June 6, 2025
Note, transcription performed by AI and may contain minor mistakes.
[Tyler]
Good afternoon, everyone.My name is Tyler Hoffman. We'll wait one more minute before we officially get started. I like to be punctual, but we’ll give everyone a little more time to get situated on Zoom.
It’s great to see some familiar names and faces. I believe the chat is open, so feel free to share any comments along the way. We also have a Q&A feature built into the webinar. Please submit your questions at any point— there’s no need to wait until the end. We’ve set aside the final 15 minutes for Q&A and will address all questions then.
While we wait for more people to join, I always like to ask: Where are you dialing in from? If you could, hit the chat and let us know. It’s always fun to see where folks are joining us from.
[Tom]
The chat is currently disabled.
[Tyler]
Ah, right—you’re correct. We did that in favor of using the Q&A feature instead. Thanks for the reminder, Tom.
[Tom]
Yep. Please put your questions into the Q&A. We’ll answer each one at the end by reading the question aloud first and then responding to it. Ask as soon as the question pops into your head—there’s a good chance someone else is wondering the same thing. You’re helping everyone by asking questions. We aim to be clear, but sometimes we miss the mark. Your questions help us improve that clarity.
[Tyler]
Awesome. And Tom, you can see my screen, right?
[Tom]
Absolutely.
[Tyler]
Great. Let’s dive in. It’s 1:03 and we’ve got a strong turnout already.
Good afternoon again. If we haven’t met, I’m Tyler Hoffman, CEO and owner of Metro Wireless. Today we’re excited to present on Starlink and all the changes that have occurred over the past few months.
Joining me is my colleague, Tom Benson, our VP of Business Development. He’s been with us a while and brings more wireless experience than I do. We’re going to cover what’s changed with Starlink, how our solution helps mitigate throttling and overage charges, and share some success stories.
Shoutout to Mitchell from Arlington, Texas, with One Simple Connect—thanks for joining us!
[Tyler]
Here's our agenda for today:
We’ll briefly introduce Metro Wireless for those unfamiliar with us and explain why we’re considered Starlink experts.
We’ll review the recent changes to Starlink’s plans, which took effect on April 15th.
Tom will explain what happens when you run out of priority data.
We’ll then introduce Metro Bond, our Starlink and 5G bonding solution.
Tom will share a success story from one of our oil and gas clients.
Finally, we’ll dedicate the last 15 minutes to Q&A.
Eve, please make sure we're recording. I think we are—but just to confirm.
[Tom]
Yes, we are recording.
[Tyler]
Perfect. A few quick housekeeping notes:
Everyone’s mic is muted by default. Please use the Q&A feature for any questions.
If you run into technical issues, reach out to Eve from our team—he’ll assist you.
This webinar is being recorded. We’ll email out the recording, slides, and transcript afterward, so don’t worry if you or a colleague need to leave early.
[Tyler]
Let’s dive in.
We are Metro Wireless—a national managed service provider based in Detroit, Michigan. I live in the city myself.
We’ve been around since 2013, starting with point-to-point microwave wireless and evolving into LTE, 5G, and now Starlink.
Our claim to fame: “Keep your carrier, lose the headache.” We provide a white-glove, fully managed approach to simplify wireless connectivity for our clients.
Our 24/7 Network Operations Center is also based in Detroit. We like to joke, “Excuse the Michigan accent when you call in.”
Some quick bragging rights:
9.5/10 average CSAT score
Less than 30-second average wait time for live support
5.0 rating on Google
Clients tend to stick with us once they sign up
[Tyler]
As for why we’re considered Starlink experts:
We officially joined the Starlink Partner Program in April or May of 2024. There are strict requirements for this program, and we’re one of the few North American partners.
We’re also a Peplink shop—if you’re familiar with Cradlepoint, it’s a similar type of router. The Starlink + Peplink combo has been a huge success with our commercial deployments.
We’ve deployed hundreds of Starlink sites and have learned a lot—not everything—but enough to know best practices in the field.
[Tyler]
Now, let’s talk about what’s changed with Starlink.
Starlink has been around in the residential space for years, but the commercial side became more serious over the last 2–3 years.
Previously, Starlink offered two types of business plans in the U.S.:
Fixed Site – installed at a stationary location (e.g., warehouse, field)
Mobile – designed for use on the move (e.g., vehicles, events)
Customers would buy priority data—essentially the "fast lane"—based on their use case.
Previously, when a customer used up their priority data, Starlink would throttle their speeds moderately—down to around 100 Mbps. That was manageable, and many accepted it.
