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

[Fragle]

I know it's not related to this reply but wonder if you or anyone know the answer.

we are coming out on the 6th jan and I have a set up date of the 12th of the month. We are returning on the 21st March and I would choose on the week before12th of March if I wanted to continue as we don't use it in the UK.

Normally I would get the 6 days pro rata in January to the 12th then pay the full month fee. Any idea how they are working this now?

Do I just get to the 6th March and get cut off and loose the 6 days (or are they kept as credit)? Or do you pay for full month straight away (6thJan)?

Due to the increased costs of starlink I will probably limit the use this trip obviously if I go past 12th march that's £96 for 10 days use and not a justified cost.

Any thoughts would be helpful as we are looking at the most economical way to use Starlink on this trip

 

[fred_jb]

The way it seems to work now is that if you reactivate before your contract date you pay pro-rata up to that date. If you then don't stop it before your contract date you will pay a full month's fee in advance for the next month. If you deactivate it during that month it does not actually cut off until your contract date, whether you are using it or not.

As far as I know there is no way to get credit for unused days. It would be nice if you could as you could then effectively just pay for the days you actually want it to be active, but I can see how this would be administratively difficult for them to offer.

 

[Fragle]

The way it seems to work now is that if you reactivate before your contract date you pay pro-rata up to that date. If you then don't stop it before your contract date you will pay a full month's fee in advance for the next month. If you deactivate it during that month it does not actually cut off until your contract date, whether you are using it or not.

As far as I know there is no way to get credit for unused days. It would be nice if you could as you could then effectively just pay for the days you actually want it to be active, but I can see how this would be administratively difficult for them to offer.

Yes I see that. It was like that before the change. I’m trying to understand what they will do with the 60 day rule. Does it mean that you can only start on your contract day otherwise you loose the extra days you have paid for.

 

[fred_jb]

Yes I see that. It was like that before the change. I’m trying to understand what they will do with the 60 day rule. Does it mean that you can only start on your contract day otherwise you loose the extra days you have paid for.

I see what you mean now. Good question!

I would think that 60 days is 60 days regardless of whether they start on your contract day, so if you don't want to lose any days you would need to return home to use them. If you chose not to do so, then I guess you would lose them.

After all, 60 days is not exactly two monthly renewals anyway, so no reason to base the limit only on whole months, and if they did, some people could get away with nearly 3 months use abroad.

 

[Carpmart]

Yes I see that. It was like that before the change. I’m trying to understand what they will do with the 60 day rule. Does it mean that you can only start on your contract day otherwise you loose the extra days you have paid for.

Yes you will have lost the days!!!

I think your viewing this incorrectly. Starlink is a monthly contract service that, when you have a Roam subscription, they provide the opportunity to pause.

When you pause, it runs until the monthly anniversary date, when it then pauses.

The 60 days outside of your home country runs separately and is in no way tied to billing, it’s a condition of service. If you breach 60 days and you’re in the middle of your monthly period, then frankly it’s tough, they won’t accrue days you can re use as it’s a monthly service, not tied in anyway to days or indeed tied to your billing.

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[zac]

So… a quick summary which may be useful for others if and when they swap a UK dish to a Spanish (or other) service location and tariff:

• Your existing subscription needs to have expired on a Californian time basis. This is PST.
• 00.01 hrs PST is 9hrs behind CET at present.
• The significance (I believe but can’t confirm, just my logic) of this is yesterday when my subscription to the UK service was expiring, it was on the Starlink clock still active, hence I think this was scuppering my ability to pay for a new subscription as it thought it still had an active UK one!
• I’ve paid using a Starling Euro account. I could not get this to work with Apple Pay. Use the alternate billing method option and add details manually. I couldn’t get any payment method to work yesterday, which I now attribute to the California (PST) time zone challenge.
• You have to use a different email address to your existing UK subscription. Send an email to the new address with an invite (option in the account closing process) which then contains all the dish unique identifiers. The link in the new email address received takes you straight into a service selection page (Roam Spain for me) and then to payment.
• Update the app and the dish before upgrading. I also had to do what I assume was a Spanish update post connecting.
• I used a Spanish campsite address we frequent regularly which worked fine.
• You absolutely have to cancel the service completely before starting a new service.

