SpaceX has begun notifying residential Starlink customers that their monthly fees are changing, and depending on where you live the fees could be increasing or decreasing. The changes are effective April 24, 2023 for existing customers and effective immediately for new customers, with the changes so far only impacting customers in the US.
According to an email sent to subscribers on Tuesday, the Starlink monthly fee will be seeing a $10 increase for those that live in an area with limited capacity. This will bring the subscription fee from $110 to $120 per month. Conversely subscribers in an area with excess capacity will see their monthly fee drop $20 to $90.
The email goes on to say that if you don’t want to pay the new fees you can cancel your service at any time. If you do this within 30 days of purchase you can get a full refund on the Starlink equipment, or a partial $250 refund within 12 months of purchase.
A separate email was sent to Starlink RV customers, all of whom will be seeing a $15 increase to their monthly fees to $150.
What makes this change harder to swallow for those customers that will be seeing an increase is that there will be no corresponding increase in service. It appears Starlink is trying to ease congestion on their network by increasing fees where there is heavy demand, and decreasing fees where the company has more capacity to add new customers.
Speed tests have shown that as the number of subscribers have increased, now at over 1 million worldwide, download speeds have dropped.
You can read the full email below. (via Reddit)
