Starlink Announces 1TB Data Cap for Residential Users

SpaceX began launching its Starlink megaconstellation in 2019, and just a year later it launched internet access in beta. With more than 3,000 satellites in orbit, Starlink is quickly approaching global coverage. However, the service may be more expensive to operate than expected. SpaceX has informed its customers of a major policy change — starting next month, the service will be capped at 1TB of monthly usage during peak hours.

Previously, Starlink did not have a specific data cap in place, but like all ISPs, it reserved the right to manage its network as necessary. According to the company, about 10 percent of its users consume more than 1TB of data in a month. It has reached out to those customers via email to tell them that Starlink service, which costs $110 per month for residential subscribers, will now include just 1TB of data during peak hours.

The company defines peak hours as 7 AM to 11 PM. Data used during that time will count against the 1TB cap, but anything used overnight will not eat into the monthly allotment. Timing large downloads can help ease the strain, but some people will inevitably exceed the limit. In that eventuality, Starlink offers two options: slower speeds, or pay for more data. SpaceX hasn’t specified how slow your connection will become if you get bumped down to “Basic Access,” but expect it to be painfully slow compared to the unthrottled speed. If you want more data, you can pay $0.25 per GB ($250 per TB). That’s a significant premium over the 1TB of included data at $110.

SpaceX launches Starlink satellites in batches of as many as 60.

This is just one sign that Starlink may be more costly to run than SpaceX has let on. Several weeks ago, CEO Elon Musk complained about the cost of providing bandwidth to the terminals sent to Ukraine, saying it costs $4,500 per month to provide service to each terminal. That’s much more than the $110 residential fee and even eclipses the $2,500 cost for each month of business-tier service. SpaceX has also quietly lowered the expected performance of Starlink from 50-200 Mbps down to a mere 20-100 Mbps.

Bandwidth caps are common for terrestrial internet service providers, so it’s not surprising that Starlink placed some sort of limit on service. The abrupt change in policy is irksome for subscribers, though. Many people using Starlink are in areas where they don’t have any other high-speed data services, so they’ll have to learn to live with the caps.

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