On a random sunday where I was struggling with 4g mobile internet in Accra, I thought to myself I better look into starlink as I really dont want to be fighting about the internet. So I decided to search online and found https://www.starghanalink.com/ – cheeky seo name – but works – was found on the first page. Checked out the website seemed credible, hard to tell sometimes but felt that it was a genuine company.
So I called the number and spoke to a gentle man and explained they can get the starlink deliv16ered to me in an hour – and I can pay via mobile money once the guy is at the door. I said great, please bring it over. I gave the details and waited, 2 hours after my call – a guy on an electric motorbike (I think via Uber) was at the gate and I checked out the package looked fine – paid for the starlink – which was 2500 GHS and paid 100 GHS for the delivery. I was mighty impressed.
So I went through the journey of setting up the starlink account (doing the address was definitely bad – as I had to put in a number on address line 1 – they could stop checking for the number and either accept the ghana post services number or google plus codes (I prefer google plus codes).
I initially had it pointing at the window and it worked briefly and then wouldnt connnect – I was hopeful I could make it work – after an hour, I unplug and put it out (pointing at the sky with no obstructions as it says on the manual) – and straight away it was working, speed was great.
I did end up putting on a balcony for convienience – that did work – but at a lower speed.
Thanks to the concrete walls everywhere (in Ghana the internal walls are also made of concrete) – the range is limited and had to get a wifi repeater – dont get a cheap one, that did not work well, I ended using my G Link portable router instead – that worked well but at a lower speed – however much quicker than 4g MTN network I was using (best one in accra) – there is a noticeable latency in my setup and will probably be better if I use the starlink mesh wifi instead to expand the reach of the starlink wifi.
Overall Im impressed with how quickly I managed to get one and seeing our well things work in Accra.
Starlink is working great. Speed is definitely quicker – however I thought I would be even faster. When I do the speed test – I was getting above the maximum 250 mbs quoted – that was when I had it outside properly. However on the balcony its only doing about 50mbs most of the time. I dont think that is starlink that is misbehaving but I think is because of the balcony and where I point it – the starlink app tells how it should be positioned and when I follow it – its literally pointing towards the house – I may try pointing at the sky again and see if the speed improves.