BTW, the effort (not much really) is worth it as the savings are quite significant. €72 (<£60) per month on Spanish roam tariff as opposed to £96 on UK.

When you signed up again did you use a UK sim for the Internet or connect to a Spanish WiFi service as it seems to know where you are and set the country accordingly? Or can you just connect using a normal UK mifi then choose the country when registering for the new account?
Still thinking of doing mine in the next couple days and want to ensure I cover all bases

Thanks in advance

 

[Carpmart]

When you signed up again did you use a UK sim for the Internet or connect to a Spanish WiFi service as it seems to know where you are and set the country accordingly? Or can you just connect using a normal UK mifi then choose the country when registering for the new account?
Still thinking of doing mine in the next couple days and want to ensure I cover all bases

Thanks in advance

I’m in Spain presently Zac and I was just using my phone (Popit SIM) whilst making the change.

Once the time was correct in the PST zone so my service was actually cancelled, all my problems seemed to dissapear.

 

[Fragle]

Yes you will have lost the days!!!

I think your viewing this incorrectly. Starlink is a monthly contract service that, when you have a Roam subscription, they provide the opportunity to pause.

When you pause, it runs until the monthly anniversary date, when it then pauses.

The 60 days outside of your home country runs separately and is in no way tied to billing, it’s a condition of service. If you breach 60 days and you’re in the middle of your monthly period, then frankly it’s tough, they won’t accrue days you can re use as it’s a monthly service, not tied in anyway to days or indeed tied to your billing.

Thanks. This is what I was thinking would happen unfortunately.
I think I will wait until contract date to start to get full use.
I will then look at buying the mini in Spain. I will get it delivered to a Spanish address but will be ordering on a uk phone hopefully not a problem

 

[olley]

Order it from an internet cafe.

 

[DangerMousy]

How long before mobile phones have aStarlink service built in?

I raised a similar query last year, some "phones" now are already "unfoldable" and once they reduce the size of the "receiver" you never know.

but as for now....starlink have already sent up direct phone to satellite costellations, so mobile phones can be used in remote areas,.but atm the connection speed is very low.

I think its only a matter of time. Musk has a couple of times put a post on X asking who would buy a Tesla phone.

Its not just Starlink working on direct to mobile....they may be the first to the mass-market, but the world's first satellite 5G call was made last year by Vodafone. Its coming, its just a case of when.

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[Peregrinator]

Just to explain why some of us use starlink.

I for example run a business that is entirely internet based. Going away and relying on 4G is stressful as you never know if the place you are going is a not spot. 4G is also less reliable than Starlink in my experience. Also Starlink is as fast as 5G.

That money I spend on Starlink is worth it's weight in gold to me.

For running a business, well that is a totally different kettle of fish, there are a lot of motorhome retirees that must watch their pennies, so 4G and 500mps 5G is all they need, and cheap too.

 

[Gromett]

For running a business, well that is a totally different kettle of fish, there are a lot of motorhome retirees that must watch their pennies, so 4G and 500mps 5G is all they need, and cheap too.

I wasn't saying everyone should use it or could afford it. I was responding to your quote that it was in your words

OMG, that price is high, we use unlimited Data, Text & Phone

It appeared to a few of us on here that we are wasting our money and that unlimited data sims are the answer.

I was simply saying for some of us that price is excellent value.

 

[zac]

I’m in Spain presently Zac and I was just using my phone (Popit SIM) whilst making the change.

Once the time was correct in the PST zone so my service was actually cancelled, all my problems seemed to dissapear.

So i just migrated mine, which really was a PITA, mine has not been activated since Jan 2024 but when i came to transfer it the first issue was that the box where you put the new email it goes to just closed without any input. This was not an issue as i had taken the KIT details already. So i went to their website to signup for a new account and this is where it started to be an issue, as using the normal browsing ie Chrome or Firefox it insisted that even though i put in a Spanish address that it wanted to charge me in UK pounds and the full price ie £96 (cookies were cleared but must be some somewhere being held onto). Managed to sort out in the end using incognito mode on Chrome and changing language to Español which was a pain as then had to keep using translator which was not always good.
After some back and forth it is now on a Spanish monthly fee of 72 euros, which for me was worth it as i have never used this in the UK and even if i did i can still get 2 months out of it at a push.

