Living with Satellite Broadband: Installation, Performance and Troubleshooting

Where should the dish go?#

The dish needs to see a large patch of open sky. Starlink's current home dishes have a 110-degree field of view, according to its specification sheet, so think of a wide cone opening upwards from the face of the dish. Anything solid inside that cone, such as a tree, a chimney, a neighbouring roof or a hillside, will block some satellites as they pass.

Starlink's own installation guidance is short and worth following:

• The service works best with a clear view of the sky, although a partial view is often enough.
• A permanent mount in an elevated position, such as a roof or pole, usually gives the best installation and service.
• A wall mount is fine if the dish sits above the top of the wall and the view stays clear.
• Do not put the dish beside a wall or under any cover that blocks the sky.

In practice, good positions in order of preference are: the roof ridge or a gable end, a pole in open ground, the top of an outbuilding, and a flat roof. A dish on its stand in the middle of a lawn is a perfectly good way to start, and many people run it there for the first week while they decide on a permanent spot.

Cable length sets the limit. The kit includes a 15 metre cable between dish and router. Starlink's UK shop sells a 45 metre cable for longer runs. Plan the route before you choose the position: through an existing hole, an air brick or a new drilled entry, with a drip loop so rain does not follow the cable indoors.

The dish is small. The newer V5 dish is about 38 cm by 31 cm and the Standard dish about 59 cm by 38 cm. Neither needs the heavy brackets a traditional satellite TV dish does, but both need a fixing that will not shift in a gale.

How do I check for obstructions?#

Before you fix anything, use the obstruction tool in the Starlink app. You stand where the dish would go and point your phone's camera at the sky; the app maps what is in the way. Once the dish is running, the app builds an obstruction map from real data over the first hours and days.

What obstructions do is specific and recognisable. Starlink explains that the dish switches between satellites many times a minute and learns where blockages are, so it can often route around them. When it cannot, you get an interruption lasting from a fraction of a second to a few seconds. Starlink says it records any outage of 100 milliseconds or more in the app.

How much that matters depends on what you are doing:

• Streaming video buffers ahead, so short gaps go unnoticed.
• Web browsing and email carry on with barely a pause.
• Video calls freeze for a moment.
• Online games stutter or disconnect.

Two practical points. First, check in summer conditions if you can: a bare tree in January is a solid wall of leaves in June. Second, height fixes most problems. Raising the dish two metres on a pole often clears a hedge or a neighbour's roofline completely.

Should I install it myself or pay an installer?#

Self-installation suits anyone who has a workable position at ground level, on a flat roof or on a wall they can reach safely. The steps are: place the dish, run the cable, plug in the router, and follow the app. Starlink encourages customers to start using the service this way even if a permanent installation is booked for later.

Professional installation is the right choice for roof and chimney-height work, long or concealed cable runs, and anyone who is not comfortable on a ladder. Starlink's help centre says authorised third-party installers are available in selected markets for Residential plans, and that a standard installation takes about 90 minutes and includes:

• a site assessment and choice of the best dish position on the day
• mounting the dish with a standard mount on a roof, wall, fascia or similar
• routing the cable to the nearest entry point, with a basic sealed entry
• connecting and configuring the router
• testing alignment, signal, speed and obstructions, and a walkthrough of the app

It also lists what is not included: pole-mount installations, removal of the dish at a later date, and anything beyond the standard mount and cable. Longer cables, trenching, special routing, extended travel and certain building types may be charged extra.

If you use an independent installer, ask for a written quote that states the mount type, the cable route, how the entry hole will be sealed, whether the price includes a return visit if obstructions show up, and who is liable for roof damage. Prices are covered in What satellite broadband really costs.

One timing point: Starlink starts billing when you activate the kit, or seven days after delivery if you have not activated it, regardless of when an installer can come. Put the dish on its stand and start using it.

