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.