, they connect via a dedicated Long-Range Radio network at 400MHz which travels futher.

[JohnMo]

4 minutes ago, Adrian Walker said:

Long-Range Radio network at 400MHz which travels futher.

Yep, I'm in Scotland and the radio link is pants near us. I am the only one in location with a smart meter, that works and it's connected via 4G. Everyone else tried once and then gave in. 4G isn't an option until they have tried 3x doing everything else.

[Alan Ambrose]

@gc100 >>> I just got a good passive aerial/dish and pointed it towards the nearest mask (looked up online). It’s just plugged into the back of the router that has the sim

 

Possible to say a bit more? This was a directional aerial? With gain? More than one (I see some router ads wasping on about multiple aerials and ‘Mimo’). 4G, I assume?

[Post and beam]

Mimo is the in the house network i think. Not the link to the outside world.

[SteamyTea]

Never heard of MIMO, but then, IT people are like chemists, except they just use letters.

 

Multiple input, multiple output

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIMO

[Redoctober]

On 07/11/2025 at 16:02, Post and beam said:

Starlink is live. Only lying on the garden floor and partly obscured by hazel trees.

 

On 07/11/2025 at 16:38, Kelvin said:

Mine has been on the ground for four years and haven’t wanted to screw to the garage. 

 

Guys, I am on the verge of investing in a Starlink system but attaching the thing to the house is something I would like to aviod if at all possible. Are your systems still at ground level and if so, do you suffer any issues as as a result. The "ground" set up would be ideal for me providing there is little or no impact on perfromance.

 

I'd welcome your thoughts. 

[JohnMo]

4 minutes ago, Redoctober said:

 

 

Guys, I am on the verge of investing in a Starlink system but attaching the thing to the house is something I would like to aviod if at all possible. Are your systems still at ground level and if so, do you suffer any issues as as a result. The "ground" set up would be ideal for me providing there is little or no impact on perfromance.

 

I'd welcome your thoughts. 

They need line of sight to work well. I would just do 4G/5G if you can. I am on unlimited data for £15 per month.

[Redoctober]

8 minutes ago, JohnMo said:

They need line of sight to work well. I would just do 4G/5G if you can. I am on unlimited data for £15 per month.

 

I don't think the line of sight will be an issue alongside the gable wall of the house. The reason I'm considering it is because we are currently using this type of router with a SIM from Smarty for £18 pm - Unfortunately the signal has been dropping more often than not - hence the search for a more stable connection.

 

TP-LINK Archer MR600 AC1200 4G+ Cat6 Mobile Wi-Fi Router Dual Band, 4G/3G Network SIM Slot Unlocked,

 

[Bramco]

36 minutes ago, Redoctober said:

Unfortunately the signal has been dropping more often than not - hence the search for a more stable connection.

 

Have you checked all the mobile networks in your area - there are some good phone apps that show the signal. We bought throw away SIMs for EE, Vodafone, 3 etc. and used an old phone to check the 'real' signal around our plot.  EE won hands down, the rest were truly dire.

 

We're on a Mozillion unlimited SIM now - about the cheapest around on EE.

 

One thing of course, if you are restricted to one provider, then if they have issues in your area, you'll be off line for a while. The fallout of Boris kowtowing to the Americans and outlawing Huawei kit for the masts meant we had about 9 months of very flaky throughput until I guess they got some other supplier to fill the backlog of orders....   Hopefully the Boris hangover has now been cleared and repairs are done quickly.  Haven't had any issues in the last 18 months.

 

I suppose there is a chance that with Musk's complete disregard for his moral duties on X and the recent merging of SpaceX with X, the government might decide to outlaw the Musk empire - but I somehow doubt they would have the chutzpah to do that.

[joth]

My Starlink works fine at ground level so long as it has clear view of sky, although since then I've now mounted it on the roof of the campervan.

I also setup a dedicated VPN from the campervan router to my home router, so there's minimal Starlink / USAian involvement in the datapath. I'd now much rather not be sending money with that man or his empire, but we are where we are - at least I can minimise the visibility of my traffic as it passes through his patch.

 

[JohnMo]

8 minutes ago, Bramco said:

Have you checked all the mobile networks in your area - there are some good phone apps that show the signal. We bought throw away SIMs for EE, Vodafone, 3 etc. and used an old phone to check the 'real' signal around our plot.  EE won hands down, the rest were truly dire.

We asked all the contractors at site, how good there signals were, most rubbish, except Vodafone, which was great.

[SteamyTea]

1 hour ago, joth said:

I'd now much rather not be sending money with that man or his empire

His sidekick GROK will sort out the pertinent number, so I think we have lost the battle on this one.

 

Has anyone tried using the TOR network with Starlink, some providers can block it I believe.

