Starlink: still waiting

I paid $9 for a Starlink reservation in January 2025. I was in a region where the service wasn’t live yet and figured it was worth the bet. Thirteen months later, I got an email that told me more — and less — than I expected.

What the email said

On February 13, 2026, Starlink sent an update to reservation holders in my region. The key facts: Starlink paid the required licensing fees in December 2024. The final regulatory signature is still pending. No reason was given for the delay. No timeline was offered.

That’s it. Fees paid, paperwork submitted, waiting for a signature that hasn’t come.

Meanwhile, next door

In early February 2026, Starlink launched in a neighboring country. Another nearby market is live too. Coverage in the region is technically possible. The infrastructure in orbit is ready. The holdup is on the ground.

Some people have found a workaround: buy a Starlink kit abroad and use regional roaming to connect through a different country’s license. It works, technically. It’s also illegal. Not an option for me.

What I’m working with

My current setup is a Qcell “400 MAX” package: 400GB of data per month at a theoretical 4Mbps. In practice, I get about 3.5Mbps. It costs roughly €32 per month.

It works. Most of the time. I can code, push to Git, use Claude and ChatGPT, and browse the web without much friction. I wrote about this setup when I relaunched the blog.

But when the network gets congested — and it does — things fall apart. Pings climb past 60 seconds. Video calls turn into pixelated slideshows. Database dumps that should take minutes stretch into something you start and walk away from. It’s the kind of connection that rewards patience and punishes anything real-time.

What Starlink would actually change

The honest answer: quite a lot. Faster downloads of database dumps and software updates. Video calls where I can actually keep the camera on. Working with large files without planning my day around them.

What it wouldn’t fix: power cuts. I already wrote about that — my MacBook, a powerbank, and good habits handle that side of things.

Still waiting

When I relaunched this blog, I mentioned Starlink as one of the things I’d be writing about — whether it would actually change anything here. I didn’t expect that thirteen months later, the answer would still be “we don’t know yet.”

I’m not angry about it. These things take time, and licensing processes are what they are. But watching neighboring markets go live while this one sits in bureaucratic limbo — that does test your patience.

I still hope it launches this year. In the meantime, 3.5Mbps and patience continue to do the job.