[Tyler]
However, as of April 15, 2025, things changed drastically:
Now, standard data is throttled to 1 Mbps down / 0.5 Mbps up after priority data is exhausted—no exceptions, no grandfathering.
To regain speed, you must pay for additional data or bond with 5G (which we’ll get to shortly).
This is a major problem for businesses relying on Starlink, especially those who originally believed they'd always get at least 100 Mbps.
Tom, I know you had a recent client example. Want to share?
[Tom]
Sure. We tried to raise the alarm on this, but we’re one company in a big space.
When we mentioned this in a webinar a month ago, people thought it was just a rumor. Now it’s reality. Clients are getting throttled to 1 Mbps—sometimes as early as Day 1 or 11 in their billing cycle.
1 Mbps is effectively unusable for any serious business. We’re talking worse-than-DSL speeds.
And the costs? Brutal.
A business that uses 3–5 TB of data per month may find themselves paying an extra $1,000 just to add 2 TB.
The emotional element is real too. There are roughly 1 million business users on Starlink today—and many feel blindsided. They entered thinking they’d get "unlimited" speeds that never dropped below 100 Mbps. That’s no longer true.
[Tyler]
So what are their options now?
[Tom]
It depends on whether Starlink is their primary or backup connection. If it’s a backup and they don’t exceed their plan, they’re fine.
But if it’s their primary, and they exceed their data allotment, here are the choices:
Get throttled to 1 Mbps – not feasible
Buy 50 GB top-up blocks – $25 per 50 GB
Easy to underestimate or over-purchase
No rollover—unused data is lost
Permanently upgrade the data plan in 500 GB increments
Also no rollover
Expensive and hard to manage
It's a return to the data pool management problem, which never works well for anyone. There’s always waste—by design.
[Tyler]
And that brings us to the third—and honestly, our preferred—option: Metro Bond.
[Tom]
Yes. Metro Bond lets you completely sidestep this issue. We’ll show slides and videos shortly, but the key idea is this:
We bond a 5G circuit with Starlink, allowing you to maintain performance without paying for excessive Starlink data or getting throttled.
[Tom]
Our 5G services are truly unlimited. I know other providers have lied to you about this—I acknowledge that. They’re truly unlimited. I welcome your skepticism—bring it on. No caps, no overages, no throttling, no deprioritization, no carve-outs, no excuses, no lies. I understand you've been lied to—that’s the wireless industry’s ethics problem, and it just... it can’t... it has.
[Tom]
So we bond the 5G with the unlimited plan together, and then dynamically allocate Starlink data so it lasts the entire month. We engineer the 5G circuit for high performance. You might think, “What if there's no 5G signal?” Then we use 4G. If there's no 4G? If there’s no cellular signal at all—then Metro Bond doesn’t work.
[Tom]
We get it. If you’re a Starlink user in the middle of nowhere—say a mining site in Reno with no cell towers within 10 miles—and you have to rely solely on Starlink, then you pay whatever Elon tells you to pay. That’s reality. You chose the location, so hopefully your business is profitable enough to handle the accelerated internet charges. Most people, though, are near cell towers—and this is where Metro Bond really steps in.
[Tom]
We can lock in your Starlink costs—you’ll never get an overage bill and you’ll never be throttled.
[Tom]
You’ll increasingly rely on 5G, but your costs won’t increase. That’s the financial essence of Metro Bond.
[Tyler]
Well said. And Tom, before we dig into the solution, let’s balance the picture. There are definitely some parts of the new Starlink plans we like. For instance, all U.S. Starlink plans can now be used in motion—no fixed-site vs. mobile distinction. You can use them on vehicles or temporary events. Plus, Starlink released a new mini-dish, great for businesses with space constraints or frequent relocations. It’s smaller, more portable, and cost-effective—the enterprise dish is now ~70% more cost-effective than before, while the mini-dish ranges from $200 to $400 depending on the retailer. That makes Starlink more affordable at a hardware level.
Tom and I also ran some real-world statistics based on December–February usage:
A client on the 1 TB priority data plan was using over 9 TB monthly—not sustainable without bonding.
A user on the 40 GB backup plan averaged ~130 GB/mo. They assumed 40 GB was enough, but without top-ups or bonding, they'd be dead in the water.
We tried to warn everyone before the changes, but many non-clients were blindsided. Tom, can you expand on Metro Bond (now “Metro Bond X”) and explain use cases?
