With SpaceX facing longer and longer waitlists for Starlink services, the company is trying a new method to help shorten the list.
On Monday night, the company started to email select US customers with a new tier of internet services.
The new “Best-Effort” tier has a bit of a catch though.
The new tier will have slower internet speeds, but will get people connected to the service as they wait for full deployment.
As per the email, users who choose the “Best-Effort” tier should expect to get full speeds in mid-2023.
Best Effort enables typical internet activity with the understanding that Best Effort users will be deprioritized behind Residential users.
Per PC Mag‘s reporting, the email has already made its way to both Reddit and Twitter.
The Starlink support page has also been updated:
Best Effort uses the same hardware as Residential and the monthly ($110) service charge is the same, but unlike Residential, Best Effort users will have the option to pause service.
In addition, the support page notes:
If you would like to maintain your place in line, but no longer wish to use Best Effort service, we recommend to hold on to your Starlink hardware and pause service to not be charged. You can un-pause at any time, while waiting to be converted to Residential service. Cancelling your Best Effort service will cancel your place in line for Residential service.
Starlink did not confirm the exact speed for “Best-Effort” tier.
However, they did confirm that online gaming, video calling and streaming in 4K would not be possible.
So we can assume it is under 25 mb/s.
