Starlink officially launches Roam, its new global roaming service

Starlink RV is now Starlink Roam, and you can try it yourself for $200 per month.

Last month, some users of Starlink started to receive an invitation to try out the Starlink Global Roaming Service, a new offering from the company that looked to offer connection from “almost anywhere on land in the world.” Now, that service is officially available in the form of Starlink Roam, which replaces Starlink RV.

The company describes the service as offering “unlimited high-speed, low-latency internet on an as-needed basis all over the world.” For those looking to sign up, Starlink Roam customers will incur a one-time cost of $599 for its portable hardware, which will likely be popular for those who need to connect in the field or for those camping without cell service. The company is also offering in-motion hardware, which is sure to be popular with RV owners, for $2,500.

In addition to that one-time cost for the hardware, customers will need to choose between the Regional plan for $150 per month or the Global plan for $200 per month. The company says users will be able to “pause and un-pause service at any time” and that the service is billed “in one-month increments, allowing users to customize their service to their individual travel needs.”

The company did note when it first unveiled the service that it is still a new technology and that customers can expect “brief periods of poor connectivity, or none at all” until it is fully built out.

Global Roaming makes use of Starlink’s inter-satellite links (aka space lasers) to provide connectivity around the globe. As this is a new technology, you can expect Starlink’s typical high speed, low-latency service intermixed with brief periods of poor connectivity, or none at all. However this will improve dramatically over time.

Starlink Roam launches in the same week that Amazon offered a first look at its upcoming satellite internet dishes that are part of Project Kuiper, the company’s low Earth orbit satellite network. Amazon is looking to undercut Starlink in terms of price and range of hardware, but the company says that it doesn’t expect the dishes to be active for users until the end of 2024.