[Tyler]
[smacks lips] Well said. And, and, Tom, before we get into kind of this, the solution to the problem, I, you, we, we have to be on balance, right, and share the full picture. And we, we have to say, there are a couple parts in the new plans that we do like, right? We were talking about this just the other day. Uh, what's interesting now is that all the Starlink plans in the US can now be used in motion, right? So there's no delineation between fixed site and mobility. All the plans can be used, say, uh, on a vehicle or moved around for temporary events and things like that. Uh, the other cool thing is not only does Starlink offer the enterprise dish, uh, but the new mini dish came out, uh, which is pretty cool for businesses to use who have kinda space, space requirement issues. Uh, again, people who are shipping these Starlink dishes a lot from site to site will, uh, enjoy having a smaller form factor to work with, right? Uh, they're also a lot more cost-effective. The enterprise dish is now 70% more cost-effective than the high performance dish, uh, that was used by enterprises before. The mini dish is retailing, I think, between $200 to $400 depending on where you're looking. So, there's a, there's a really cool opportunity now to get into Starlink more cost-effectively, at least from a, from a dish and antenna perspective. Um, the last thing I wanna call out too is [clears throat] Tom and I put together some real-world statistics based on what our clients are seeing out in the space on their usage. And because a lotta clients don't understand how much data they're actually using on a monthly basis. So here, uh, we took a, a, a cross-section of December through February data usage on, uh, some, you know, a random selection of Starlink users. Uh, some of these users are using it for primary use cases. Others are using it for backup. Um, as you can see on the top line here, uh, a client who is paying for the one terabyte priority data plan was actually using more than nine terabytes of data on a monthly basis. Uh, that just won't work anymore, unfortunately. And so, uh, we got this client solution on the, the 5G bonding service. But nonetheless, uh, they were really hammering their Starlink circuit, and this is kinda what Starlink was looking to avoid, is people who hammered their, their data plans without paying for that extra priority data. So that was pretty interesting to see. On the bottom row there, the 40 gig, uh, user, again, this, this user was using this as a backup circuit. They were just buying the 40 gig data plan. Uh, but on average, they were using 130 or so gigabytes per month of data. And so, again, this client thought that, "Oh, the 40 gig plan was fine for me." Uh, but in today's world, if they didn't pay for those additional top-up buckets or the 5G bonding, which we'll, Tom will get into in further detail in a moment, uh, they'd be dead in the water, right? And so, it's, it's pretty interesting to kinda share that real-world data that we're seeing and, and seeing the usage, uh, from our clients. So, uh, again, we've, we've kind of... You know, Zach kind of painted the picture. We, we tried to pre-warn everyone before the changes came. Uh, but for anyone who wasn't a client of ours, they, they, they might have been blindsided by this. So it's, it is interesting there. Um, Tom, you've already started to tease it out, but please, you know, kinda sh- opine a little bit further about, you know, what is Metro Bond or Metro Bond X as we're starting to call it and, uh, w- you know, use cases and things like that?
[Tom]
Yeah, so Metro Bond, at, at heart is, is just a channel bonding scheme. Uh, anyone who's been, uh... If you consider yourself a veteran in this field, I, I got into this mess in 1991. Channel bonding's been around forever. So this, there isn't anything really new here. We're applying channel bonding technology to any circuit with PEPLINK, just, just to be accurate. You can bond anything with a- anything. But most people ask us to bond wireless with wireless.
[Tom]
And most people ask us to bond Starlink with 5G. That's not your only option, but it seems to be the one that resonates with people the most. And, and it's a strong bonding combination. You get the performance of two different networks, you get the diversity of two different networks. And, and both of them are uncuttable, and one of them is, is even hurricane-proof. Starlink, um,
[Tom]
there's a lotta things they don't do well. They don't support their, they don't support their customers directly well at all [laughs]. They don't respond to service messages. Their billing doesn't get consolidated. They really don't have a great support mechanism. That's where we step in and fill in all the gaps. But the network in and of itself, you have to give credit where credit's due. It, it works, it works in the event of a hurricane. It works in the event of a power outage. Um, we have companies in Texas who are putting this on the roof because they're remembering the ice storm from three years ago. There's been a tremendous demand in the Southeast based on the hurricane experience from last fall when they lost power and there was no comms. So, Starlink is a fantastic diversity exercise. The application for this is obviously for remote sites, but the other application, and I think this is the sleeping giant,
[Tom]
is all of your customers who have had a strategic advan- or strategic advance towards the cloud over the last five years have created a risk for themselves where, if they can't get to the cloud, they've, they've essentially gone out of business until they get to the cloud again. And since no one can manage backbone flood risk with 100% certainty, it's just not possible,
[Tom]
this is what you put on the roof to guarantee I can get to my cloud applications. It's fast enough, it's diverse enough, and you, you literally can't cut it. Um, and you're not, nor are you dependent on the local networks 'cause you can get to space. So, it has a broad reach, uh, from a performance standpoint.
