Starlink

[newbury]

Except some of us will never have 5G as there is just not the population density to justify it. No cable company offers service where I live and while I do have fiber optic running down my street, the cost is higher and the speeds are slower than Starlink. So it's Starlink for me.

You just need the politicians to grab some of that money that's floating around.
My county in Mississippi only has a population of 28,838, for 540 sq miles, or about 53 live persons per square mile, yet they have two companies competing with fiber - the electric coop is stringing it and the telephone company is burying it.
Got to get the bits to the hicks so the kids can do well in school.

 

[BrierPatch]

Apparently SpaceX is preparing to impose high-speed data caps for US users. It has always been assumed by their customers that Starlink data caps would never exist! :-(

SpaceX's Starlink Quietly Mentions High-Speed Data Caps Are Coming for US Users

The company adds new language to Starlink's terms of service about users receiving a monthly allocation of 'Priority Access.'

www.pcmag.com

This is disappointing, but not surprising.
Does anyone know where StarLink reports data usage? I don't see it in the app.
Sad to see SL becoming more like the HughesNet. They mention that 11pm - 8am wouldn't count as priority data. I remember the days of when Hughesnet had the night time 2am - 8am access was unlimited, and then they even started limiting that.

 

[scootr]

I watch a you tube video that stated you will have to sign up for extended prime access to see your usage. I can't verify this but the You tuber has been reliable on Starlink info so far. This extended prime access will allow the user to go beyond the yet unset monthly limit at a per GB fee.

 

[TheMan419]

I think inevitable they will set a limit. The question is always what the limit will be. There are "power users" that use terabytes of data every month. Even limiting the top 10% of data users would dramatically increase speeds for the whole network. The problem is until those folks hit the cap in the month things will be slower. SO you might have the first half of the month be slow, then the power users hit the limit and the network speeds up.

One idea I saw floating around was tiered deprioritization. The first xGB you use is not deprioritized at all. The next X is deprioritized a little, the next x is deprioritized more and so on.

Again the question becomes what is X. So until we know that it is hard to argue. If SL is going to deprioritize after 1 TB a month, well the vast majority of users do not come close to that. We stream all of our TV and use about 200 gb a month. Of course as 4K tv becomes more popular we will have to think about different limits.

 

[scootr]

Email Received today. Basically the user limit is set a 1 TB per month and I'm using a 2-300 GB or 1/3 of my allotment. Here is the email in full.

​

​ To ensure our customer base is not negatively impacted by a small number of users consuming unusually high amounts of data, the Starlink team is implementing a Fair Use policy in the US and Canada in December 2022. Based on your data usage over the last six months, this policy will have no impact on your service if your usage patterns stay the same. Under the Fair Use policy, all Residential customers will receive unlimited data, and will start each month with Priority Access, which means their data usage will be prioritized during times of network congestion. Customers who exceed 1 TB of data use on a monthly basis (currently < 10% of users) will automatically be switched to Basic Access for the remainder of the billing cycle, which means their data usage will be deprioritized during times of network congestion, resulting in slower speeds. Data used between 11pm - 7am will not count towards your Priority Access. Starting today, you can now monitor your data usage on your account page. Read more in Starlink’s Fair Use policy and in the Terms of Service. Thank you for being an early customer and for your continued support of Starlink! Starlink Team

 

[cqaigy2]

Just got one in the mail too.

 

[Hilbilly]

I got this message too.

Bad or good timing depending on your point of view. I was thinking of cutting the so called cord (Shaw Direct Satellite tv) and going all in with Starlink but will now have to reconsider. I have no idea how much Starlink we use now but if I cancel Shaw and go completely Starlink I may exceed the threshold. If I do I might regret cancelling the Shaw service. I guess the only way to find out is to use Starlink for 100% viewing/internet for a month or 2 and see if I exceed the limits, before cancelling Shaw.

I guess we all knew this day was coming and now it is here.

 

[John_Mc]

I got the email today as well. Unfortunately, contrary to what the letter says, I can't find anything on my account page for monitoring my usage.

Probably doesn't matter - I'm nowhere near the 1 TB data usage.

It was a good point that someone raised: at the beginning of the month, anyone in congested areas will experience slower speeds, until some of the heavy users start to use up their allotment.

 

[cqaigy2]

I got the email today as well. Unfortunately, contrary to what the letter says, I can't find anything on my account page for monitoring my usage.

Probably doesn't matter - I'm nowhere near the 1 TB data usage.

It was a good point that someone raised: at the beginning of the month, anyone in congested areas will experience slower speeds, until some of the heavy users start to use up their allotment.

Starting today, you can now monitor your data usage on your account page. Read more in Starlink’s Fair Use policy and in the Terms of Service.

 

[scootr]

I want to cancel most of my AT&T aircards and go all in with Starlink at home... still need AT&T service wherever else I go.