Starlink ordered… I feel it’s the only sensible option now..

[Gromett]

Might there be a way to fool the Starlink router into thinking it was back in its 'home' country?
Rather like a VPN can fool streaming services into thinking you're not where you are.

Starlink dish itself has a GPS receiver in it. there is direct communication between the dish and the satellite. No way to sidestep that in my opinion without serious hackery and spoofing GPS.

 

[stevewagner]

Think I’ll stick with my iD mobile at £12 a month fro 250gb, unlimited data roaming in Europe.

 

[Carpmart]

Starlink dish itself has a GPS receiver in it. there is direct communication between the dish and the satellite. No way to sidestep that in my opinion without serious hackery and spoofing GPS.

I agree…

 

[fred_jb]

Might there be a way to fool the Starlink router into thinking it was back in its 'home' country?
Rather like a VPN can fool streaming services into thinking you're not where you are.

I would suspect that it is not the router that talks to Starlink HQ, but the dish. After all you can remove and disconnect athe Starlink router completely in most cases, or disable it in the case of the Mini, and use your own router.

 

[Carpmart]

Think I’ll stick with my iD mobile at £12 a month fro 250gb, unlimited data roaming in Europe.

Is it a data SIM… if yes, please can you provide a link?

What’s in the fair usage policy? How many concurrent months does it work for?

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[fred_jb]

Think I’ll stick with my iD mobile at £12 a month fro 250gb, unlimited data roaming in Europe.

Is this an old iD contract, or a new offering from iD? My iD SIMs are limited to 30GB in Europe even though the UK data allowances are higher.

 

[stevewagner]

Is this an old iD contract, or a new offering from iD? My iD SIMs are limited to 30GB in Europe even though the UK data allowances are higher.

It was a communication they put out around a month ago saying unlimited roaming in Europe (up to your contract limit) until further notice. I recently returned from Europe and used over 300gb without issue.

 

[stevewagner]

https://www.idmobile.co.uk/help-and-advice/eu-roaming/fair-usage-policy?_gl=1*iy4r58*_gcl_au*MTMwNTc3NDU5OC4xNzIzNDg1NDEz*_ga*NTY4MjEzOTE0LjE3MjI3MTA0NzE.*_ga_XFK6G4B1Y7*MTcyODA1NDg1MS45LjEuMTcyODA1NTA1Ni42MC4wLjA.

 

[Lenny HB]

https://www.idmobile.co.uk/help-and-advice/eu-roaming/fair-usage-policy?_gl=1*iy4r58*_gcl_au*MTMwNTc3NDU5OC4xNzIzNDg1NDEz*_ga*NTY4MjEzOTE0LjE3MjI3MTA0NzE.*_ga_XFK6G4B1Y7*MTcyODA1NDg1MS45LjEuMTcyODA1NTA1Ni42MC4wLjA.

Only applies to old contracts before 21st June 2023.

 

[fred_jb]

Only applies to old contracts before 21st June 2023.

Yes, that's what I have concluded too. My wife and I have three ID SIMs between us - I will have to check when they were taken out, but even if they qualify I couldn't increase my data allowance on my contracts without resetting the start date and losing the extra roaming data!

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[Lenny HB]

Yes, that's what I have concluded too. My wife and I have three ID SIMs between us - I will have to check when they were taken out, but even if they qualify I couldn't increase my data allowance on my contracts without resetting the start date and losing the extra roaming data!

I've got 200GB but limited to 30GB roaming as start date was last December.

 

[zac]

This is a promotion so applies to all users according to their banner until further notice

 

[Lenny HB]

This is a promotion so applies to all users according to their banner until further notice

View attachment 974199

See the fair use policy immediately below that statement.

 

[zac]

See the fair use policy immediately below that statement.

I'm reading it as they now have a promotion on as the wording in their banner says ALL users and until further notice. Underneath the banner i think is then what would apply if no promotion as in when it ends

Deffo not clear though as if you go to buy a sim it then states 30gb fair usage, they really have no clue

 

[Wh05apk]

The unlimited roaming is a " temporary" promotion, so they have to leave the 30gb limit in the t & C's so they can reimpose it later, but they have waived it until further notice.