[Tom]
Underneath the hood, at the end of the day, we're taking e- the carrier speed from one and two or one and two and three, or one and two and three and four. Uh, as a practical matter, you can bond up to four circuits. As a theoretical matter, you can go up to 20. But the, the cost on that start to get out of hand. We see people tending to stop at four because there's a price jump at five. You have to go to m- a different set of gear.
[Tom]
Four circuits seems to be what people are, stop at when they put this in, and they go, "That's fast enough." And that's, you know, that's getting people into the 400 to 600 meg down range and the 100 to 200 meg up range by mixing and matching circuits. It is dependent on 5G local quality. If you're 10 miles from anywhere, know this won't work. But most people aren't 10 miles from nowhere. I just say that 'cause it, someone always brings it up to me, so I say it first. If there's no cell signal, there's no cell signal. That- that's just the way it is. But most places have, have cell signal nearby. It's tough to not-... have any cell tower from any three carrier available to you. And then we can start using that to mix and match.
[Tom]
Here’s a visual: one Starlink dish plus three 5G routers. You can adjust—2/2, 3/1, 4/1, etc.—it’s algorithmic, but that’s the Metro Bond model: go faster, diversify, eliminate single points of failure.
[Tyler]
Tell me about logistics. If we deploy Metro Bond X4 (four circuits), are we handing off four Ethernet cables to the client? One?
[Tom]
Great point—only one WAN port is used. Regardless of how many upstream circuits, the client receives a single Ethernet handoff to their router (Meraki, SonicWall, Velocloud, etc.). It's a single WAN interface but aggregated bandwidth.
In case of total failure, traffic fails over to Metro Bond. We also provide static IPs—/30, /29, /28, even /27 or /26. One Fortune 1000 utility required 13 static IPs—they wouldn’t sign off without it, and we delivered.
[Tom]
So this is just a visual representation of how... and arbitrarily, we picked one Starlink dish and three 5G routers. [smacks lips] It could be two and two, it could be three and one, it could be four and one, it could be four of the other. We don't, we didn't have enough slides to... It starts to get algorithmic the more you add. But that's the cun- that's the concept of Metro Bond. Go faster, eliminate Starlink, create diversity.
[Tyler]
So, so Tom, make it real for me. Like, an average deployment, take this example that we're looking at here, am I handing off four Ethernet, you know, plugs to a client? Am I handing off one? Like, help me understand how the actual logistics of, you know, say, a Metro Bond X4 with four total circuits kinda terminates to the client's handoff router.
[Tom]
Yeah, what's great about this is that i- we're only taking w- we're only taking up one WAN port, so it's single ethernet ha- Regardless of what we engineer on the upstream, whether it's two, three or four,
[Tom]
we're handing off single ethernet. And so we're taking up, uh, I, I call it WAN Port X. I used to say WAN Port 2, but now you might have four to six WAN ports. So I just... H- we, we plug this into WAN Port X and then route traffic to us in round robin and active/active, in load bal- however you want. And generally speaking, we're plugging into, uh, either a Meraki or a SonicWall or some type of Velocloud SD-WAN device.
[Tyler]
Mm-hmm.
[Tom]
And then send as much traffic over us as you want. Then in the event of catastrophic meltdown, send all traffic to us.
[Tom]
The second piece to emphasize on this is that we can deliver, uh, static IP, and we can deliver it in 1/30/20 or/29/28.
[Tom]
So, for network security and for se- you know, we sold it... We're gonna talk about this in the case study, but the CISO weighed in when we were gonna put this in for a, a Fortune 1000 utility company and said, "If we... If it's wireless, we can't do it 'cause there's no static IPs. I have to have 13." And I said, "We can get you 13 static IPs." He said, "Oh. Okay, prove it, and I'll sign off on this." And we did. So, that project was dead at the security level because they demanded... That's how they run their security is with static IPs. We were able to deliver that. Most wireless providers cannot, but we can. And so single ethernet handoff, full static IP ranges, and multiple carriers upstream, downstream.
