In a win for Starlink users, SpaceX appears to be backtracking on a plan to impose a monthly high-speed data cap on subscribers and potentially force them to pay more.

The company today updated the official Starlink domain to delete mention of the high-speed data caps, which were previously a top listed topic in the FAQ(Opens in a new window)/support section of the site. Prior to the deletion, the caps were supposed to arrive "no earlier than April," according to FAQ.

SpaceX also revised the “Fair Use Policy,” which previously said users would have to pay $0.25 per GB after exceeding the 1TB cap on their high-speed data consumption. If users refused to pay, their Starlink speeds would be slowed to “basic access” during times of network congestion.

Instead, the new Fair Use Policy now states Starlink subscribers on the residential and roam tier will receive an “unlimited amount of ‘Standard’ data each month.”

Download speeds for the Standard data plan can range from 25Mbps to 100Mbps for residential users and 5Mbps to 50Mbps for subscribers on the roam plan. That’s about the same speeds SpaceX has been advertising for its services prior to today's change.

Starlink speeds across the plans

But despite the apparent removal of the data cap language, SpaceX can still throttle a subscriber’s connection. “If bandwidth patterns consistently exceed what is allocated to a typical residential user, Starlink may take network management measures, such as temporarily reducing a customer’s speeds, to prevent or mitigate congestion of the Services,” the company writes in the policy. “Bandwidth-intensive applications, such as streaming videos, gaming, or downloading large files are most likely to be impacted by such action.”

Top Speeds Only for Those Who Pay More?

Still, if a customer wants to receive even faster speeds at a consistent rate, they’ll need to pay up. Today's other big news that SpaceX is offering a new “Priority” tier for select customers, such as power users, businesses, and governments. The Priority plan can deliver speeds from 40Mbps up to 220Mbps or higher during times of peak usage.

Users can go to their account to change to the new priority plan. But on the downside, it starts at $250 per month for 1TB of high-speed data. Users can also pay $400 per month for 2TB of priority data, or even $1,500 per month for as much as 4TB of high-speed data.

"Customers who exhaust and have not purchased additional Priority data will be allocated an unlimited amount of Standard data for the remainder of the month," SpaceX adds. In contrast, the consumer-focused Starlink residential plan costs at most $120 per month in the US. But the new priority plan suggests consumers will be stuck on slower speeds, unless they pay more.

SpaceX initially announced the high-speed data caps to address network congestion. The Starlink service has proven to be so popular in many parts of the US that the flood of users has stretched capacity, causing speeds to slow down.

SpaceX didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, making it unclear why the company decided to scrap the high-speed data caps. But it looks like SpaceX decided to shift the costs to higher-paying users. On the same day, the company also introduced a “Mobile Priority” plan meant for subscribers who own the premium high-performance Starlink dish, which can cost $2,500 and works on boats.

The Mobile Priority plan also offers better speeds, from 40Mbps up to 220Mbps. But in exchange, users have to pay from $250 to as much as $5,000 per month to receive a monthly allotment of data at the top speeds. Otherwise, they’ll receive slower, deprioritized data rates, although all access can be cut off if Starlink is used on open water.

The decision to cancel the data caps also occurs as SpaceX has been launching dozens of additional Starlink satellites to free up capacity. Imposing the high-speed data cap could have also alienated some consumers after the company in February already increased prices for US Starlink subscribers living in congested areas.

By: DocMemory
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