Starlink installation for homes and farms where broadband falls short.

Finding a clear view of the sky

Starlink works by talking to satellites that move across the sky, so the dish needs a wide, open view upwards. Starlink's own guidance is that trees and nearby roofs in the way cause dropouts, and its app has an obstruction check that shows where the sky is blocked.

I run that check from every spot that could work before drilling anything. A position that looks fine in winter can lose a big part of its view once a nearby tree comes into leaf.

Up high is usually best. A gable end or a tall pole clears most garden trees and hedges, and on an exposed site on the Yorkshire coast the bracket has to go into sound masonry to stand up to the wind.

A bracket screwed to a wall or a pole set in concrete is a nuisance to move, so it pays to choose a position with some sky to spare for when the trees grow.

Wall and pole mounts for a Starlink dish

Starlink sells its own mounts for each kit. The wall mount fixes near the top of a gable or fascia. For a pole there is a pipe adapter, which Starlink says is for metal pipe only, not plastic or PVC. The ridgeline mount sits over a roof ridge under ballast without drilling, though Starlink doesn't recommend it on clay tiles.

Ground poles need a hole and concrete, and suit a farm where the house roof faces the wrong way or sits in the shadow of trees. Mounts are made for a particular dish, so the kit model decides which bracket goes up.

Chimneys are a poor place for a dish. The planning rules are tighter there, and an old stack isn't built to take a bracket in a coastal wind.

Routing the cable and powering the router

The cable from the dish has its plug already fitted, so the hole through the wall has to suit the plug, and it gets sealed afterwards to keep the weather out. Inside, the cable goes to the router or its power supply, which plugs into an ordinary socket. Outside, the cable is clipped along the wall, clear of anywhere a ladder or a mower would catch it.

The router goes where the Wi-Fi is needed most, even if that means a longer cable. If there's no socket in the right place, an extra one can usually be added off an existing circuit, and we price it with the install.

Starlink makes its cables in set lengths and sells longer ones separately, so the router position and the cable length get matched at the survey, before anything is ordered.

In a long house, or one with thick walls, the router's own Wi-Fi won't reach everywhere, and access points and data cabling to the far rooms carry it on.

Planning permission for a Starlink dish

On a house in England a dish usually counts as permitted development under Class H of the General Permitted Development Order, so it doesn't need planning permission as long as it stays within the Order's limits on size and position. A standard Starlink dish is small enough to fit those limits on most houses.

Protected land, meaning National Parks, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and conservation areas, is stricter. There a dish isn't allowed on a wall, roof slope or chimney that faces a road and can be seen from it. A listed building needs listed building consent whatever the size. The Order also asks for a dish to be sited so it changes the building's appearance as little as possible, and taken down once it's no longer needed.

A home converted from a farm building or an office may not have the right at all, depending on how the conversion was approved, and flats and farm buildings sit under different rules. For any of those it's worth a word with the council's planning team first. If you rent, the landlord's permission matters as much as the council's.

Starlink for farms and outbuildings

On a farm the dish doesn't have to go on the house. It can go on the building that needs the connection, with a socket there for the router, and be planned alongside the farm's other electrics.

If you want to watch farm CCTV from your phone, the recorder needs the internet to send the picture out. Where the farm's broadband isn't worth using, a satellite connection at the yard can provide it.

From the dish, Cat6 or a wireless link can carry the connection on to a workshop or a holiday let across the yard.

Starlink kit, supplied or your own

A kit you bought yourself gets fitted exactly the same way as one I supply.

Either way the price is for the fitting. A ground pole or an unusually long cable gets quoted after the survey. Allow a couple of hours for a Starlink install.

If you haven't bought a kit yet, it's worth having the survey first. The mount and the cable length both depend on the house, and it's cheaper to buy the right bracket the first time.

Before I leave, the router is up and showing a connection in the app, and I run a speed test with you so you can see what the line gives.