Satellite Internet for Business Sites: Which Starlink Kit and Plan Fit Each Site

A business site can run on Starlink when four conditions align: the dish has a clear view of the sky, the kit suits where it mounts and how it is powered, the plan carries the site's data, and a router keeps the terminal on a second path. Satellite internet for business sites comes down to those four questions, and the answers differ between an unattended stand, a store counter, and a vehicle. The sections that follow match each site type with its kit, its plan, its power source, and the router that serves the site.

Sky, Mount, Power, Path: Four Checks Before the Kit

Four checks determine the kit and the plan: whether the sky is clear where the dish will mount, whether the dish stays fixed or moves, whether the stand has AC or only DC, and whether the dish serves as the primary path or the bonded second path.

Sky View Before Anything Else

Starlink's installation guide calls for the obstruction check in the app before the mount goes up, a mount within 40 degrees of vertical, and a tether in every case. Trees, parapets, and canopy edges appear in the check as scheduled drops rather than a dead dish, and snow piled around the dish blocks the field of view in the same way.

Fixed, Portable, or In Motion

The Standard 4 kit is the fixed-site dish with an indoor router. The Mini is the portable, DC-powered dish with built-in Wi-Fi. The Performance Gen 3 is the in-motion dish, rated for vehicles and the harshest fixed sites. The Performance Gen 2 was the earlier in-motion kit, and the Enterprise V4 is being phased out; neither is available in the Paygasus shop.

AC at the Wall or DC at the Stand

The Mini accepts 12 to 48 V DC or USB-C power. The Performance Gen 3 accepts AC or 12 to 56 V DC and keeps its power supply outdoors at IP68. The Standard kit runs on a 100 to 240 V AC supply that, like its router, is restricted to indoor use.

Primary Path or Bonded Second Path

A site with no fiber runs the dish as the primary path, with cellular as backup. A site with fiber runs the dish as the second path, bonded with the fixed line inside the router's tunnel, which turns a switch between the two into a reweighting rather than a reconnect. That is the design described in the cellular failover guide, with satellite in the role cellular held.

Unattended Stands and Lots: Chargers, Kiosks, Car Washes

An unattended stand typically has a terminal, often a charger controller or camera, DC power, and no one on site to reboot a router. The dish mounts to the pole or canopy edge, the router sits in the enclosure, and the terminal runs on its own VLAN behind the router.

Mini in the Enclosure on DC

The Mini is the kit for a charger or kiosk stand with DC power and no cabinet. It runs on the stand's supply, mounts flat, and connects its single LAN port to the router in the enclosure. Two limitations come with the form factor. The IP67 rating holds only with the Starlink cable, which means a standard RJ45 run into the dish voids it, and the Mini is excluded from the 99.9% service level agreement.

Performance Gen 3 Where the Standard Kit Cannot Go

The Performance Gen 3 is the fixed-site kit only where the Standard 4 cannot serve: a site that sees -40°C or 60°C, or one with no indoor location for a power supply. Its range comes at a cost in power. The Gen 3 draws two to three times as much as the Mini, and the UPS must be sized accordingly.

What the Terminal Needs from the Dish

The terminal is the smallest load on the dish. The data block is sized by the controller's telemetry, the cameras, the signage, and the days when the fixed line is down and the dish carries the full load. What the terminal needs is on the router side: its own VLAN, separate from cameras and signage, and a second live path that keeps an authorization from waiting on a reconnect when the sky view is briefly obstructed. The cellular failover guide covers the router design.

Staffed Branches and Store Counters

A branch or store counter typically has AC power at the wall, an existing firewall or router, a counter terminal, and staff Wi-Fi. The Standard 4 kit is the right fit, and the two decisions are whether to use bypass mode and whether to add a public IP.

Standard Kit with the Router Bypassed

The Standard 4 ships with the Router Mini, which has two gigabit ports and is rated for indoor use. Bypass mode turns that router off, Wi-Fi included, and hands the dish connection to the branch firewall or Peplink router. Leaving bypass mode requires a factory reset at the router, which makes it a decision for the installation rather than a later support ticket. Starlink reports two large counter deployments: Casey's, with nearly 470 stores and installations of 60 to 90 minutes each, and Yesway and Allsup's, with 449 stores announced in June 2026.

