You’re closing the cottage in the next few weeks. What do you do with your Starlink? Three options, and the wrong one can cost you your spot on the network or several hundred dollars for nothing. Here’s how to decide, plus the checklist to run before you lock the door.
Standby if you’re coming back in spring. Cancel only if you’re not.
Standby at $15/month protects your service address. Cancelling costs nothing, but you lose your spot if your area fills up before spring.
The three options
| Option | Cost over 7 months | What you keep |
|---|---|---|
| Standby | $105 | Account, dish, service address. Instant reactivation. |
| Cancel | $0 | Your dish (if you own it). You lose your spot in a saturated cell. |
| Keep active | $525 (at $75/mo) | Everything, including remote monitoring |
Standby is generally not available to customers renting their hardware. With a rental it’s all or nothing: pay full price all winter, or cancel and return the equipment.
The checklist before you leave
- Pick your option and apply it now — the change takes effect at your next billing date, not immediately. Do it before you leave, not after. How standby works →
- Physically unplug the equipment. Standby is a billing setting, not a power switch — your router keeps drawing power if you leave it in.
- Bring the dish inside if it’s portable. A Mini on a tripod has no business sitting outside all winter. A properly mounted Standard can stay.
- If it stays outside: make sure snow sliding off the roof won’t take it with it, and that the cable is properly secured.
- Write down your billing date. In spring you’ll want to reactivate just before your first visit, not three weeks early.
The remote monitoring case
If you have cameras, a water leak sensor or a connected thermostat, keeping full service can be worth it. An undetected flood in February costs far more than $525 of service.
Worth knowing: standby leaves a very slow connection, enough for text alerts but not for live video. If you want to see your cameras, you need full service. See the camera guide →
Come spring
Reactivation takes a few taps in the app, at no charge. Two tips:
- Reactivate a few days before your first visit so you can confirm everything works before you arrive.
- Re-run the obstruction check — a branch may have grown or broken over the winter.
No Starlink at the cottage yet?
With standby in the off-season, a connected cottage often runs under $500 a year. First month free through our link.
Last updated: September 1, 2026.
*1 mois d'abonnement Starlink gratuit (équivalent à votre forfait) crédité automatiquement 30 jours après l'activation de votre service, en commandant via notre lien de référral officiel RC-DF-7650727-61403-46. Programme officiel SpaceX. Aucun coût supplémentaire pour vous : prix identique à starlink.com. FastSat.ca reçoit une compensation (140 $ en argent ou en crédit) pour chaque référral, ce qui finance le site.