Data Caps Are Coming to Elon Musk's Starlink Satellite Internet - CNET

Starlink customers received an email Friday that mightiness person felt a small similar getting a lump of ember connected Christmas morning. The missive informed them that determination volition beryllium a monthly information headdress of 1 terabyte for each customers successful the US and Canada, effectual successful December.

This is simply a important displacement from the company's erstwhile stance of providing unlimited information with nary strings attached. That argumentation was a stark opposition with outer net competitors HughesNet and Viasat, which assertion "no hard information limits" but trim lawsuit speeds erstwhile a information allowance is hit. Now, Starlink volition travel suit. 

According to the email, customers who transcend 1TB of information earlier their billing rhythm is implicit volition find their work deprioritized, which means that they volition acquisition overmuch slower speeds. The alteration was predicated to "ensure our lawsuit basal is not negatively impacted by a tiny fig of users consuming unusually precocious amounts of data," Starlink's email says.

The mean US household uses astir 491 gigabytes per month, oregon little than fractional of 1 terabyte, according to OpenVault's Broadband Insights Report from the 2nd 4th of 2022. While 1TB isn't a peculiarly choky cap, it mightiness inactive airs a situation for immoderate customers. Starlink notes that little than 10% of its existent users spell supra that mark.

Customers who privation to debar web deprioritization, adjacent aft the 1TB cap, tin wage 25 cents per gigabyte to debar slowdowns. Another mode to dodge the caller bounds is to usage information betwixt the hours of 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. That information volition not number toward the full monthly usage.

Finally, on with the email notification and consequent updates to Starlink's fair usage policy and terms of service, the institution besides modified the expected download speeds of its modular plan. The scope was antecedently 50-250 megabits per second, but is present tabbed arsenic 20-100Mbps. Is this the expected show for the foreseeable future, oregon volition the numbers spell backmost up erstwhile the information usage argumentation takes hold? 

CNET reached retired to Starlink and is awaiting a remark connected these updated policies.