I will use it for the next 3.5 weeks and then pause it again till next December when we will be back in Spain, had to do a load of updates where it's been offline for nearly a year.

I will now be able to watch the boxing next week whilst we are way

Thanks for being the test case Carpmart

 

[Carpmart]

So i just migrated mine, which really was a PITA, mine has not been activated since Jan 2024 but when i came to transfer it the first issue was that the box where you put the new email it goes to just closed without any input. This was not an issue as i had taken the KIT details already. So i went to their website to signup for a new account and this is where it started to be an issue, as using the normal browsing ie Chrome or Firefox it insisted that even though i put in a Spanish address that it wanted to charge me in UK pounds and the full price ie £96 (cookies were cleared but must be some somewhere being held onto). Managed to sort out in the end using incognito mode on Chrome and changing language to Español which was a pain as then had to keep using translator which was not always good.
After some back and forth it is now on a Spanish monthly fee of 72 euros, which for me was worth it as i have never used this in the UK and even if i did i can still get 2 months out of it at a push.

I will use it for the next 3.5 weeks and then pause it again till next December when we will be back in Spain, had to do a load of updates where it's been offline for nearly a year.

I will now be able to watch the boxing next week whilst we are way

Thanks for being the test case Carpmart

You’re welcome… pleased you got sorted in the end!

For anyone else who sees £96 quoted even though you’ve entered a Spanish address and are expecting €72, I saw this too as zac did… it reverted to Euro and the correct value as I progressed through the process!

 

[MisterB]

Has anyone gone through the process or considered the process, of re registering in France? For us that would be a better option than re registering in Spain, as we travel through France at some point every time we travel to mainland Europe, so it would seem to make sense to do it there ......

for us its not a cost issue, though of course saving money is always a great option, and we could achieve our 'uninterrupted' use by using and carrying two dishy's (which we have) - we dont use it in the UK anyway as we have unlimited date and a decent mifi (Netgear M2)

PS - as the 12v conversion i do reduces the size considerably, its not an issue to carry two Frank Starlinkensteins .....

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[Carpmart]

Has anyone gone through the process or considered the process, of re registering in France? For us that would be a better option than re registering in Spain, as we travel through France at some point every time we travel to mainland Europe, so it would seem to make sense to do it there ......

for us its not a cost issue, though of course saving money is always a great option, and we could achieve our 'uninterrupted' use by using and carrying two dishy's (which we have) - we dont use it in the UK anyway as we have unlimited date and a decent mifi (Netgear M2)

PS - as the 12v conversion i do reduces the size considerably, its not an issue to carry two Frank Starlinkensteins .....

The process is exactly the same as the one I’ve just gone through, the difference is you select a France address as supposed to a Spanish one.

Sadly the only option for me is two Gen2 dishes to cover us for the nine months of travel we wish to do..

First two months will be roaming on a UK subscription, the next seven months will be a mixture of in and out of country use on a Spanish subscription. With two dishes I can swap without wasting any subscription payments or having to change the country of registration for either dish! Suboptimal, but the least suboptimal solution I can think of to comply with Starlinks policies.

 

[Fragle]

The process is exactly the same as the one I’ve just gone through, the difference is you select a France address as supposed to a Spanish one.

Sadly the only option for me is two Gen2 dishes to cover us for the nine months of travel we wish to do..

First two months will be roaming on a UK subscription, the next seven months will be a mixture of in and out of country use on a Spanish subscription. With two dishes I can swap without wasting any subscription payments or having to change the country of registration for either dish! Suboptimal, but the least suboptimal solution I can think of to comply with Starlinks policies.

I was communicating with customer services last night trying to find out how the 60 days works in relation to your contract date.
It's like banging your head against a brick wall with the same paste and copy answers and if you want more than 60 days pay for global. Not.

What I did find out is the 60 days are the days you use it. If you don't use it one or two days that's not counted.
The most cost effective is to use it from your contract date 2 months and pause before the 60 days are up. (very little wasted days)
When you return to home country you will need an active subscription to reset.

We start our next trip to Spain 6th Jan. So contract starts on 12th Jan until 12th March (2 months) 6 days at the start and 10 days at the end without to the 22nd March.(paused) until August. The only problem then is we will have to activate and pay before we leave the Uk so will probably go 11th Aug for 60 days. On the return from our last trip I made Sure I used Starlink for the few spare days in the Uk to hopefully reset.