[Tyler]
Well said. Well said. I think for the folks who really get into the nuts and bolts of it, you know, something else that's really cool that we can do that, say, Starlink cannot do directly, or T-Mobile, Verizon, whatever upstream kind of wireless direct carriers that you work with, there are a few capabilities that y- you just can't get from other folks. Uh, number one is the out-of-band management, and this really comes into play when, say, the Starlink network is- goes down. Uh, we've... I'm... And we... Looking at my left-hand screenshot here in the red, uh, we have the ability in the InControl portal, the cloud portal management tool, to set priority settings of, you know, what's, what circuit gets used first, which one in case Starlink goes down is, you know, say, in this case Verizon goes up, right? So, in this case, in my example, Starlink has an outage. Uh, what's really cool about our software is we can see if the dish is obstructed due to snow, or say a bird landed on it or a rock landed on it, whatever happened. Uh, and in this case, Verizon is set up to be the secondary circuit, uh, for that client in this event. Uh, and this particular deployment, this client also has a CenturyLink circuit, it's probably a coax or a fiber tr- traditional wireline circuit. Uh, that's just as a reminder to you that not only can we bond wireless circuits, we can also bond preexisting fiber or, or coax or whatever DSL circuits. Think we bonded a T1 last year out in Boston or something like that. Um, and then the fourth carrier, the fourth, you know, WAN circuit in this deployment is an AT&T FirstNet SIM. You can see it's an LTE with good coverage there. And so what's interesting is my NOC team can always log into this device remotely as long as at least one of the four circuits is up, right? So even if Starlink is down, I can still review this deployment. I can still access the same static IPs. It's a seamless failover and failback. Um, or in some cases we're doing active/active, right? And we're using all four circuits at once. And so again, when you go to Starlink direct, they obviously cannot offer this, right? When you go to Verizon direct, they can't sell you AT&T bonded, right? And so that's a cool thing that we, Metro Wireless, as a carrier agnostic firm, can offer you, uh, by doing that. Uh, the other interesting thing too is, on the right-hand side, we have the ability to monitor all of your sites under a single sign-on and a single pane of glass. Uh, we have a lot of multi-site clients, 20, 30, 40 sites, uh, who want the ability to just to log into one portal. And whether they're using Verizon, TMO, AT&T or Starlink as their last mile provider, they're able to see all of their circuits from this, uh, cloud portal. We're also able to monitor those connections and configure outage and usage alerts. So, say they've run out of priority data on Starlink. Let's flip over to 5G, or maybe they wanna buy up some top-up data. Um, say their, their wireline fiber circuit went down, let's send them an email trigger, so that way their MSP or their internal IT team can start to work through that, right? You don't have to procure every circuit through us. We're able to plug in any circuit or WAN that you bring to the deployment, uh, and utilize that and then get these kinda monitoring statistics as well. Uh, it's a really cool thing that our clients love. Uh, they don't always think to ask for it up front, but we always love kinda doing a demo, uh, either at the time of installation or, you know, at any point in the process to get them set up with the cloud portal. Uh, it's a really cool thing. But anyway, Tom, tell us about ENGIE in Texas and what we did for them. And, uh, I know this one's about a month in at this point, so they're pretty well-satisfied, but, uh, this is probably one of the cooler ones we've done recently, I know.
[Tom]
Yeah. The- the... Uh, this one's very cool, although there's ones coming down the pike that are gonna eclipse it. But, uh, as it, as it stood, it was, it was the coolest deal that we did in April. Let's say it-
[Tyler]
Hmm
[Tom]
... like that. Um, this was a, uh, uh, a typical account. They had a v- a high-value office in Texas. They couldn't get the bandwidth they wanted. The fiber buildout was $300,000. A pretty typical channel story. Um, they wouldn't sign off on the fiber buildout, and they went looking for bandwidth. Um, they settled with us. They were hard on us. This is a Fortune 1000 company. Uh, they're actually, uh, European u- European Union based.... with extensive operations here in the United States. Uh, if you'll notice, we're very circumspect about customers. If, uh, if we don't have [laughs] the release from our customers, we don't say their names. And that... We extend that to your customer as well. Um,
[Tyler]
For deep users, you offer capabilities Starlink or Verizon can’t—like out-of-band management. In your portal, you can prioritize circuits—for example, Verizon takes over if Starlink goes down (due to snow, a bird, obstruction). In that deployment, they also had a CenturyLink fiber/coax circuit plus an AT&T FirstNet LTE SIM—four circuits total. Your NOC can manage and monitor any site as long as one circuit is up, even during outages. You support both active/active and failover. No single provider offers that bonded flexibility.
