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The original was posted on /r/Ultralight by /u/Peaches_offtrail on 2025-08-25 03:55:43+00:00.

tl;dr: great way to rapidly burn through your phone battery. Not good for emergencies compared to an Inreach, and may be worse than nothing as you’ll sacrifice mapping/navigation battery life to try to get a text message out.

Description: I received a beta test invite to T-Mobile starlink a couple months back, just in time for my PNT thru-hike. This is something I’ve been awaiting and cautiously excited about for the past few years.

How it performs:

The bad: * I found that in areas with no Verizon cell coverage, it would take a very, very long time for my phone to connect to a satellite, if it could at all. There was a period where it burned through 15 percent of my phone battery trying to connect. I finally put my phone back into airplane mode. * I did several tests between the time it would take for the satellite to connect versus my Inreach to send a check-in message. In a location where Inreach sent the message in about 1 minute, it had still not connected to satellite after 30 min * When it could connect, it would often lose coverage pretty rapidly while trying to send a text message. * It largely seems to only send/receive RCS, not SMS – this was a surprise to me. Maybe it’s how I had my dual sims configured (Verizon is my default number, and T-Mobile starlink came with a different number) * They want $15/mo for this service when it goes public, which is way too much given the limited reliability I’ve had with it.

The good: * When you finally get it to send a text message, because it’s sending RCS texts, it continues to send and message from the default number (my Verizon # not the assigned T-Mobile number) * The beta test came with access to the T-Mobile 5G network, which has more bandwidth than Verizon in many places * If you’re going to be stationary for a long period of time, with access to abundant electricity for charging, then this seems like a great option to keep in touch with folks you care about. I can imagine increasingly dwindling cases for this use (e.g. children’s summer camp?) * For day hikes where cell service drops on the other side of a hill, it could help you stay in touch with folks

Takeaways: * In general, I found the connectivity underwhelming. Exposed ridges and climbing to highpoints I find to be much more reliable for getting a strong enough Verizon signal to get an SMS out. * I’d rather conserve battery to have maps, or for communicating using a 2-way iridium messanger like an Inreach * I imagine that as starlink launches more satellites, cluttering low earth orbit, the service may become better. With how long it’s taken since initial announcement and this beta test, it may be another decade before I consider replacing my Inreach in the backcountry.