Since its inception, SpaceX’s Starlink internet has provided customers with unlimited bandwidth; however, users who exceed 1TB of data use in a single month will now be throttled once they reach that threshold.
On Friday, Starlink sent an email to users in the United States and Canada outlining the new “Fair Use” policy, which explains how residential users will begin each month with “Priority Access,” and then continue to receive coverage with “Basic Access” for the remainder of the monthly billing period if they exceed the 1TB threshold.
When there is heavy use on the network, Basic Access customers will be “deprioritized,” which means they will receive slower speeds than Priority Access customers. Starlink also states that data used during off-peak hours, specifically 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., will not be counted toward the 1TB monthly Priority bucket.
The company is also introducing data use monitoring via user account pages, allowing users to see how close they are to the soft cap.
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According to third-party network analytics firm Ookla, Starlink’s media speeds have decreased in every country where it is currently available over the last year. According to Ookla, the primary reason for the overall decline is user growth. Starlink is clearly trying to improve things by limiting high-volume users, who it claims account for less than 10% of its current subscriber base.