Also, your cloud portal gives one pane of glass to manage multisite deployments, monitor circuit health, set alerts (like low Starlink priority data), trigger notifications, and integrate any WAN circuit—even if procured elsewhere.
[[Tom]
... like that. Um, this was a, uh, uh, a typical account. They had a v- a high-value office in Texas. They couldn't get the bandwidth they wanted. The fiber buildout was $300,000. A pretty typical channel story. Um, they wouldn't sign off on the fiber buildout, and they went looking for bandwidth. Um, they settled with us. They were hard on us. This is a Fortune 1000 company. Uh, they're actually, uh, European u- European Union based.... with extensive operations here in the United States. Uh, if you'll notice, we're very circumspect about customers. If, uh, if we don't have [laughs] the release from our customers, we don't say their names. And that... We extend that to your customer as well. Um,
[Tom]
what they were looking for and what they, frankly, were pretty skeptical of was can I get at least 300 down and at least 75 up given that I can't get fiber or coax, uh, with 13 static IPs? That was the requirement. And we said yeah. We- we... So we did a s- a site survey. Uh, we looked up the nearest cell towers. We looked at the capacity in the cell towers and said, "Yeah, with external antennas, to make sure we get clean signal, we think we can get you there." Um, this is a little side note there with... on- on 5G. The way f- The way the 5G networks are working right now, you get better performance if you put an antenna outside. It is not required. It's not required. However, there... It's higher frequency. The f- The 5G bands that are r- making everything run faster are higher frequency wavelengths, and they just don't penetrate buildings as well. That's physics. Um,
[Tom]
if- if- if- if- if it doesn't work, if that's unacceptable to someone, argu- you can argue that with Einstein. And my competitors like to claim that everything's the same and it's just plug and play, but it's not, particularly with 5G. If you can get signal outside the building, you will get 40 to a hundre- 100% gains. Uh, those higher frequencies just are not penetrating through buildings as well. It's- it's just the way it is. So, since we're here to go fast and we're specialists in going fast, we're- we're recommending antennas. They're not required, but we- we like them. In this case, the customer put up three external antennas. That's what got 'em the performance they needed, as well as one Starlink. They bonded it all together. They installed it, which, uh, I w- I was skeptical of, but I was impressed. They got it done. We filmed a video for them, um, which has since been put on our YouTube channel of how to assemble all this. They followed it to the letter. Um, there, there was no backing up like in- in your typical IKEA deployment. They just powered right through it, and we turned it on. Uh, net result, we ended up with 375.82 with 13 static IPs. Um, CISO signed off. Security signed off. Operations signed off. Everybody signed off. And this has been in production now for six weeks. So, this was a nice solution. And then subsequently, they have ordered three more.
[Tyler]
Yeah. Well said, Tom. Well said. Uh, before we get to the Q&A session, I- I always like to tell people what we just told them. Uh, and so, again, just to kind of put it in summary, why are clients electing for managed Starlink or bonded Starlink from Metro Wireless? Uh, number one, one of the bigger- biggest requests we get too is, uh, you know, Starlink directly cannot provide static IPs but we at Metro Wireless can. Uh, whether you... As Tom said, whether you need a /30, a /29, a /28. Uh, we even have clients who want a /27 or /26 out there. Uh, we have the ability to route all of those via the Peplink router, uh, uh, for Starlink, and that's a really cool thing. The second piece is Starlink only o- ins-... Even... Not only just for residential customers but for commercial customers. Uh, Starlink still only offers web and portal-based NOC support. There's no true phone number. There's no SLA on their support. Whereas with Metro Wireless, we offer that 24/7, 365 NOC with my- my team here in Detroit that's outside my door, and we average less than 30 seconds to answer the phone, right? We- we take support pretty seriously. We treat these like, uh, the enterprise-grade circuits. We treat it like a fiber circuit, right? An SLAed fiber circuit. Uh, what's also cool is because of our relationship with Starlink and our partnership with them, we have direct access to their level two engineers to kind of work with them on any odd or complex support challenges. Uh, fortunately, we don't run into that many issues, but we always have that option available to us when they need it. Uh, that's a pretty cool thing that my team likes to have and our clients certainly benefit from. The last thing I'll say, and Tom touched on this. Starlink doesn't offer true professional installation, but we offer white-glove professional install anywhere in the world. Uh, typically if- if you're within, say, the... a two-hour or three-hour driving radius of Detroit, we can get you installed within the week. Out-of-state installs typically take to two to three weeks to schedule but are really easy. And so, just to be clear, we offer three ways to run with Starlink with us. Clients can elect to self-install. Tom was just talking about that for that case study that he just referred to.
