Starlink customers received a notice about some of the company’s new rules this Friday. The changes will affect those who consume too much data, as Starlink is now introducing a limit of 1 terabyte of data per month in December for all customers in the U.S. and Canada.
Previously Starlink had no limit, and you could consume unlimited data. This set it apart from competitors HughesNet and Viasat, which claimed no hard limits on data transfer, but reduced customer speeds after exceeding the established limit. Now Starlink will follow suit.
Under the new rules, once you consume more than 1TB of memory before the end of the billing cycle, then you will lose priority. This means you will be getting significantly slower internet. This change was made to “eliminate the negative impact on our customer base from a small number of users consuming huge amounts of data,” Starlink said in an email.
OpenVault’s recent Broadband Insights Report for the second quarter of 2022 found that the average U.S. family uses about 491 gigabytes per month. So for most users, this limitation won’t be a problem. Starlink notes that less than 10% of its users exceed that mark.
Starlink offers two options for those who are going to consume a lot of data and want to avoid the limit. First, you can pay 25 cents per gigabyte to prevent slowdowns. You can also use data from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. This data will not count toward your total monthly usage.
Another unpleasant news is that Starlink will change the expected download speed for its standard data plan. While previously the range was 50-250 megabits per second, it is now designated as 20-100 Mbps. Most likely, this speed will be relevant shortly.