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[zac]

Going to be the cheapest option currently for roaming whilst it lasts that is, doubt it will be on long though, so anyone wanting it i would grab it fast and then cancel when it ends.

 

[zac]

Chat confirmed It's for all users including new purchases, but I don't expect it to last

 

[Bustup15]

Using Starlink in 1st week in Europe I've used 114gb. That's predominantly streaming tv in the dark nights (watching the Mags hump Arsenal again )

Many say it's expensive at £95 per month, however, Vodafone want to charge me an extra £2 day or buy a 15 day pass for £17 to use data that I already pay for and then limit it to 25gb per month. With current use I would be looking for esims every week or 2 at significant cost.

Service quality has been fantastic to date and averaging well in excess of 100mb download. It's powered off at night to save battery but reconnects within 2 minutes on power up.

It's also flat mounted to the roof, runs on 12v and uses a basic GLA Router instead of the Starlink.

 

[Gromett]

Using Starlink in 1st week in Europe I've used 114gb. That's predominantly streaming tv in the dark nights (watching the Mags hump Arsenal again )

Many say it's expensive at £95 per month, however, Vodafone want to charge me an extra £2 day or buy a 15 day pass for £17 to use data that I already pay for and then limit it to 25gb per month. With current use I would be looking for esims every week or 2 at significant cost.

Service quality has been fantastic to date and averaging well in excess of 100mb download. It's powered off at night to save battery but reconnects within 2 minutes on power up.

It's also flat mounted to the roof, runs on 12v and uses a basic GLA Router instead of the Starlink.

Yup, completely agree. Starlink gives you two things, that in combination make it worth it's weight.

Never needing to worry about Data quotas ever again.
Never needing to check if the campsite/location is within range of a cell tower.

 

[MisterB]

Might there be a way to fool the Starlink router into thinking it was back in its 'home' country?
Rather like a VPN can fool streaming services into thinking you're not where you are.

From what I understand Starlink uses an inbuilt GPS module that reports its location based on the satellites it can see. It's that process that stops it being used in countries where starlink is yet to be licensed.

If it can't lock onto any satellites then it shows an error, so if the GPS module is removed it obviously can't lock onto a satellite, but it must be able to 'see' the satellites, just not communicate with them.

I'm sure if a hack has been discovered, it would have been for unauthorised use and therefore restricted in it's 'publicity' and if it's a software hack, then the constant updates would prob eventually rewrite the software.

I'm beginning to think having more than one starlink might be the solution for using it outside of it's 'native' country for longer than 60 days.

I'm hoping that Carpmart has sown the seed for 90 days out of country use, which might be the best compromise we can hope for. I am also thinking the EU might have enough influence to be designated as one country ...

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[Fragle]

I didn’t ask, but the way I was discussing with her, it stops working until you do a day back in your ‘home’ country.

Maybe you know the answer?

So I’m away and use my 60 days outside the country. I will time it with my normal monthly start time. Probably for the last 60 days of my 90 away

I then get cut off having paid my 60 days or £192. The question is when I return home I need to turn on Starlink to register the unit back in the UK.
When I first got Starlink I turned it on at home to check it worked ok and automatically got the then £85 charge. I don’t want to be hit with a £96 charge when not using it in the UK
How do you reset without getting charged again for the month? Any ideas? How would they know I’m in the UK if I don’t turn it on?

 

[Carpmart]

Maybe you know the answer?

So I’m away and use my 60 days outside the country. I will time it with my normal monthly start time. Probably for the last 60 days of my 90 away

I then get cut off having paid my 60 days or £192. The question is when I return home I need to turn on Starlink to register the unit back in the UK.
When I first got Starlink I turned it on at home to check it worked ok and automatically got the then £85 charge. I don’t want to be hit with a £96 charge when not using it in the UK
How do you reset without getting charged again for the month? Any ideas? How would they know I’m in the UK if I don’t turn it on?

I think you should pause the service rather than waiting for cut off.

They won’t know your in the UK if you don’t restart the subscription, so you can’t avoid having the service live on the UK to reset the 60 day roaming.

 

[Carpmart]

From what I understand Starlink uses an inbuilt GPS module that reports its location based on the satellites it can see. It's that process that stops it being used in countries where starlink is yet to be licensed.

