Where I live in Oregon, mountain trails and dog owners abound, but cell towers aren’t available to use traditional pet tracking collars. Fi’s latest Ultra collar, released on Wednesday, offers a unique solution: a Starlink-powered connection that can update you on your dog’s location, even when you’re camping or hiking off the grid.
The new integration uses T-Satellite, T-Mobile’s cell satellite service that taps Starlink satellites as a replacement when there’s no standard terrestrial cell coverage. This tech is adaptable, so when you or your furry friend moves back into range of LTE towers, the tracking switches back to cellular to save battery life and data usage. It can also connect via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth at close ranges.
Speaking of battery life, Fi reports that the new Ultra collar can last slightly longer than two days without needing a charge. That’s pretty limited compared to other Fi Series collars that can last for months without needing a charge. Still, the collar can be charged via USB-C, and carrying a portable power bank is a camping must-have these days.
In addition to the real-time updates, the collar also includes a location history to track movement over time, even in dead zones. There’s no shock feature, but there is a callback mode that uses sound and vibration to guide your dog to return on command.
The Ultra collar can work with cell towers, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth as well.
Fi’s chief technology officer Loren Kirby told CNET he has used the Fi Ultra at Olympia National Park. “In both the Hoh Rainforest and Rialto Beach, there’s no terrestrial cell coverage at all,” he said. “As soon as we walked out of range, the units switched from LTE straight to satellite and kept sending location updates every few minutes the whole time we were hiking. When we got back in range, it just switched back to normal cell connectivity.”
All of this comes at a particularly high price. For new Fi members, the Fi Ultra tracker costs $199 upfront, plus a $20 activation fee and a $189 mandatory annual membership fee. Existing Fi subscribers can upgrade for a flat $299 fee, linking the new hardware to their current annual subscription plan. That’s extremely high-end compared to other options such as our PetCube pick, which starts at $40 with a $5 per month fee for GPS tracking.
We’ll work to get our hands on the Fi Ultra to test it out. However, it’s worth noting that we’ve tested portable Starlink Mini kits for camping before and found they can get obstructed by overhead trees. There are a lot of those trees out on the trails, and I don’t know how well T-Satellite addresses that issue. Starlink connections aren’t necessarily reliable just because they’re available in so many forms.