It suits us this year but is a bloody pain in the butt especially as we don't need it in the Uk. Like MisterB I am thinking of the alternative options. Re-register in France/Spain or buy another in Spain.

After dealing with them last night I don't feel as though I want to give them any more of my money.

Did you put the process on how you changed your Starlink from Uk to Spain?

 

[Carpmart]

Did you put the process on how you changed your Starlink from Uk to Spain?

Yes it’s detailed a few post back in this thread!

 

[gus-lopez]

that must watch their pennies, so 4G and 500mps 5G is all they need, and cheap too.

Unfortunately we have a hit & miss mobile signal at the house where we live . combine that with shite line of sight internet speeds unable for the wife to watch tv then starlink is the only answer.

 

[StillGoing]

I hope Amazon hurry up with Kuiper. Some competition might breath some common sense into this! Maybe I’m expecting too much

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[dunnah01]

I hope Amazon hurry up with Kuiper. Some competition might breath some common sense into this! Maybe I’m expecting too much

Musk has control of some of the launches so until they can find space on alternatives it may be done time.

 

[Tombola]

I hope Amazon hurry up with Kuiper. Some competition might breath some common sense into this! Maybe I’m expecting too much

I belive Iris has started in the eu

 

[Fragle]

Yes it’s detailed a few post back in this thread!

Thanks just seen that. Did the process take long to change over?

I'm considering changing to France on the way through in January like misterB said probably our most visited country and may make more sense for us than Spain for now.

 

[zac]

Thanks just seen that. Did the process take long to change over?

I'm considering changing to France on the way through in January like misterB said probably our most visited country and may make more sense for us than Spain for now.

Ours was instant ie no waiting when we changed to Spain from the UK. I paid £59.94 for 1 month. Much more reasonable I think than the £96 they want in the UK.

 

[Fragle]

Ours was instant ie no waiting when we changed to Spain from the UK. I paid £59.94 for 1 month. Much more reasonable I think than the £96 they want in the UK.

Excellent.

Did you cancel whilst in the UK and then set up new when you arrived in Spain?

I will wait until I'm actually in France first I think too register. I'll use a campsite address we use regularly and Revolut for payment. It works for the toll tag soo hopefully ok. I think the price is similar to Spain as well

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[zac]

Excellent.

Did you cancel whilst in the UK and then set up new when you arrived in Spain?

I will wait until I'm actually in France first I think too register. I'll use a campsite address we use regularly and Revolut for payment. It works for the toll tag soo hopefully ok. I think the price is similar to Spain as well

I cancelled whilst in Spain but that won't matter to be honest as it's the registering that's important. Has to be a new account as well ie not one Already registered. Mine had not been used for 11 months so loads of updates when it came online but it did work.

 

[Fragle]

I cancelled whilst in Spain but that won't matter to be honest as it's the registering that's important. Has to be a new account as well ie not one Already registered. Mine had not been used for 11 months so loads of updates when it came online but it did work.

Those who have done it seem to think that it’s an easy process and nothing complicated so I think I’ll go for it in France

 

[zac]

Those who have done it seem to think that it’s an easy process and nothing complicated so I think I’ll go for it in France

You will be ok as once you know what's required it's not that bad. I'd wished I'd converted mine to 12v now as the site we are on the electric is diabolical which keeps downing the starlink. I keep having to switch to the invertor to run it which is ok when I remember but not half way through a film

 

[Fragle]

You will be ok as once you know what's required it's not that bad. I'd wished I'd converted mine to 12v now as the site we are on the electric is diabolical which keeps downing the starlink. I keep having to switch to the invertor to run it which is ok when I remember but not half way through a film

Anything you can think of that might trip me up?

Did you use the same phone number as before? Or does this also need change from when used before

I will change the e mail address

 

[MisterB]

Those who have done it seem to think that it’s an easy process and nothing complicated so I think I’ll go for it in France

I'm picking up another pre loved Gen 2 on Friday that I will convert to 12v, put it in a new slim housing with the router board and then re register in France in March. Hopefully they won't have moved the goalposts again by then !

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