I have a Gen-3. We used it all summer to run our consulting business from our RV. We have the unlimited roam plan, because we are online for 8+ hours per day 5 days a week for work.
We might opt for the $50/month + $1/Gb roam plan next season, because we don't watch TV, and typical work data usage is often much less than video streaming.
One tip regardless of what plan. Always get your system up and running at home before you hit the road. This will allow you to debug any issues (they are rare) you might encounter while you have a solid internet connection and phone service at home. If you get out in the boonies and run into problems, you might not have cell service needed to resolve those problems.
BTW, our Starlink worked great even though we had peek-a-boo views through gaps in the trees. A word of caution, however. The more obstructed the view the more problems you can have with real-time connections like Wi-Fi or VOIP calling, Zoom, and connections to remote servers (think Quickbooks Online or online gaming). Streaming video is much more forgiving, because many issues are masked by buffering. There is ZERO buffering with phone calls, Zoom, and with the back and forth connections to remote servers. If you have a partially obstructed view, that means less opportunity for satellite hand-off overlap. This shows up on speed tests very randomly...speed tests are usually brief enough to miss a hand-off, but every now and then you'll see a big drop in speed momentarily, and that's when calls drop and remote server connections go bust.
This speed test is superior to the Starlink tests...which generally test speeds only to their ground station. This Fusion Connect speed test actually reaches out to a remote server...usuallly in TX...and it measures the all-important Jitter as well as ping, down and up speeds.
https://www.fusionconnect.com/speed-test-plus/ping-jitter-test
Numbers you want:
- Ping: 30 is good. 40 is acceptable. 50 is kinda sorta OK.
- Jitter...VERY important for real time connections like phone: 5 or less is excellent. 5 to 8 is OK, but you might get an occasional dropped call or zoom connection. Once you start exceeding 8, you will have problems, and you should consider moving your dishy for a better view of the sky.
- Down speeds: really anyting 40 and above is all you need for excellent streaming video. The ISP at our previous home gave us 15+ down, and we had no issues with streaming. With phone calls and Zoom, data volume is actually quite small, so download speed is not a concern.
- Up speeds. Anything from 5 and up is more than adequate unless you are uploading video content or similar huge files. The commands from the remote for streaming TV are insignificant. Again phone/zoom doesn't use nearly that much data. And, depending on the work you are doing on a remote server, the commands you send are tiny bits of data.
Jitter is extremely important, and that's where an obstructed view can cause problems.
One last thought. If you boondock power consumption is a thing. The mini, which doesn't perform as well as a Gen-3, uses less power. But a Gen-3 can draw about 100 watts quite a bit of the time. At 12 volts, that's 8.3 amps. 8.3 amps is nothing to sneeze at. Run it all day, as we do, and that's floating up around 70 amp hours (AH). To be fair, at times the Gen-3 will draw less, but if you're working it, and if it's constantly struggling as it hunts for the next bird, it can really exercise your battery...and your solar and your generator.
The Mini uses about half of that, but the monolithic design of the mini bundles the dishy, router and power supply into one package. If your dishy needs to be 50 feet from the rig to get a clear view of the sky, the router is 50 feet from your rig...and that makes the Wi-Fi connection a bit sketchy. The Gen-3, OTOH, allows the dishy to be separated from the router, and the router can live inside where your devices can easily "see" it.
I opted for Gen-3 for that reason...that I can park the Dishy where it can see the sky as well as possible, and my router and power supply live inside near the laptops we use for business.
We LOVE Starlink. We were out at a variety of campsites for 14 continuous weeks, and our business never missed a beat.
P.S. Our solution for the "cable question" is simple...
the standard old-school electrical port for a shore power cable. Looks factory, water tight, and easy-peasy. All you need is a 4" holesaw and a bit of courage to drill a 4" hole in your rig. But, of all the options others suggested, this one made the most sense to me.