I had Starlink on the van for a while. It was great. I just cancelled it and went back to a SIM card in a 5G router. Here is why.
- Life before Starlink
- Why I tried Starlink
- The problems piled up
- My savior: Forfait Free Max — 20€/month
- Bonus trick: Devolo Magic 2
Life before Starlink
Before Starlink, I had a 4G router. I travelled with it all the way to Turkey, Norway, Portugal, and every country in between. Full coverage almost everywhere.
It only ever failed me in rare spots: on top of a mountain right under the antenna, or stuck between two valleys with nothing in line of sight.
So why did I switch in the first place? Data.
I had to be really thoughtful about my usage. I disabled every auto-update I could find, checked my consumption every single day, and ended up going to cafés and laundromats whenever I needed to push a real update to my devices.
That is the part that wore me down.
Why I tried Starlink
I met a few people on the road who had it and it was flawlessly good. Fast, stable, no data limit. Exactly what I wanted: stop thinking about megabytes.
And honestly, it delivered.
The good:
- 300 Mbps down, 30 Mbps up — way more than I need.
- Works everywhere in Europe I have been so far.
- I can game, download large files, and livestream without worrying about it.
So what is the problem?
The problems piled up
The longer I used it, the more the downsides started to weigh on me.
- I can't park under a tree anymore. The antenna needs a clear view of the sky, which is very annoying in the summer.
- One more thing to orient. I already think about sun direction and how level the car is parked. Now I also have to think about where the antenna points.
- Energy hungry. It pulls a continuous 40W. My old 5G router pulled 5W. On a van battery setup, that is a huge difference. I wanted to automate a shutdown at night but that's when my iphone syncronize everything.
- 95€/month, and going up again. That is the second price increase. At some point you have to ask yourself what you are actually paying for.
My savior: Forfait Free Max — 20€/month
A French mobile plan with unlimited data and proper EU roaming, dropped into a 5G router. That is it.
- Back to ~5W of consumption
- Works under trees
- 75€ less every month
And honestly it's as fast as before and even more on the uplaod side.
Bonus trick: Devolo Magic 2
A little extra setup I am pretty proud of.
I added a powerline adapter (CPL) inside the van, wired between my exterior shore power inlet and my Victron inverter. The second adapter lives in a small bag I keep in a drawer.
When I park at a friend's place and plug the van into their outdoor socket, I hand them the second adapter and ask them to plug it next to their router. That is it. The van is now on their home network through the power cable.
No coverage to worry about, no data usage, no Wi-Fi password to type on every device. And it works at full LAN speed.
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