STARLINK: How to overcome VoIP problems

Whilst unsurprisingly STARLINK will not admit to the unfavourable problems experienced by it's subscribers, especially with UDP traffic like VoIP, the non-profit NGO "IARIA", a team of scientists and experts who have helped improve technology and standardisation over decades, report significant issues in real-world testing - see https://www.iaria.org/conferences2025/SPACOMM25.html and 2025 report attached to this article.

"results show a notable performance hit in the throughput when moderate rainfall (about 1 mm per hour) is present, about 16 percent for UDP"

Here's are out top tips to work around the STARLINK issues reported by many of it's subscribers:

• Fall back to TCP for SIP trunks and hosted voice
• Whilst the standard voice codec PCMU (G711u) is used by default on most VoIP systems, configuring the server and local devices (phones)  to use G723 or G729, which use less bandwidth can help
• Disable HD calling, opting for usable low-bandwidth instead
• Install a router that supports QoS and enable it for voice traffic
• Undertake a network review to identify QoS improvements on your local network to ensure the QoS router (such as Grandstream GCC range) harmonize
• Consider a failover for your voice traffic, such as 5G, to ensure business continuity for your phone system on days that STARLINK is underperforming

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