Starlink is currently designed to be a non-mobile internet provider. Its satellite dishes are meant to be stationary and provide internet for homes and businesses. This does mean that you can connect to your Starlink network using your cell phone, but only via wifi and within proximity to your router. You can’t travel with Starlink. At least not yet.

Elon Musk has stated that he wants Starlink to be more mobile in the future. This isn’t possible at the moment because SpaceX has only launched a fraction of its projected satellites, which means that coverage is a bit spotty and narrow. But as Starlink’s reach is increased, this dream could become a reality.

Once Starlink expands its coverage, Elon Musk hopes to fit Starlink terminals to aircrafts, ships, and RVs. This would allow you to take your Starlink internet access on the road, in the air, and overseas, and connect with your cell phone on the go. Unfortunately, this is only going to work on larger vehicles for the moment as it will be a bit impractical to fit the equipment onto smaller vehicles.

This kind of mobile service would be impossible with other satellite internet providers as they require that you set them up with a lot of precision to make sure they have a solid connection with a single satellite in space. Any kind of moving would break the connection.

Starlink has two advantages that will make this possible. First is that Starlink isn’t connecting to a single satellite, but rather a web of thousands of interconnected satellites. Second, Starlink dishes have built-in motors that allow them to detect signals and auto-adjust to make a better connection. This means that a future with fully mobile Starlink is very possible.