Starlink

Morocco is not Mongolia and most of the time we expect to have a mobile phone signal. Any mechanical issues or health issues we should not be more than a few hours from a village or town and with two people and two vehicles we are safer. Although practically solving any issues may need a little more work it would not be life threatening just inconvenient and potentially expensive.

I was going to buy a Garmin In-Reach device which uses satellite connections for basic messaging and SOS alerts. With a phone App it’s possible to use it as an extension of normal data.

A few of the Australian boys have started using Starlink. They are of course YouTubers so they would want to be connected.

The point they make is that video calls, the ability to send and receive photos and instructions is better than text based support.

The cost of the Starlink Mini is £189 and £50 a month for 50GB of data. Not an insubstantial amount to shell out.

My plan was to buy the Garmin In-Reach for £250 use it for the adventure then sell it. My net cost would be the amount lost on the buying and selling but probably not more than about £75.

And then….. the email from Starlink arrived

Would you like a free Starlink Mini?

I clicked on the link and it said “order received” – WHAT!

After much clicking it seems I have the free kit as a rental at zero cost per month. It’s the same as the home set up. So far so good – but how much for the connection?

Half price it says but I don’t even know the full price!

As far as I can tell it’s about £25 a month if I use the connection and £4.50 a month on stand by.

Suddenly the Starlink option becomes viable and even with a few months of standby cost cheaper than the Garmin In-Reach

Checking on the Internet Morocco is not an “official” approved country but many of the van life folks report that it works fine. If you can see the sky then it will work.

In the next few weeks I will need to test it and get used to the power usage and so I will have to invest in a month of connection. After that I can pack it away and wait for September.