Public IP, CGNAT, and the Branch Firewall

Starlink's default IPv4 policy is carrier-grade NAT, which permits no inbound traffic. The Business plans add an optional public IPv4 address, enabled from the account dashboard and held by reservation rather than as a true static assignment. A branch firewall, a site-to-site tunnel, or a hub needs that address to reach the site. Starlink's own routers perform no port forwarding under either policy, which is the second reason the branch firewall or Peplink router takes the WAN connection. A Business plan provides the branch with the following:

• A public IPv4 option that the firewall and the hub tunnel can address, retained across reboots by reservation.
• Priority data ahead of residential traffic on the same cell.
• The 99.9% network availability service level agreement, on every kit but the Mini.
• In-motion use up to 100 mph where approved, if the same account also covers vehicles.

A residential plan, by contrast, leaves the branch without the following:

• A reachable address, because the site sits behind CGNAT with no inbound traffic.
• Priority on a congested cell.
• Any service level commitment.

Service Trucks and the Command Vehicle

A vehicle dish must accept vehicle DC, hold a fixed orientation while the vehicle moves, and withstand a pressure wash. One kit in the Paygasus shop meets all three requirements.

Performance Gen 3 for In-Motion Use

The Performance Gen 3 is the vehicle kit. Its 140° field of view is fixed and the dish does not steer, which means the mount must face the open sky along the vehicle's route. The Business plan enables in-motion use in approved countries.

Satellite as the Fallback Behind Two Carriers

In a vehicle, the dish is the path that holds when the truck leaves cellular coverage, and it connects to the router alongside the carriers. Published examples include SA Power Networks, which runs more than 170 utility vehicles with satellite as primary and cellular as fallback on Cradlepoint routers, and the Wyoming Highway Patrol, whose command center router fails over between cellular and Starlink. The routers designed to accept the dish as a WAN are the Peplink MAX Orbit line, the Cradlepoint R2400, and any Peplink or Cradlepoint vehicle router with a free Ethernet WAN port.

Behind the Router: Peplink and Cradlepoint with Starlink

Bypass Mode, Health Checks, and the Warm Second Path

Peplink, a Starlink Authorized Technology Provider, checks the Starlink WAN with a ping every ten seconds and marks the link down after five misses. That interval is the time a Starlink drop takes to register, and it is the reason the cellular path stays warm inside the tunnel. Ericsson positions satellite as the failover path for cellular or wired connections at a fixed site, and behind a Cradlepoint router the dish therefore switches in rather than bonding with the other paths. The exception is an R1900 or R2400 with Intelligent Bonding through a NetCloud Service Gateway, which can bond the dish the way a Peplink does.

Antenna MAX S: Mini and Router in One Enclosure

The Peplink Antenna MAX S is an IP67 enclosure rated for -40 to 80°C that houses a Starlink Mini together with a BR1 Mini, BR1 Pro 5G, or Transit Duo Pro, powered by 24 V DC or 90 W PoE. It suits a site with no cabinet and no protected location for the router, such as a pole in an open lot; a stand that already has an enclosure does not need a second one. The Antenna MAX S is available in the Paygasus shop under Antennas.

Business Plans, Priority Data, and the 99.9% Line

Starlink sells business service as a monthly terminal fee plus blocks of priority data, and every service line must carry recurring data. On December 1, 2026, the Local Priority plan becomes Business and the Global Priority plan becomes Global Business; the underlying structure does not change. Business and Enterprise accounts cannot pause service in Standby Mode.

Starlink is explicit about what the plan does not promise: "Stated speeds and uninterrupted use of Services are not guaranteed," and Starlink may reduce speeds when its network is congested.

• No guaranteed speed at any site.
• No unlimited priority data on a business plan; the block is the ceiling until the next top-up.

Power, Mounting, Snow, and Wind

Starlink publishes average power draw rather than peak draw, which means a UPS at an unattended stand should be sized from the average with headroom.

Starlink's mounts are not designed for hurricane or tornado wind loads, and the dish melts snow that lands on its surface, not snow that piles up around the dish.

Kit and Plan by Site Type, One Row Each

As a Starlink Authorized Solution Provider, Paygasus supplies the kit and the plan, pairs the dish with the right Peplink or Cradlepoint router for the site, installs at the stand, the counter, or the vehicle, and manages the service alongside the payments under one contract.

Common Questions

Next in this series → Peplink Router Use Cases: Which Model Fits Each Site Type