Starlink RV review: the dawn of space internet to go

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The lack of connection is the biggest problem with going off- grid.

The #vanlife trend of getting away from it all without losing access to social media was a long time ago. Social distancing rules, office closings, and flexible remote work policies enabled more people to set up shop from any location they chose, which accelerated the Pandemic. Change is hard and going truly remote often means being out of range of cell towers. Starlink RV is located there.

The internet from space was launched in October 2020. The service has improved since we tested it in May 2021. The launch of the Starlink RV service has led to the release of a smaller rectangular dish and support for portable electronics. Large swaths of North America and nearly all of Western Europe are now covered by Starlink RV. You can stop the service at any time so that you only pay for the months you need it.

Starlink RV targets people on the go, be it weekend campers, overlanders and van lifers who live in their rigs year-round, or retirees with an RV or vacation home where they reside for months at a time. Starlink RV is competing against expensive unlimited mobile data plans and signal boosters that attempt to fill holes in coverage. Unlike the fixed Starlink Residential service, which requires a perfect line of sight to the sky to be useful, subscribers to Starlink RV can move their dishy at will, and likely be much more forgiving.

I have been testing Starlink RV for the last two weeks in a number of locations, from atop a Ventje T5 camper van parked in a German forest where tall trees block satellite visibility, to a crowded festival in Bavaria, and a Dutch beach. The performance of Starlink RV made me realize that I need to leave my urban existence behind.

Residential Starlink and Starlink RV are both Starlink services. The Residential Starlink plus Portability option is a mixed bag. The ability to use the service when traveling, as well as the option to easily pause the service, are among the differences between each service.

Starlink RV is one of the most flexible offerings. Adding Portability costs an additional $25 each month for the Starlink RV monthly subscription. Although it does warn against misuse and abuse, each service comes with heavily caveated performance goals and no data caps.

Starlink RV has the ability to pause the service at any time and then resume it at a later time when you need it again. If subscribers only travel a few months a year, it can save them money. Residential subscribers are always de-prioritized compared to StarlinkRV users. When used in congested areas or during times of high usage, that could result in speeds closer to 5– 100Mbps down.

I did experience a wide range of performance over the two week period, but if my service was being de-prioritized, it was done with a relatively light touch. I used the Speedtest app on my phone to measure download speeds as slow as 44.2Mbps and as fast as 236Mbps, with uploads ranging from 8.9Mbps to 28.6Mbps. The average download speed was 150–200Mbps and the average upload speed was 10–15Mbps.

It is not fast by home internet standards. In the four remote locations where I set up Starlink RV, it was sometimes 100 times faster than the mobile data networks from T-Mobile andVodafone, which sometimes failed to connect at all.

When I was parked next to hundreds of other campers at a 4x4 show in the hills of Bavaria, Starlink's satellites gave me 189 / 1 1.1Mbps (up / down) compared to Vodafone's 11.1 / 1.9Mbps. I was on a Dutch beach, and I was able to get 217 / 8.9Mbps, while T-Mobile was at 0.7 / 0.16Mbps and Vodafone was at 2.37 / 0.09Mbps. Starlink was hitting 49 / 12Mbps through the trees where we parked our camper to make lunch and walk the dog, while the other two carriers failed to connect at all.

RV-grade signal boosters start at $450 and would likely improve cellular data speeds in some of my testing. Even though you can double or even triple speeds with a booster, they wouldn't compare to the speeds achieved with the Starlink RV A signal that doesn't exist can't be boosted.

To put these speeds into perspective, zoom requires 6Mbps down and 2Mbps up, while livestreaming requires 6Mbps up. Speed isn't everything Video conferencing and streaming can be difficult if you have frequent dropouts.

The Starlink app reported a range of 28 to 88ms of lag. The more detailed Speedtest app reported no other traffic at 50ms with a range of 32 to 69ms. It reported download lag between 162–193ms and uploading lag between 71– 169ms. If you like Starlink RV, you can check out some early positive impressions and live footage of the game on the website. Starlink has some work to do to reach its goal.

Knowing that I was traveling with Starlink RV meant that I was always looking for campsites with good visibility of the stars to avoid dropouts and slowdowns. The dish is 50 cm wide and 30 cm long. It is less than half the weight of the original dish. I put my electronics into a bag. I put the laundry bag and stand inside an old kitesurfing backpack to make sure they didn't get scratched.

The setting up of the Starlink RV hardware can be done in a few minutes. I usually placed the dish on the ground or on top of my camper and then ran the 75-foot cable back to the wi-fi router, where it is attached via a Microusb port that is difficult to line up properly. You can use your camper's AC port, shore power, or big portable battery with a built-in inverter to connect the router to your satellite dish. It would take as long as 15 minutes after I arrived at a new location to appreciate the space-age tech that Starlink internet provided.

