We bought a Starlink Mini for the use case of frequent travel to far-off (international) places with limited mobile service, where we occasionally need to get online for high-priority work tasks or meetings. For $55 / month for 100GB and flexible usage in many countries, it was extremely useful.
Then, recently, SpaceX changed the terms such that the 100GB and 300GB subscriptions are no longer usable internationally (technically outside of North America). You have to pay for the unlimited service tier and even then can only use it for 30 days before returning to the home region.
A huge decrease in utility and a tripling in cost. A new device with a built-in battery is definitely not going to make up for that.
(Still a great service when it works, am posting this from remote western Mongolia.)
sib
This has completely changed my industry (hard rock mining). A lot of the time drillers would be in the middle of nowhere looking for resources and would be sometimes days away from providing results (which also lead to lots of dodgy situations where drillers would know some results before market…) now it’s instant live feed. It’s made revising drilling plans trivial. Very cool
rmm
I wanted to get one so bad because I’m a very frequent travelled and the idea of Starlink sounded so interesting
I just checked a few weeks ago and “Roam” does no longer include international coverage at all. Only “Roam unlimited” does, and only for 30 days at a time which entirely defeats the purpose for me. Also no way to replenish this quota or buy additional, you have to go back to your country for it to reset.
My SIM card already gives me 14 days of roaming included, so Starlink is just marginally better for my use case.
I’m sure it’s regulations related but still a bummer :(
artdigital
Recently, I've been watching ultramarathon races (Western States, UTMB, Javalina Jundred, etc.) live online. All of them have been doing live video shots of the race leaders with a camera man on a mountain bike using a Starlink Mini on the back (with networking gear and batteries in a backpack). This new Starlink Mini 2 will be a more compact solution for the cameraman and possibly give the producers of the live broadcast more options and maybe more interesting shots.
cwt137
I live in a remote part of the US and if you go more than three miles from the interstate there is no cell service at all. Likewise you can easily travel sixty miles without cell service, gas stations, or even rest stops. I put a Starlink Mini in my car because it ensures access to both navigation data via the internet and emergency services via WiFi calling. Since it might be many hours until someone can get to me I paired my Starlink Mini with a Jackery power station so even if my engine won’t start I’ve got about thirty hours of power. Because of the 100gb limit I won’t be spending those hours watching YouTube, but I’ll be able to call out and people will be able to call me back.
Or as I’ve explained to other people it’s great that AAA will tow me a hundred miles if I need it, but if I can’t call them then what good is it?
zxcvbn4038
I want so badly for starlink to offer a sensible well priced self-service B2B offering with fleet management. Any kind of fixed, high bandwidth IoT device that currently has a SIM card could easily use a starlink. As it stands SMBs who want this have to screw around with residential starlink and live in fear that they’ll get banned.
noodlesUK
And it seems to have a normal USB-C port now! Excellent, having to order that old weird cable of theirs was a pain, especially when one broke out in the wild.
asats
They should totally sell a foldable solar panel for the ultimate offgrid set-it-and-forget-it internet solution.
porphyra
Starlink Mini improved the power consumption a lot. Does Starlink Mini 2 improve things further? The page lacks specs.
I read elsewhere the battery has 71Wh and lasts 4.5h. That's 15.77W/h if it indeed uses 100% of the battery's capacity.
Tepix
Could be an interesting product otherwise, but difficult to see the geopolitical stability I could trust as an European (somewhat near Russian border even), so hopefully there will be competition soon.
comments (10)
Then, recently, SpaceX changed the terms such that the 100GB and 300GB subscriptions are no longer usable internationally (technically outside of North America). You have to pay for the unlimited service tier and even then can only use it for 30 days before returning to the home region.
A huge decrease in utility and a tripling in cost. A new device with a built-in battery is definitely not going to make up for that.
(Still a great service when it works, am posting this from remote western Mongolia.)
sib
rmm
I just checked a few weeks ago and “Roam” does no longer include international coverage at all. Only “Roam unlimited” does, and only for 30 days at a time which entirely defeats the purpose for me. Also no way to replenish this quota or buy additional, you have to go back to your country for it to reset.
My SIM card already gives me 14 days of roaming included, so Starlink is just marginally better for my use case.
I’m sure it’s regulations related but still a bummer :(
artdigital
cwt137
Or as I’ve explained to other people it’s great that AAA will tow me a hundred miles if I need it, but if I can’t call them then what good is it?
zxcvbn4038
noodlesUK
asats
porphyra
I read elsewhere the battery has 71Wh and lasts 4.5h. That's 15.77W/h if it indeed uses 100% of the battery's capacity.
Tepix
Mutjake