Do You Really Need Starlink

A Teltonika RUTX50 modem router has negated any need for our Starlink Roam service while outback touring to date. The pending $8.50 per month standby cost being enforced by Starlink in addition to the $139 per month we already pay for another fixed residential service means we will just let Starlink cancel the roam service plus we are now also seriously considering cancelling our residential Starlink plan due to this belligerent attitude since we already have NBN fixed wireless plus 4g 5g data with Telstra and Optus. Starlink are offering much cheaper onboarding deals for new customers and charging existing customers more.

It can be important for business to remember where they came from and to remember those who helped get where they are now. Maybe dont overestimate the amount of potential subscribers and expect any return on political expenditure???

The Teltonika RUTX50 with the high gain external roof mounted 5G, 4G, GPS and wifi antenna is always setup and available, powered directly from the vehicles DC power providing wifi over a wide area in and around the tow vehicle and van negating the need to continually deploy and packup the Starlink dish and cables each time. Without considerable expense and aftermarket parts there is the overhead of AC power requirements by the Starlink unit. We never get through all the prepaid data allowance provided with our sim cards used in the Teltonika. 

Here is something else interesting, data usage, the amont of data Starlink report we use via them is massive e.g three to four times more compared to any of our data use with any other provider. We are not talking about one or two other provders here either, we are comparing many telco 5G, 4G, NBN FTTP FTTN HFC and FW connections.

We use the Teltonika as the router when we do use Starlink instead of using the absolute rubbish routers Starlink provide with their dish. The Teltonika RUTX50 simply has so much more to offer in features and usability and I am confident it will be still in use long after Starlink has had its day.

We originally purchased a fixed location V1 Starlink kit for $670 as an early adopter in 2021. Despite the outages, it delivered excellent speeds when it was online. This first Starlink plan was purchased to supplement and load‑balance our existing Fixed Wireless NBN connection, along with a Telstra 4G/5G link and two Optus 4G/5G links, not as an only resort option.

Later we bought a V3 kit for $450 to use with the Starlink Roam plan, which at the time offered an unlimited monthly subscription of roughly $150 and included a pause‑option feature. Without that pause option, we would not have purchased the second kit.

For the new mobile kit we also spent:

• $130 on a better quality and shorter Ethernet cable (the supplied cable is excessively long for most installations).
• $232 on a storage bag and an Australian made pole mount, because the genuine Starlink pole mount  costing $70 proved unsatisfactory and remains unused.
• $60 on the official Starlink Ethernet adapter.
• To avoid the high DC‑to‑AC conversion loss, we added a PoE injector and a Victron DC‑DC converter including cabling and switching, allowing us to power the Starlink unit directly from DC. This extra equipment added another several hundred dollars to the total cost.

We initially used the additional Starlink Roam plan at home for testing, then paused it until we traveled. Shortly thereafter, Starlink raised the price of the unlimited plan to around $195 per month, which was prohibitive especially considering the per GB cost of our 4G/5G data. Fortunately, they later introduced an 80 GB plan for $80 per month, which is more affordable but still much more expensive that our Telstra and Optus prepaid data sims.

During a trip to far‑north‑western NSW and far‑south‑western QLD we re‑enabled the Starlink service, but we only used it for a single night—something we could have managed without. Our Teltonika RUTX50 router, paired with a genuine roof‑mount antenna, a prepaid Boost plan, and an Optus SIM, performed flawlessly.

Now, in August 2025, Starlink announced that the pause feature will be removed entirely. They are demanding an additional $8.50 per month to keep the service active otherwise, the paused service and equipment we paid for in good faith will be terminated. If we lose the ability to reactivate the equipment when needed, we’ll simply rely on our existing setup and wait to see what is on offer when Amazon Project Kuiper launches in 2026.

In short, Starlink’s recent changes don’t align with the reasons we purchased their equipment. The Teltonika RUTX50 offers far more flexibility and isn’t tied to a US‑based provider who keeps changing their offer for a service with diminishing performance because they assume their customers have no other option.

Will be interesting to see what happens when Amazons Project Kuiper becomes available in 2026.