Starlink delays fair usage data caps

3 years ago 1

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SpaceX’s Starlink satellite Internet service has delayed a plan to start limiting customers’ connection speeds during peak hours after users hit a certain threshold.

In early November 2022, The Verge was the first to report about Starlink adding a fair usage policy (FUP) section to its website.

The section explained that the service would start throttling speeds if customers consumed over 1TB of data per month during the day and lived in an area with high congestion.

“To serve the greatest number of people with high-speed internet, we must manage the network to balance Starlink supply with user demand,” the company said.

The Starlink website initially said the new policy would come into effect sometime during December 2022, but The Verge reported this has now been pushed back to February 2023.

The company did not provide a reason for the change, and the fair usage rules seem to have remained the same as in its original policy.

Starlink divides speeds between Priority and Basic Acces

Under the FUP, each Starlink service plan is allocated a certain amount of monthly data with unthrottled “Priority Access” speeds.

For most Starlink residential users, this speed will apply to the first 1TB consumed between 07:00 and 23:00.

Outside of these hours, consumption will not count towards Priority Access usage.

When the user exceeds this limit, their speeds during the peak period are reduced, although Starlink has not specified how significant this throttling would be for residential fixed customers.

The company said it could result in the degradation or unavailability of certain third-party services or applications.

“Bandwidth-intensive applications, such as streaming videos, are most likely to be impacted,” Starlink stated.

Customers have the option to buy additional Priority Access at $0.25 (R4.37, excluding) per GB.

The tables below outline Starlink’s expected availability, speeds, and latency across all its packages, and provide more detail on its FUP for each of these products.