Starlink unveils $40/month plan with unlimited data - and a catch or two - technology-news.space

Starlink

Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source<!–> on Google.

ZDNET’s key takeaways

Starlink unveils a new $40-per-month plan.
This plan is capped at 100 Mbps download speeds, but offers unlimited data.
If availability improves, it could lure customers away from terrestrial broadband.

Starlink has been a great option for those who can’t get access to fast, reliable broadband, and prices have been quite competitive considering that you’re using a space-based infrastructure. But a new plan from SpaceX pulls the price down dramatically.

So what’s the catch?

Also: This crucial Starlink update will determine whether your old dish still works after Nov. 17

The new plan, called Residential 100Mbps–> is priced at $40 a month, which is substantially less than the cost of SpaceX’s existing Residential and Residential Lite plans, which cost $120 and $80 per month, respectively. The Residential plan is a prioritized service, which means it offers faster and more reliable service, perfect for data-heavy households. In contrast, the Residential Lite service is a deprioritized plan, resulting in slower service, especially during peak usage times.

The Residential plan offers download speeds ranging from 150 to 300+ Mbps, while Residential Lite offers speeds ranging from 50 to 200 Mbps. Both offer unlimited data downloads and upload speeds of around 15 to 35 Mbps.

Residential 100Mbps, as the name suggests, is capped to 100 Mbps, and still offers the same unlimited data downloads and upload speeds.

Think of Residential 100Mbps as a capped version of Residential Lite.

Also: The best business internet providers

However, at $40 a month, it’s cheap, especially when you consider that typical broadband bills in the US average around $70, but can range from $20 to $300 per month. But the 100 Mbps capped download speeds are well below the speeds people can expect from terrestrial broadband. (Figures vary, but last year US download speeds averaged around the 160 Mbps mark.) However, it’s suitable for small households or those with modest data requirements.

And if you don’t live in an area with access to fast broadband, this could be an option.

Well… maybe.

Another catch at present is that availability seems limited; I had to search quite a lot to find it offered. In the end, I asked ChatGPT to generate several ZIP codes for more sparsely populated areas of every US state, as I suspected that Starlink service cells in those areas would be less congested, and SpaceX would be more likely to offer this new service there. I found some in Wyoming and Nevada.

Note: Like cellphone providers, SpaceX divides areas into smaller cells, and the more people using the service in those areas, the more congested the satellites over that location become, and the slower the service gets.