in this video we're going to talk about Starlink internet for our viewers does it work and what
should you really expect we've actually been testing it out for ourselves and we're going
to share those results with you so stay tuned we're Charity Ben Dakota and Trinity we decided
we didn't want to wait for a life of adventure so in 2017 we bought our first rv and set off to live
a life of travel in the USA we've visited over 38 states in three years and have many more to go
follow along to learn all the best places to see rv and travel tips and much more
so first of all let's talk about what star link is so starlight is an internet service that is
provided via satellite now when Starlink was first kind of put out there and Elon Musk who
owned Starlink was talking about the service he was building really what it was designed
for was to bring internet service to more remote locations that either had not had service before
or had very poor service in the past just because being in a more remote area satellites right now
are being launched almost on a monthly basis right now where we've been here in central Florida for
the last few months we're seeing launches on the schedule all of the time and there's currently
1915 satellites that are in orbit as of the time of this recording which of course is changing all
of the time because they're sending more and more up pretty much every month now before we share our
results of our tests we do want to make sure that you understand that because this is a constantly
evolving and changing type of system in service information does change and new features roll
out there's new information that rolls out so make sure that you've hit that subscribe button because
as we move forward with our Starlink we're going to keep bringing new updates on what's going on
what our future test results are as we travel with our Starlink system throughout this coming year
so we signed up for Starlink over six months ago because the need to stay connected on the road
obviously is a pretty big need because we've had troubles staying connected on the road when we
had just one particular service provider one hot spot we've actually evolved to where we now carry
three hot spots with three different providers just so that we can make sure we're staying
connected on the road now we're of course looking for a more all-in-one service solution and that's
where Starlink comes in and so we have been curious and we have been definitely wanting to
test out the Starlink system and see how well that this would work for us as an all-in-one solution
so when we went to sign up the way that it works when you go to the Starlink website
and you put in your service address which is the address they're going to ship your satellite
to they're going to let you know if there is service available in that area right away or not
and kind of how you know is if they give you a price of the big package up front well they're
ready to ship you that satellite right then and there means you could get connected in that area
from the get-go if they just ask for the deposit that means that service isn't available in that
area yet where you've put in that service address but it will be coming and that you're kind of
signing up then on like a wait list which is what happened to us when we put in our service address
in central Florida where our home base is located now we actually did test out when we signed up for
this about six months ago by putting in a service address to have the satellite ship to of a family
member's house in South Dakota where we were at the time that we were traveling and it would have
been available right then and right there had we chosen to go that route but we didn't want to have
any sort of lag with having it shipped and then moving on if we missed the delivery so we chose
to just wait and have it shipped to our home base versus having it shipped to us on the road so one
of the big questions that a lot of people have had or how Starlink has typically worked in the past
is you put in that service address they ship you that dish and then the way that it works is that
dish is assigned to a specific cell in that area now if you think about like a cell tower you have
certain phones that are connected to a tower in a specific area and that's where you're getting
that signal well the way that Starlink works is they have cells of satellites in a given area
and the way it has worked in the past is your dish is going to be assigned to a specific cell in that
specific area and if you move your dish out of that area well it's no longer connected to that
cell and you don't have service it also had been in the past where there wasn't really an option
to change the service address to a different area and that's where some of our testing has
revealed some pretty cool results about what we were able to do to be able to get internet while
we were on the road this last trip out so where can you make sure that there's a cell well that's
where it gets a little tricky because there's not really a coverage map with Starlink so say
with a cell phone carrier like verizon you can go to verizon and you can look at their coverage map
and see where the coverage is that's not really something that Starlink has available just yet
so what we had to do and what we've been able to do is go on to our Starlink account and drill down
on the map to a specific area and click a button that says change service address now our ultimate
destination was a campground that was just outside a big pine key in the Florida keys when we chose
to change the service address to this campground address we did get a message saying that there
was not service available for that address so it didn't work for us at the campground however
when we were kind of digging around wanting to test things out we did find that if we put our
service address in homestead Florida that there was an active cell and that we were able to
change that service address to homestead Florida but we weren't exactly in homestead Florida
we drove just to the outside of key largo which is about 30 miles away from homestead
still in the Florida keys we set up the dish and we had service so that basically would tell us
that if you're within a certain mileage range of an active cell change your service address
to that cell that most likely you'll have service or at least that's what our test results
had indicated for us so far now we have been hearing some reports from some Starlink users that
they've actually been able to roam and basically what that means is they're able to get service
with their dish without changing their service address so they're able to take their dish with
them set it up and they have service without having to go through the service address change
process so there is a potential that maybe in the future this roaming feature may be enabled
for more people or it's possible Starlink might actually come out with an extra roaming service
as they build out their system where you're able to use this type of feature in Rome without
changing that service address so we'll keep you updated on how Starlink is working out for us
as we continue to travel and continue to test it out in more locations now if our test results are
anything like this initial go round of being able to find a cell in a larger area choose that as our
service address and then even if we're within 20 or 30 miles of that still have service we'll
keep you posted but that's kind of what we're expecting will happen since that's what happened
with our initial test result I did want to take a quick minute because I know so many of you guys
are thinking about trip planning right now as are we and thank the sponsor of today's video
campgroundviews.com now campgroundviews.com has just added over 700 more campgrounds
to their campground library and this year in 2022 their goal is to have all of the state parks now
with virtual tours that are available so we love being able to use this tool for our trip planning
to be able to look at campsites before we book them especially those that are in national forests
or other places where it's really hard to get an idea of what that campsite looks like by just
looking at the website map and bonus right now through march the first you can save 25 percent
off a campground views membership I'll leave the code and the link in the description below make
sure that you're subscribed so that you can get future updates because we will be making updates
as we have more information so you'll have to let us know about your questions or your experience
with Starlink if you're using it right now in the comments below we're highly curious about
what other users are experiencing or just about what are the general questions that people have
when it comes to mobile internet and Starlink specifically so you'll have to drop us a comment
below and definitely let us know your thoughts if you'd like to see some more videos about
mobile internet and internet on the road I'll put those right up here if you would like to see
just some travel vlog type of videos I'll stick those right up here don't forget to subscribe
right down here and you can watch some quick videos on instagram right over here if we don't
see you out on the road or at the campground we'll definitely see you in the next video