If it can't lock onto any satellites then it shows an error, so if the GPS module is removed it obviously can't lock onto a satellite, but it must be able to 'see' the satellites, just not communicate with them.

I'm sure if a hack has been discovered, it would have been for unauthorised use and therefore restricted in it's 'publicity' and if it's a software hack, then the constant updates would prob eventually rewrite the software.

I'm beginning to think having more than one starlink might be the solution for using it outside of it's 'native' country for longer than 60 days.

I'm hoping that Carpmart has sown the seed for 90 days out of country use, which might be the best compromise we can hope for. I am also thinking the EU might have enough influence to be designated as one country ...

If you look back on some of me earlier posts, I will be running two Starlink. The existing one will run on a Spanish based service, the UK one (thanks to fred_jb) will be used for two months a year when leaving UK before reaching Spain.

There is zero chance, based on my conversation today, of using it for three months outside of your home country.

 

[MisterB]

I think the change of location to Spain is a great idea and will be keen to follow your 'adventure' lol. We haven't yet been away for longer than 2 months and that's unlikely to change, but we don't use either of our Starlinks in the UK as we have unlimited mobile data on one of our phones.

Is Spain the cheapest EU country?

 

[gus-lopez]

Is Spain the cheapest EU country?

No France is I believe @40€ which is the same as spain but in spain we have to pay 9€"access" charge to gov.es

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[Carpmart]

It’s €72 Euro per month for Roam in Espania. £96 GBP in UK! That’s around £35 GBP per month cheaper!

 

[Fragle]

It’s €72 Euro per month for Roam in Espania. £96 GBP in UK! That’s around £35 GBP per month cheaper!

Please excuse me for asking stupid questions.

Why do you then need a second dish for Spain?

Could I not just use a second e mail and log in then use the same dish?

Also would it be accepted to just pick a random campsite address as we have nothing in the way of addresses in Spain. As we have only recently discovered the delights of Spain and winter sun we are more likely to spend extended periods there than any other country going forward.

What was a perfect fit for us and was about to invest in the smaller more portable Starlink but it has now become a lot of hassle and expense to the point of binning the lot and going data sim (cheaper but not as good and still hassle getting sims) Would also need to get router etc
I'd like to find a way to make it work and your knowledge on this is greatly appreciated.

 

[Carpmart]

Please excuse me for asking stupid questions.

Why do you then need a second dish for Spain?

Could I not just use a second e mail and log in then use the same dish?

Also would it be accepted to just pick a random campsite address as we have nothing in the way of addresses in Spain. As we have only recently discovered the delights of Spain and winter sun we are more likely to spend extended periods there than any other country going forward.

What was a perfect fit for us and was about to invest in the smaller more portable Starlink but it has now become a lot of hassle and expense to the point of binning the lot and going data sim (cheaper but not as good and still hassle getting sims) Would also need to get router etc
I'd like to find a way to make it work and your knowledge on this is greatly appreciated.

No such thing as stupid questions.. we are a community and assist each other!

You have to have some context, which makes what I (we) do potentially slightly different to others… we travel for nine months a year in Europe. For this trip we will be in and around Spain more than any other country, hence picking that as my ‘new’ Starlink home.

We left UK and spent just under six weeks in France, then a few weeks in Spain, now in Portugal, we leave this week for España again for (five months), then back into France for six weeks then home in June 2025.

If I apply Starlink terms to my travel I get the following sequence of usage, assuming I transfer to Spain as my ‘home’ from next week;

• First five months of usage, no issue as I’m in Spain using it at my home location
• Next six weeks in France, no issue on Spain home as I’m ‘roaming’ for less than two months!
• I suspend or pause that subscription when I get back to UK
• When I return to France in late August ‘25, I will not be able to use my Spanish Starlink as the six weeks (2 months) will mean I need to be in Spain to reactivate it!
• fred_jb has very kindly agreed to sell me his dishy which I will activate in August before I leave for Europe.. I can then ‘roam’ with this UK subscription for two months when I will pause it!
• When we reach northern Spain I will hook up the Spanish dishy and reset the two month roaming counter.
• We can then travel around NW Spain (not managed to do that properly) then roam into Portugal as we’ve not toured northern Portugal properly yet either…
• Then back into Spain for the winter ‘25/26 all whilst using the Spanish Starlink.

