When I get you right:
The starter service isn't really needed in an app. It's good to have one single entry point. After that it's the activity's job. Normaly you have a simple event (like when the app starts ONE TIME or a button is pressed) which causes a function (f.e. "GetData") to be called.
Exactly: When you need data from the remote server, you know when (button pressed, etc.). Then just do it (call a sub or similar).
Please feel free to post some code here to see what you're doing in your app.