[Tyler]
Clients can elect for our W-2 construction team to come out, uh, and it's our own team wearing the Metro Wireless shirts and everything like that installing it and who have done hundreds of these installs.
[Tyler]
Uh, that's the most pricey but obviously very f- fluid and easy for everyone. The third option is we have a contracted install base that we rely on nationally, and these guys are installing satellite dishes all over the place all the time. And, uh, it's kind of the middle option of where you might not wanna pay, say, three grand for one of our guys to fly out, but you also don't wanna roll it yourself and try to, you know, get on a roof, on a ladder, or what have you. Um, so that's... A lot of clients kind of, uh, opt for that middle tier, if you will. Um, so those are just three reasons why clients elect for, uh, bonded Starlink and managed Starlink from Metro Wireless. Uh, Tom, I think it's term- time to get into the Q&A, and I'll- I'll kind of get us going here. Um, at the top here, uh, Zach, you reached out to us and said, "Hey, what can we do for an existing customer who purchased Starlink from, uh... who purchased from Starlink directly or another provider? Can we take over their Starlink account, or can we tack on an overlay of equipment and 5G?" Uh, yes and yes. So, what's really cool about our relationship with Starlink is that we can run something called an LOA process, uh, that allows us to take over the billing of that dish that's out in the field already. We will assume the billing for that dish, and then we can bill that customer. What we will also do at that point is deploy our own Peplink router. And from there, we can, you know, overlay the static IPs and things like that.If a client wants to keep their billing with their existing provider, whether that's Starlink Direct or another third-party like ourselves, um, what we have the ability to do is Metro Retro. It's not an official product name. It's kinda cheesy, but Tom and I like it. And so, we can always deploy a PEPLINK router, uh, to that existing location on the Starlink. And then we would obviously just bill for the- the- the- the management, the PEPLINK router, the static IPs, the bonding with the 5G and the 5G SIM card. So, we're able to retroactively kind of help out clients who- who, for whatever reason, don't wanna change their- their existing Starlink billing. Um, so thank you for your question there. Tom, did I, did I miss anything on that?
[Tom]
No, it's- it's- it's well said. I- I would like to, uh, I would like to throw that out to the, to the audience and bring it back. Do you have people who have overages? Are you experiencing complaints or throttling? Um, because we do have a product we can get out the door to solve this problem.
[Tyler]
Hm.
[Tom]
It's- it's Metro Retro. It is stupid cheesy, but we're in love with it, so it's- it's the dad joke of products at Metro Wireless, so we're just gonna have to roll with it. Um, we can get an unlimited SIM card out there and start doing load balancing immediately and- and get them out of this throttling top-up game if, in fact, people are experiencing a problem. That's what we're, uh... I'm very curious about that, is- is... and if anyone wants to comment on that or ask a question about it, uh, I'm very curious as to what we're experiencing in the market.
Tyler:
First up, Zach asked: “What can we do for an existing customer who bought Starlink directly or through another provider? Can we take over their Starlink account or add our overlay equipment and 5G?” Yes—and yes.
We use an LOA (Letter of Authorization) process to assume billing for an already-deployed Starlink dish. Once that’s handled, we deploy our Peplink router, overlaying things like static IPs.
If a client prefers to keep their existing Starlink billing, we have a retroactive solution we call “Metro Retro” (yes, it’s cheesy, but Tom and I love it). We install a Peplink router at their location and then bill them for management, the router, static IPs, bonding with 5G, and the SIM card. So, regardless of billing preference, we can help.
Tom, did I miss anything?
Tom:
Nope, you nailed it. Let me toss this to the audience: Are any of you seeing overages or throttling? Because we have a product to solve that immediately—Metro Retro.
We can deploy an unlimited SIM and start load balancing right away to bypass throttling. I’m curious what everyone’s seeing in the market—feel free to chime in or ask questions.
Tyler:
Absolutely. The next question, also from Zach: “Is your unlimited 5G service filtered for productivity, or is it truly open?” It is completely open—whether you purchase:
A dedicated 5G circuit (our core offering)
A metered SIM (pay-by-gig)
Our unlimited data plan
All come with open usage, including static IPs or DHCP. That openness holds even when bonded with Starlink, Verizon, or AT&T. We don’t impose asterisks or restrictions—all thanks to our solid wholesale agreements and direct carrier relationships.
Tyler:
Brian Dean asks: “Who provides the static IPs and what are the carrier gateways?”