So that’s the rough plan for the next year and a half… will see what we do from there, also dependant on what Starlink do with their service too!!!

A campsite address will be fine; Starlink don’t give a monkeys about that, from what I can work out!

You can swap service every 90 days, but you can only roam from home country for 60 days. These are the constraints you need to consider with your own usage planning!

 

[Fragle]

No such thing as stupid questions.. we are a community and assist each other!

You have to have some context, which makes what I (we) do potentially slightly different to others… we travel for nine months a year in Europe. For this trip we will be in and around Spain more than any other country, hence picking that as my ‘new’ Starlink home.

We left UK and spent just under six weeks in France, then a few weeks in Spain, now in Portugal, we leave this week for España again for (five months), then back into France for six weeks then home in June 2025.

If I apply Starlink terms to my travel I get the following sequence of usage, assuming I transfer to Spain as my ‘home’ from next week;

• First five months of usage, no issue as I’m in Spain using it at my home location
• Next six weeks in France, no issue on Spain home as I’m ‘roaming’ for less than two months!
• I suspend or pause that subscription when I get back to UK
• When I return to France in late August ‘25, I will not be able to use my Spanish Starlink as the six weeks (2 months) will mean I need to be in Spain to reactivate it!
• fred_jb has very kindly agreed to sell me his dishy which I will activate in August before I leave for Europe.. I can then ‘roam’ with this UK subscription for two months when I will pause it!
• When we reach northern Spain I will hook up the Spanish dishy and reset the two month roaming counter.
• We can then travel around NW Spain (not managed to do that properly) then roam into Portugal as we’ve not toured northern Portugal properly yet either…
• Then back into Spain for the winter ‘25/26 all whilst using the Spanish Starlink.

So that’s the rough plan for the next year and a half… will see what we do from there, also dependant on what Starlink do with their service too!!!

A campsite address will be fine; Starlink don’t give a monkeys about that, from what I can work out!

You can swap service every 90 days, but you can only roam from home country for 60 days. These are the constraints you need to consider with your own usage planning!

Thanks for the comprehensive reply. Very helpful and thought provoking.

You say you can swap service every 90 days. I assume that would be using a single dish and different log in?

We are awaiting my Maltese passport that will allow us similar travel options to yourself.

From what you are saying and as we are probably going to be main use in Spain with shorter stops in Portugal and France similar to yourself as well my thought are this.

I keep the original dish and use maybe for first 60 days or shorter trips from UK. Northern Europe etc

I purchase a second dish (probably mini) register when in Spain.
This would give far greater flexibility like you shuffling between Spain, Portugal and back up through France. Suspend service on way back to UK.
Next trip 3 days down to Spain and restart Spanish dish. Seems like a plan to me This would also be cheaper for us in the long run as half the monthly cost

A couple of questions on this.

Does it matter where I buy the mini from? Spain or UK ?

I'm thinking if I get it delivered to my home in UK it might then get linked to UK roam automatically

Can you buy the mini off the shelf in Spain?

Will it accept UK bank details if you are registering in Spain as home?

If not would Revolut card be accepted similar to toll tag set up? or do you require a Spanish bank account as this would obviously rule out the option of doing any of this.

Any thoughts and options are gratefully accepted and hopefully these questions are helpful and thought provoking in the long run for others to follow this option

 

[Carpmart]

1. Does it matter where I buy the mini from? Spain or UK ?

2. I'm thinking if I get it delivered to my home in UK it might then get linked to UK roam automatically

3. Can you buy the mini off the shelf in Spain?

4. Will it accept UK bank details if you are registering in Spain as home?

1. I would buy in Spain… makes it all very easy and no transfer which you can’t do for four months if you buy in UK.

2. You don’t want it linked to UK Roam, you want it to be pure Spanish. See above answer!

3. Not sure if there is a curry’s equivalent in España? Just order from Starlink and get it delivered to a campsite… very easy!

4. I don’t see why not. I don’t have a Spanish bank account but I do have various accounts which are easy to pay in Euros from. The easiest is the Starling Euro Account where I will set up a recurrent payment for the Spanish service.

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