Do I need planning permission for a satellite dish?#

Usually not, for a house. In England, the government's householder guide to antennas explains that satellite dishes are normally covered by permitted development rights, meaning no planning application is needed, as long as they stay within set limits. For a house or other building under 15 metres high, the main limits are:

• no more than two antennas on the property in total
• a single antenna no more than 100 cm in any dimension; if there are two, the second no more than 60 cm
• a volume of no more than 35 litres
• an antenna fixed to a chimney stack no more than 60 cm in any dimension and not sticking up above the chimney
• an antenna on the roof sticking up above the roofline only where the house has a chimney stack, and then by no more than 60 cm above the highest part of the roof or the top of the chimney, whichever is lower

Both Starlink home dishes are comfortably inside the size limits. The positioning rules are the ones to watch, particularly the roofline limit if you plan a pole on the roof. Measurements exclude the mounting and brackets.

The rules are tighter in designated areas: conservation areas, National Parks, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the Broads and World Heritage Sites. There, a dish generally cannot go on a chimney, or on a wall or roof slope that faces and is visible from a road, without permission. Listed buildings need listed building consent for anything that affects their character.

Three further cautions:

• Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own planning rules; the guide above covers England only. Check with your council.
• Flats and tall buildings. Buildings of 15 metres or more are allowed up to four antennas of up to 130 cm each, and for flats the allowance applies to the whole building, not to each flat.
• Tenants and leaseholders need the landlord's or freeholder's permission regardless of planning law.

If in doubt, a short email to the council's planning department before you drill is free.

Cabling, power and Wi-Fi#

One cable does the work. The dish connects to the router or power supply by a single cable that carries both power and data. Do not cut or re-terminate it on a rented kit, since the kit has to be returned in good condition.

Put the router where the people are. The router should sit centrally in the house, not just inside the wall where the cable happens to enter. Starlink publishes a coverage area for each of its routers, but those figures assume modern internal walls. In a stone farmhouse, expect to need more than one unit.

Extending Wi-Fi. Starlink's routers can be linked into a mesh, where additional units placed around the house repeat the signal. Starlink recommends a wired connection between units where possible and, for wireless mesh, placing each unit no more than about two rooms from the next. You can also use your own router or mesh system by switching the Starlink router to bypass mode in the app.

Wired connections. Starlink's Router Mini has two Ethernet ports, according to its specification sheet. A desktop computer, games console or work laptop on a cable will always be steadier than on Wi-Fi.

Power. The dish and router are always on. Average consumption is 35 to 50 watts for the V5 dish and 75 to 100 watts for the Standard dish, according to Starlink's specifications. If the mains fails, so does your broadband, including any phone service that runs over it. A small uninterruptible power supply will keep the connection up through short cuts; households that depend on a landline for emergencies should think about this before cancelling it.

Does weather affect satellite broadband?#

Less than most people expect. Starlink states that its equipment is built to melt snow and to withstand sleet, heavy rain and strong winds, and the published ratings support that.

Source: Starlink V5 specification sheet and Standard 4 specification sheet. Correct as of November 2026.

The weather that does have an effect is intense rain. Water in the air absorbs and scatters the radio frequencies satellites use, so a cloudburst or thunderstorm overhead can cut speeds or interrupt the link for a few minutes. Ordinary rain, drizzle, fog and cloud are not a problem. After a storm, check that the mount is still tight and the dish has not been knocked out of position.

What performance should I expect day to day?#

Speeds move around more than on a fixed line. Starlink says its advertised speeds are maximums that are not guaranteed and will be slower at busy times. The usual pattern is faster during the day and overnight, slower between about 6pm and 11pm when everyone in your area is streaming.

Your plan affects how much slower. Residential 100 and 200 are capped at those download speeds and are given lower priority than Residential Max when the network is congested. Independent UK measurements across all plans put typical downloads at around 80 to 110 Mbps; the detail is in our complete guide.

Use the 30-day trial to test properly: run speed tests on a wired device at 8pm on a weekday and again on a Sunday evening. If the busy-hour speed is enough for your household, the plan is right. If not, try the next plan up before the trial ends. Plan differences are set out in UK satellite broadband providers compared.

Video calls and working from home#

Satellite broadband handles normal home working without trouble. Latency of roughly 25 to 50 milliseconds, the figure Starlink quotes for land-based use, is low enough that conversations on Teams, Zoom or Meet feel natural, and upload speeds of 15 to 35 Mbps are several times what a high-definition call needs.