In an open field or at the beach, Starlink's perfect line-of-sight connection worked for hours on end without any network drops, allowing me to attend video conferences, make calls, and watch TikTok videos.

When using Starlink near tall buildings or trees, I experienced network dropouts and interrupted service. I was able to do many things despite the urge to do so. There was only one thing I tried and failed at. If reliable internet is more important than the view, it's easy to pack up and move to another location with fewer obstructions.

I tested Starlink RV in the rain, including a severe storm in Amsterdam with lots of lightning, wind, and a heavy downpour that lasted for about 20 minutes before exhausting itself into a steady rain. During the first six minutes of the storm, there were several messages in the Starlink app that said there was no signal. Had I been on a call for work, the service would have stopped completely and I would have been in serious trouble. After a few hours of rain, things were back to normal with just a few messages. Light rain didn't seem to cause any problems.

Mentions of other worthwhile things.

• SpaceX says the rectangular dish consumes an average of 48–74W — or 20W when idle. I think it might be better than that, having observed it jumping between 33–62W with an average draw closer to 42W when plugged into a Jackery portable battery with a built-in power meter. Power comes at a premium for RV owners, so it’s good to see SpaceX making regular improvements here.
• The Wi-Fi router supports 802.11a/b/g/n/ac on dual-band 2.4GHz and 5GHz. The IP54 rating makes it resistant to splashing water and rain, but it’s intended for indoor use only. It can easily cover a campsite for at least a hundred feet in each direction if you’d like to share your service with others (or charge for it). There’s no ethernet port, though, so you’ll need to buy an adapter from SpaceX for that.
• I often forgot to hit the “Stow” button in the Starlink app (under settings) before unplugging the power from the router in my rush to get on the road again. Fortunately, you can still put the dish into the stowed position by removing the stand, setting Mr. McFlatface’s face onto a flat service, and plugging the power back in. The dish folds down after a few seconds, which is much better than waiting several minutes for the Stow button to reappear again in the app after the satellite service reconnects. It doesn’t go completely flat in the stowed position, but it’s flat enough to make it easier to stow away in the recesses of a vehicle.
• Although Starlink RV’s upload speeds can be slow compared to fixed internet or strong mobile data connections, creators who need to upload large videos from the road can start the process at night and be done by the time they wake up in the morning. That’s way more convenient than having to search for a cafe that doesn’t mind you leeching their slow public Wi-Fi all day. Just be careful not to drain all your vehicle’s power if you’re running Starlink RV all night long.
• Using Starlink RV in a moving vehicle will void the warranty, according to SpaceX. “While our teams are actively working to make it possible to use Starlink on moving vehicles, Starlink is not yet configured to be safely used in this way,” reads a SpaceX support page. That’s why you won’t (yet) find an RV mount in the Starlink shop alongside all the other accessories.
• Starlink RV can only be used on the same continent as your registered shipping address — something you should note if you’re planning to outfit your Unimog overlander with Starlink RV for your trip to Morocco or Iceland.
• The no wait list feature of Starlink RV is legit. I got mine in less than a week. Some Residential folks have been waiting months for their Starlink kits to arrive.
• There’s a software setting in the Starlink app that sends extra power to the dish to melt snow. Cool.

Audiences for Starlink RV and Starlink Residential are different. Starlink RV users are surprised and grateful to have any connection at all, while Residential users expect it to be rock-solid. Starlink Residential users can't move their home to avoid obstructions, but Starlink RV users can.

The experience of using Starlink RV over the last few weeks has blown my mind. Sitting in a remote field and watching Dishy lock onto one of the thousands of SpaceX satellites reminded me of when I first used gps. I can now take my home on the road and navigate the next chapter of my career with the help of Starlink RV. Let's talk.

Every smart device has a set of terms and conditions that you have to agree to before you can use it. It is not possible for us to read and analyze all of them. Since these are agreements most people don't read and can't negotiate, we're going to start counting how many times you have to agree to use the device.

Starlink RV and Starlink Residential don't have any specific steps where you agree. The use of both services is governed by the same eight mandatory agreements in the US, but this number varies by region. Three of the most notable are.

1. “Spamming” or “flaming” people using Starlink;
2. Using Starlink “in a manner that is obscene, sexually explicit, cruel, or racist in nature, or which espouses, promotes, or incites bigotry, hatred, or racism”;
3. Copyright infringement, for which Starlink may terminate your account;
4. “Excessive use of network services,” for which Starlink may restrict, suspend, or terminate your service.

• Starlink Specifications, which say that the Starlink Kit “can and may be accessed by SpaceX to perform support actions, request limited diagnostic information, monitor performance, and provide research for improvement purposes.”

There are eight mandatory legal agreements for the United States.

Thomas Ricker is a photographer.