Looks like Iridium Go is in for some stiff competition and hopefully price cuts. Apparently Starlink is already active in a number of places (100,000+ subscribers) including OZ since April and the rest of the 1200 satellites are being launched at a frenetic pace :-). Pricing of Starlink is already less at $99 per month and $499 for the hardware.

Starlink requires a static base station and you can only 'roam' a few km from it. Yr subscription is attached to these base stations (or some similar restriction). Its not going to replace current mobile satellite communication in the near/medium future.

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Bushdog said..
Starlink requires a static base station and you can only 'roam' a few km from it. Yr subscription is attached to these base stations (or some similar restriction). Its not going to replace current mobile satellite communication in the near/medium future.

Interesting. Thank you.

My cousin has his business in satellite communications for things like pumps and dams and such. When I mentioned starlink to him he was enthusiastic for stationary infrastructure but it needed a large antenna orientated upwards, so he didn't think it would be suitable for yachts. Maybe with more satellites and better download capabilities it will get there. There is some guff about the satellites having to use each other to transmit data to a base station but the conversation quickly got beyond me. That said, the speeds mentioned seemed pretty good.

I think it will be a bit sad. I have always liked getting away from easy contact.