Techdirt is off for the long weekend! We'll be back with our regular posts tomorrow.
As Predicted, Starlink Launches Broadband Usage Caps, Overage Fees
from the can't-escape-the-laws-of-physics dept
We’ve noted for a while that the laws of physics would prohibit Elon Musk’s satellite broadband service from being truly disruptive at any real scale. Analysts had been quietly noting for a while that Starlink lacked the capacity to handle its projected user load. That recently resulted in obvious slowdowns, raising the question of when the company would inevitably examine throttling and usage caps.
That time has arrived. Last week hints began to surface that usage caps and throttling would soon be hitting Starlink users, who currently pay $110 a month (plus a $600 first month equipment charge) for what’s usually sub 100 Mbps service.
This week Starlink unveiled more details about how the caps will work. Basically, Starlink users will now see a 1 terabyte monthly usage cap. Once that’s exceeded, users will find their connection “deprioritized” for the remainder of that billing cycle, with connection speeds throttled if they reside in congested areas. Users can pay $0.25 for each additional GB downloaded if they want to avoid the limits.
As with most broadband ISPs, Starlink insists this is no big deal because most people won’t hit the limit:
SpaceX didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. But in an email(Opens in a new window) sent to customers, the company said the high-speed data caps will be enforced in December for customers in the US and Canada. The email adds that less than 10% of Starlink users exceed 1TB in monthly data usage.
In addition to the restrictions, the company has lowered its advertised speeds from an estimated 50 to 200Mbps, down to 20 to 100Mbps. The price will remain the same.
Musk wants to maximize revenue and keep the service in headlines despite these capacity constraints, so he keeps on expanding the potential subscriber base, whether that’s a tier aimed at boaters (at $5,000 a month), the specialized tier aimed at RVs ($135 a month plus a $2,500 hardware kit), the aid to Ukraine, or the new plan to sell service access to various airlines to help fuel in-flight broadband services.
As things get more congested, you can expect more restrictions — especially if there are any delays in getting the second generation Starlink satellites launched at any scale. These inevitable restrictions are why so many telecom policy folks supported the FCC walking back subsidies thrown at Starlink, to instead focus on funding future-proof fiber networks with no such capacity issues.
Again, Starlink is great if you have no other options, can afford it, don’t mind the year long wait for it, and don’t care that the company can’t answer emails. But Starlink can’t really touch the scale of the US broadband problem (20-40 million without access, 83 million living under a monopoly), which is largely going to be fixed by creatively expanding fiber as widely as possible, then filling in much of the rest with 5G.
Filed Under: 5g, broadband, caps, digital divide, fiber, gigabit, high speed internet, leo, low earth orbit satellites, overage fees
Companies: spacex, starlink
Comments on “As Predicted, Starlink Launches Broadband Usage Caps, Overage Fees”
Elon needs to start making up for his losses from buying Twitter somehow.
Lemme check if I understood it: there’s a capacity issue (finite bandwidth) that Musk want’s to solve limiting the total amount of data you can transfer instead of limiting… bandwidth.
This is either stupidity or cash milking. Considering the fast paced train wreck we are seeing on Twitter I cannot determined which one is true.
Re:
It’s because the issue is one of peak demand, not of overall demand.. This soft cap will push usage out from peak to off-peak, and encourage those that are watching 4k streams change them to 1080p etc.
Re: Re:
I know. It may work when everyone has their caps running low in the end of the month and save for necessity but even then, if you can buy extra Gb and keep using it will still cause congestion. A better, more honest approach would be to limit everyone if congestion happens and prioritize only essential services, no?
Re: Re: Re:
Have ISPs, or Musk, ever been known for their honesty?
Of course it would make more technical sense to apply limits only where and when they’re required. But monthly transfer limits have the effect of making people paranoid about their usage, and gives the signal that—like any wireless service—Starlink is not a substitute for a “real” internet connection. I guess ISPs see value in this.
US broadband provision
The issue isn’t really starlink, it’s the appalling broadband situation in the US.
In Europe starlink is offering very reasonably priced plans, because it is the only way it can reasonably compete.
France is currently at ~$50 a month, Italy they’re offering the equipment for $1 to trial it before committing.
UK and Germany are about $80 a month.
And in all these locations users are seeing 250 Mbps down.
Starlinks problem is it was too popular, introducing a soft cap during peak hours and reducing peak download speed should go some way to resolving the issues for everyone, as a lot of this using it right now will timeshift their demand accordingly, setting steam /Xbox to download updates after 11 for instance, rather than during the day as now.
Congratulations Musk fans, he’s made Space Comcast, the damage to astronomy sure was worth it, huh?
Once more, Techdirt complains about what a private company does with its policies and resources.
That’s capitalism: companies profiting off a service that they provide, and the consumer benefiting from using that service. As long as there’s competition, everyone is kept honest.
If Techdirt doesn’t like the lack of competition or the profits that the company is making, they can do as they suggest to others who complain about what corporations do: start their own company.
10 hours later…
Caps are not surprising. Despite the generic cry against it, data caps even have a minor reasoning in cable systems.
Thing here is, most people really won’t hit the threshold. A terabyte is a LOT of data. I’m pushing whole BSD distributions, uncompressed, multiple times a month on top of above-normal family use and still rarely exceed 1-2 TB.
If we stay in that range with my use, plus 10+ daily hours of online gaming, and a god 10-12 hours of combined HD YouTube and free-to-watch, plus streaming services?