Starlink Rebrands RV Plan & Adds Global Roaming Option

Starlink just unveiled a rebrand to one of its most popular internet plans. What has previously been referred to as RV is now known as Roam.

Twitter user VirtuallyNathan first spotted Starlink working on the plan on February 23rd, 2023. Back then, he speculated that Starlink would introduce a global roaming service, which is exactly what they introduced today.

The Roam option, at least for now, seems to be fairly similar feature- and speed-wise. However, Starlink made sure to highlight one key distinction in its FAQ section.

“Regional plans are geo-fenced to work on land within the same continent as the registered Shipping Address, while the Global plans work on land anywhere there is active service coverage. If you use Starlink in a foreign country for more than two months, you may be required to update your account to your new location. Starlink Roam provides Best Effort service – there is no priority access included in the plan.”

So, users on the regular Roam plan are still limited by their registered service address, meaning you have to change the service address if you’re out of the country for over two months while using Starlink.

Interestingly, Starlink previously imposed this limit on users who left the continent of their registered service address for two months.

For those that do want to leave their home country for more than two months, there’s now the Global option.

For $200 a month, you can now take your Starlink with you wherever you want to. The Global plans work on land anywhere there is active service coverage.

So far, the Global option only seems to be available to users in the United States. A quick VPN test shows that all the other countries Starlink is available in still only offer one local option, which Starlink calls Regional.

This isn’t particularly surprising considering that the majority of Starlink’s user base is, in fact, located in the United States.

The overwhelming demand for Starlink in North America has consequently resulted in a slew of restrictive measures. In the end of February, Starlink adjusted its prices for both the Residential and RV (now Roam) plans while removing the Portability option altogether.

Offering a global option may alleviate some of those network congestion issues by allowing Roam subscribers, most of whom are likely traveling in their vehicle, to access the internet in neighboring countries like Mexico or Canada.

Furthermore, Starlink Roam is only available for usage on land. A separate version for individual boat owners (not Maritime, which is aimed at B2B customers) may be introduced later on.

Lastly, Starlink Roam is provided as a Best Effort service – there is no priority access included in the plan.

What do you guys think about the rebrand? And most importantly: would you pay $200 per month for the option to travel with Starlink across the globe?