Edited Tuesday at 18:11 by SteamyTea

[Alan Ambrose]

Here's what I did:

 

+ ordered a Wave Connect quad network sim and a Ubiquiti UMR industrial router and a Poynting XPOL-1-5G-PLUS 4G/5G Antenna (our site hut is a container and therefore needs an aerial, also I have Ubiquiti stuff so I generally use that). Put the aerial on a 2m pole on the top of the container.

+ ran the router for a few hours with gaps between so it found the loudest network. It started off on Voda but eventually settled on EE. A cell tower app said O2 was the nearest, so that was wrong.

+ I've now got an EE sim with a 50Gb monthly contract.

+ Twisted the 'omni-directional' aerial around looking for the best signal, using the router management page to see the signal strength.

+ I was pleased to find I could set-up a VPN to my main PC at home without a great deal of fuss. I am fairly techy though.

+ About 50 Mbps downoad using Google Fibre speedtest app. We're in a little hamlet, so useable.

 

This was all because OR point blank refuses to connect up fibre until we've built the house. We've laid all the duct for that (that they supplied) and paid them more than a year ago. Never mind that in Oct '23 OR emailed:

 

Thanks for choosing to register your development with Openreach. Your site has access to the latest Full Fibre gigabit capable infrastructure, enabling ultrafast speeds for your new build home.

 

and...

 

Please be advised that your site has been progressed for Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) and has been passed to your Field Based Coordinator (FBC) and Planning Team to plan the site infrastructure.

 

Yeah, right.

 

[Post and beam]

19 hours ago, Redoctober said:

I'd welcome your thoughts. 

Mine is now mounted on my chimney. The floor mount was to prove the concept before i committed to drilling holes. It could do with being a little higher up. The 'unit obstructed' graphic shows an area directly behind it, which is the house. I dont know if this is actually a real issue. Because the satellites coming from north west would be at a very shallow angle to the antenna when they got to this shaded area. I think they would have handed off to the next most northerly satellite before it became a problem.

Regardless, 99% of the time the service is great. Perhaps once or twice an evening we might get a couple of seconds of  buffering.

[ProDave]

A good "test" for internet dropouts is to stream an internet radio station.  When we had ADSL in the bad old days, it would regularly drop out for seconds at a time.  I said back then "whoever said broadband was always on was a lair or an optimist"

 

Now we have decent broadband via a wireless (not mobile phone) connection, dropouts are extremely rare. 

[Kelvin]

On 03/02/2026 at 15:21, Redoctober said:

 

 

Guys, I am on the verge of investing in a Starlink system but attaching the thing to the house is something I would like to aviod if at all possible. Are your systems still at ground level and if so, do you suffer any issues as as a result. The "ground" set up would be ideal for me providing there is little or no impact on perfromance.

 

I'd welcome your thoughts. 

No issue with it on the ground. It just needs clear line of sight. You need to do something with the cable as it would be more easily damaged on the ground. Mine is buried in a duct that goes into the garage. You could also pole mount it. 
 

Starlink have changed their payment plans recently where they have cheaper plans for a slightly slower service which is fast enough for most people. I now have a reasonable 5G connection so thinking about trialing that to see how reliable it is. Openreach have also laid fibre all around us so that will be an option later this year albeit it’s susceptible to our frequent power cuts whereas Starlink isn’t (we have off grid capability) 

 

As much as I can’t stand Musk Starlink is fast (has become much faster over the last 4 years), reliable (we’ve had one outage), doesn’t seem to suffer from much contention, latency is good (low 20s), and has reduced in cost. We also got a free Starlink Mini Roam. 

Edited Thursday at 09:07 by Kelvin

[-rick-]

2 hours ago, Kelvin said:

Openreach have also laid fibre all around us so that will be an option later this year albeit it’s susceptible to our frequent power cuts whereas Starlink isn’t (we have off grid capability) 

 

I thought the full fibre products fed back the fibre direct to the local exchange (which should have at least some degree of backup power and be prioritised to restoration in event of an outage). Not sure if they have generators or not (I would guess they do in places with frequent outages). So maybe outages isn't such a worry?

[SteamyTea]

As Starlink can be used directly from a phone now (|Direct to Cell), has anyone tried that?  I know it is only available foe r a few 'select apps, but if it can compete with 5G on quality and price, that could be a good way to go in the near future.

[Adrian Walker]

2 hours ago, SteamyTea said:

As Starlink can be used directly from a phone now (|Direct to Cell), has anyone tried that?  I know it is only available foe r a few 'select apps, but if it can compete with 5G on quality and price, that could be a good way to go in the near future.

That's unlikely as the signal is very weak and the cost to run satellites is very high. 

[-rick-]

4 minutes ago, Adrian Walker said:

That's unlikely as the signal is very weak and the cost to run satellites is very high. 

 

Cost wise, Starlink is already profitable so any 5G add on service doesn't have to worry about paying for that.

 

AFAIK the Starlink mobile service is mostly text only where it exists. Voice calls maybe coming but not sure it's going to have much in the way of data. It can be good as fill in in sparsely populated areas but the cells are too big to handle normal usage.