We have our own static‑IP blocks, with our own AS number—routing out of our Detroit data center. We’re also planning a West Coast data center in Denver, Colorado. For single /30 subnets, we might pass them through from the carrier, but for larger IP needs, they come from Metro Wireless. If you run a speed test, the IP will resolve to Metro Wireless.
Tyler:
Next, Don asks: “Can you go over best practices for Starlink?” Here’s the checklist:
Quality installation – You don’t have to use our W‑2 team, but be sure the dish is securely mounted, protected from the elements, and cable runs are sealed.
Plan your data – For simple failover, 50 GB/month may suffice. For primary circuits, consider 500 GB–1 TB. Bonding can help optimize costs.
Choose the right provider – Starlink Direct is fine for home use, but enterprise setups benefit from partners like Metro Wireless, offering commercial support, managed services, and SLA standards.
Tom, any more best practices?
Tom:
Absolutely:
Ensure the dish has a clear view of the sky. (We once did a site survey, and they placed the dish under a tree—not gonna work.)
Remember the 95‑foot cable limit from dish to handoff—no extensions allowed due to the proprietary cable.
You’re always going to penetrate a wall at minimum; we won’t penetrate roofs.
For mobile use, we offer a weather‑proof Peplink kit that houses the Starlink Mini plus router—designed for vibration and shock. We’re also testing a Wi‑Fi broadcast solution reaching up to 0.5–2 km from a vehicle. Interested? Let us know!
Tyler:
What about Starlink’s 50 GB top-up? How much is that?
Tom:
It’s $25 for a one-time 50 GB top-up. It doesn’t roll over and you lose it if unused. If it’s exhausted, the service throttles again. We once helped a customer with ransomware—they burned 300 GB overnight!
For a permanent 500 GB block, it’s $125/month (25¢ per GB). No rollover, so you must estimate usage wisely—otherwise you’re back in the top-up game.
Tyler:
Noted. Next: Matt McElliot asked about IPv6—any complications?
Tom:
Nope. Our tunnels, routers, and SpeedFusion are protocol-transparent. IPv6 works fine. We do have network engineers available for setups with specific requirements.
Tyler:
An attendee asked: “What software provides a single pane of glass? And what access is available for resellers?”
We use Peplink’s InControl 2—a cloud-based monitoring tool. We co-manage it with resellers, MSPs, or agents. End users can grant access to partners. It offers folder-based, SSO-enabled site management. We’re happy to demo this—it’s really slick.
Tyler:
Richard Doer asked: “Is 5G available worldwide?”
Yes. Whether bonded or standalone, we offer global 5G/LTE options. While unlimited isn’t available everywhere, we at least offer metered service in most countries.
Tyler:
Paul Petro asked about pricing.
Here’s the range: backup-only solutions start at $350–400/month. The higher-end systems—like Tom’s oil-and-gas client—can go up to $1,400/month (for full-spec Starlink bonding). Our pre-sales process helps determine whether you value cost, speed, redundancy, uptime, etc. We used to say our offerings ranged from $60 to $600/month—but now we cover even more expensive solutions. For details: sales@metrowireless.com. We also have a pricing flyer available.
Tyler:
Zachary asked about progress on Amazon’s Project Kuiper.
We’re excited about competition in LEO satellite internet. Kuiper is expected to become available in 2026. We’re pursuing partnership status. From FCC filings, we expect dedicated packages—e.g., 400 Mbps or 1 Gbps services—which would help where Starlink SL8 speeds don’t suffice.
Tom:
Final thoughts: watch for overage complaints. Historically, partners were pricing at Starlink’s retail rate plus value-add—but now with Metro Wireless, we can actually beat Starlink Direct’s pricing and offer faster, bonded, multi-carrier service, with static IPs, consolidated billing, and enterprise support.
Any client using 3 TB/month—about $750/month with Starlink Direct—can benefit from our Metro Bond at $479/month, and get a far better product. At 6 TB, it's a no-brainer.
Tom:
Static‑IP pricing: $15/month for one, $49 for five, $79 for thirteen. We can provide as many as needed.
Tyler:
Thanks again, everyone. We’ll distribute slides, recording, and transcript in the next few days. Our sales team may reach out to schedule follow-ups. We’re planning a July webinar on DAS (in‑booth and building LTE/5G boosting). Keep an eye on our marketing emails—I hear you’re tempted to unsubscribe, but please don’t! We value staying in touch. Thanks again for your time—we’ll give you seven minutes back this hour 😊.
Tom:
Thanks, guys!
