Your dog runs off into the woods. No cell signal. Good luck.
Unless you’re using the Fi Ultra — the first pet tracker with Starlink backup.
Made by Fi, the $199 tracker connects to GPS and LTE normally, but automatically fails over to T-Mobile’s T-Satellite service (powered by SpaceX’s Starlink constellation) when you’re in a dead zone. That means you can track your pup anywhere in the US.
But there’s a cost. Battery life is the big one. Fi promises two days on a charge. In testing, I got about that if I was careful — and significantly less with active tracking. A 30-minute live tracking session drained almost 20%. It charges via USB-C in under two hours, but you’ll be plugging it in way more often than a conventional tracker.
The tracker is 75mm x 40mm x 25mm and weighs 68g. It’s IP68 and IP66K rated for dust and water, including saltwater. It also has a vibration motor and speaker for Fi’s shock-free Callback training system.
Setup was easy — a spring clip attaches to any collar. It looked big even on an 80-pound wirehaired pointing griffon, so “fits dogs of any size” is optimistic. It needs a $189 annual subscription on top of the $199 device cost.
The Fi app shows a live map. In Lost Mode, the tracker ramps up all radios for real-time updates every 2-3 minutes via satellite. That’s slow if you’re frantically searching, but it’s better than nothing — which is your only alternative in an LTE dead zone.
There were moments the tracker got stuck “reconnecting” for nearly five minutes. Fi says it’s because the device keeps trying to grab a terrestrial signal even when on satellite, since even one bar of LTE is more stable.
If you hike or camp in remote areas, the Fi Ultra is expensive insurance. The satellite failover works. Just don’t expect to charge it once and forget about it.
