For background, I am a software engineer and I live aboard my 35ft sailboat full time. My work contracts are always remote (obviously), the flip side of which is that clients have zero tolerance for poor internet service (understandably). I have a gen3 Starlink dishy wired to my new B1 5G, and I moved over the Verizon physical sim that was in my Nighthawk and an AT&T physical sim I have to hot-swap in as needed (I’m mostly sailing the Eastern US so Verizon and AT&T are the best cross-spread for backup coverage). The AT&T sim works fine, the Verizon, not surprisingly, finds signal but cannot get an IP address. So I spent 3 hours on the phone with Verizon support yesterday trying to get them to update the IMEI, but no luck. I was about to start back into that battle again today.
But then I did a little homework and found the Peplink paid eSIM plans option - is this as easy as it sounds? If I understand correctly, I pay Peplink way less than I am currently paying each of 2 carriers (after weeks of troubleshooting, Verizon would only work on the nighthawk with a $100-a-month post-paid plan of which I used exactly 0MB of data last month) and the eSIM handles traffic spread across all 3 networks (Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T) under the hood? And I can use that spread for bonding? The Starlink has been generally reliable throughout the Chesapeake with only little “hiccups” where I’d want the 5G to fill in.
A couple of things come to mind I may need to work around. I currently have the Starlink shut down on a schedule at night to conserve power (I have 800w of solar and 600AH of battery so it’s not infinite), I’ll need to figure out a way to schedule the eSIM not to fall over and burn through bandwidth while I’m asleep. I’ll also need to blacklist things like dockerhub on the esim so I don’t accidentally yank down TB of containers when the Starlink is out. But other than that… the Peplink eSIM seems like a way better solution, right? What am I not thinking of?
Since no one has replied yet, I did want to offer at least one clarification. The BR1 only has a single cellular radio, so although the Peplink eSIM can give you access to multiple networks, your BR1 will only be attached to one network at any given time. You probably already understand that, but I see your comment about “using that spread for bonding” and just wanted to be sure that was clear.
You should be able to use that single cellular connection to bond with Starlink though, if that’s what you meant. I’ve found that to be a good combination to help smooth some of Starlink’s intermittent blips.
much appreciated! I Did not realize the BR1 only has a single cell radio, but yeah even bonding to smooth out Starlink hiccups is very worthwhile. even if not, the fallback is my greatest concern at the moment - and it seems like the Peplink esim is a way better deal for my use case. Excellent thank you!
I’m thinking of a starlink + single modem 5G router as an eventual upgrade from our max transit duo.
One reason to not get the SIM would be if you can’t control what carrier it is on (I assume not).
Probably less of a concern for maritime, or just for covering minor hiccups, but it’s not that unusual to be in an area that has coverage from all 3 major carriers but only one of them is good enough to use for professional video calls.
That’s why I would think the eSIM is great - not having to figure out which carrier to run with is a plus. And not struggling with (horrific) carrier support teams from the big 3 is a reward in itself.
Following up, I’ve been using the eSIM with starlink along the north eastern seaboard for about a month now, the combo is bulletproof. The cell radio is on a 9-5 m-f schedule so I’m not wasting bandwidth on recreational use, and everything spins down between 8pm and 7 am to conserve power.
Does it actually interact with the peplink device to find the best performing network? I’d imagined it more like using TMO by default (cheapest MVNO) then going down the list.
There’s a spot in the summer where ATT is often the only usable network though the other two get signal, a spot in the spring where it is often Verizon etc. Granted for a second or three drop it’s probably fine as a backup to starlink - it’d probably be a hiccup vs a dropped call at least.
I’m curious how these plans are structured - the A plan has 1/10th of the data (20GB) of the SFC allowance (200GB). I’m just on dual modem LTE now but will be going to a single modem 5G + starlink mini at some point.
If you just want a “keep it alive” cellular connection for when a starlink satellite drops, can you have it be ~1/5th of the bandwidth of the starlink connection? Or are you supposed to use that SFC allowance without the Ssim at times?
