I recently watched a Youtube video from a foreign tech reviewer, Joshua De Lisle, who finally ditched copper broadband and switched to Starlink because the speeds are total garbage — 17 Mbps download, and a painful 0.87 Mbps upload. He got so fed up he bought Starlink (interestingly, not directly from Starlink, but from ToolStation, which sells hardware in the UK).

Compare that to Starlink here in the Philippines, which has slowly been rolling out since 2023. Some people in remote parts have already started using it. Prices vary, but when promos hit, it’s around ₱28,000–₱30,000 for the equipment and ₱2,700–₱3,000 a month. It’s a high upfront cost — almost a full damn month's salary for a lot of people here, but for remote areas where even Globe or Smart barely reach, it's starting to look like a worthy investment — especially when the alternative is a spinning buffer icon every time you try to open Youtube, you kind of start doing the maths.

Meanwhile, back in Joshua’s story, in the UK he had to shell out £300 for the hardware and £75 monthly for the subscription. On top of that, he got hit with a “congestion fee” — a kind of premium for areas with high Starlink demand. Shit's wild. We don’t have that problem here yet, but it’s coming. Trust me. Give it a year. Every other house in rural Palawan will have a Starlink dish tied to a tree or something.

Personally, if I only stayed in Manila or Cebu, I wouldn’t even consider Starlink. But in here — especially outside Puerto Princesa — where I also spend a lot of time, fibre isn't a given. PLDT and Converge say the usual things like: “Sorry, outside serviceable area.” Like I haven’t heard that line a hundred times before. They might as well print it on a shirt and send it to everyone living outside the city.

I tried mobile data — 4G LTE, sometimes 5G if the wind is blowing in the right direction. On a good day, I get 30–50 Mbps down. On a bad day? I’d be lucky to load Google. Upload speeds? Don’t even ask. You ever try uploading a 1 GB video for a client and it takes 6 hours, then fails at 98%? Welcome to my life.

Upload speeds often crawl. I tried using prepaid SIMs with routers then strapped to steel poles, I even considered duct-taping my phone to a drone and flying it toward the cell tower. Desperate times. But even those “unlimited” promos get throttled or capped around 100–300 GB per month. Fair use policies, they say. But that's not fair use. That's theft with extra steps.

In Spain, Joshua mentioned paying just 15 euros (~₱900) for real unlimited 4G LTE — that’s impressive. Here, I dream of that. I pay twice as much for half the speed, and “unlimited” means “you hit 30GB, now suffer.” That shit's lie.

So what's left?

I rely on Globe's 5G modem and GOMO Fibre — switching SIMs like a drug dealer trying to find the good shit. When it works, it’s good, hitting 200 Mbps down, 30 Mbps up. But the signal can vanish when it rains. Outside town, I use Converge FibreX — consistent, stable, 50 Mbps down and up. Cheap at ₱1,500 per month. But again, only available in bigger towns.

If Starlink lowers its hardware cost or if the government subsidizes rural rollouts (in your dreams), I can see this becoming a real solution for places like Palawan. Until then, wrestle with telco promos, prepaid hacks, whatever.