What catches people out:

• Brief freezes on calls are almost always obstructions, not speed. Check the obstruction map.
• Large uploads such as video files and full-disk backups take longer than on full fibre. Schedule them overnight.
• Wi-Fi in the home office. Run a cable to the desk if you can.
• No fallback. If your income depends on being online, keep a second route. A mobile phone hotspot on a different network is enough for most people.
• Terms of use. Home plans are for household use. Working from home as an employee is household use; running a business with staff and customers from the premises is what the business plans are for.

Gaming on satellite broadband#

For most games, modern satellite broadband is fine. Latency in the tens of milliseconds is in the same range as many fixed connections, and far from the 600 milliseconds or more of older geostationary services, which made real-time games unplayable.

The limitations are these:

• Momentary dropouts. Fast competitive shooters and fighting games are sensitive to the short interruptions caused by obstructions and to variation in latency. A clean sky view matters more for gaming than for anything else.
• Download size. A large game is quicker on Residential Max than on a 100 Mbps cap. On any plan it is hours, not days.
• NAT type. Home plans sit behind carrier-grade NAT (explained below), which consoles may report as a moderate or strict NAT type. Joining games works normally; hosting lobbies and some peer-to-peer features can be awkward.
• Use a cable. Wire the console or PC to the router. Many "satellite lag" complaints are really Wi-Fi.

VPNs and remote access#

Work and privacy VPNs work. A VPN that your laptop connects out to, whether a corporate one or a commercial privacy service, runs normally over satellite. Expect a small speed reduction, as on any connection.

Inbound connections are the problem. Starlink's default set-up, which is what home and Roam plans get, is carrier-grade NAT, or CGNAT. You share a public IPv4 address with other customers, and Starlink's IP address guide says this blocks all inbound ports, so nothing on the internet can start a connection to your house. Starlink does not offer static IP addresses on any plan. The consequences are practical: you cannot reach a CCTV recorder, a home server or a smart-home hub from outside by the traditional method of forwarding a port.

There are four ways round it:

1. Use the device's cloud service. Most modern cameras, doorbells and smart-home hubs connect outwards to their maker's servers and need no port forwarding.
2. Use a mesh VPN or tunnel. Services that link your devices through an outbound connection from each side work on any plan.
3. Use IPv6. Starlink says it always provides a public IPv6 prefix and that IPv6 is supported on all its routers. With a router that lets you set firewall rules, you can allow inbound IPv6 to a specific device, provided the place you are connecting from also has IPv6.
4. Move to a business plan. Starlink's Priority plans offer an optional public IPv4 address that can be switched on from the account dashboard. They cost more and are meant for commercial use.

Starlink also blocks a small number of outbound ports for every customer, including the one mail servers use to send email directly (TCP port 25). Ordinary email apps and webmail are not affected.

If remote access to equipment at home is essential to you, sort this out during the trial period.

Using Roam in a motorhome, caravan or boat#

Roam plans use the same network with a portable dish, usually the Starlink Mini, which has a built-in Wi-Fi router and a DC power input so it can run from a vehicle or leisure battery.

• Park for the sky. The pitch under the trees is the worst one on the site for satellite. A short cable run to a dish placed in the open solves most problems.
• In motion. Starlink says in-motion use is supported with Roam plans in selected areas. Use a mount designed for the purpose; a dish on a dashboard is a hazard.
• On the water. Roam covers inland and coastal waters. Starlink directs frequent or extended ocean use to its separate Maritime service.
• Data. Roam 100GB gives 100 GB of full-speed data a month, which Starlink describes as about a week of typical use, followed by unlimited low-speed data. Full-timers need Roam Unlimited.
• Between trips. Standby mode keeps the account alive at up to 500 Kbps for a small monthly fee, so you are not paying full price over winter.

A Residential plan cannot be used this way: it is tied to its registered address and does not support roaming or in-motion use.

Troubleshooting common problems#

If a fault persists, raise a support ticket through the Starlink app or website and attach the app's obstruction and outage screens. Do this well inside the 30-day trial if the problem appears early.

What if satellite will not work at my address?#

Some homes cannot get a workable sky view: flats without roof access, cottages in wooded valleys, terraces overshadowed by taller buildings. If the app's obstruction check is poor everywhere you could reasonably mount a dish, do not order and hope.

Go back through the other technologies in Satellite vs the alternatives for rural homes. In particular, a property where satellite is not practical may still qualify for a connection under the broadband Universal Service Obligation, which that article explains.