Starlink

[Tropical Jack]

I got the notice for $10 increase as well. I have only had Starlink for a few months. My speeds have decreased a little during peak times, but overall been good. It is much faster and more reliable than the Frontier DSL that we had before. I am not really happy about the increase; but it is still the best service for us. Not turning in my equipment! Everything is more expensive. Inflation is here to stay for a while. Not sure why Starlink is increasing oversubscribed areas, but maybe it is to discourage further over subscription? If so, I am OK with that.

Jack

 

[IXLR8]

I got the email this morning. Let's see, Starlink over subscribed my area, service has dropped due to that and now they want to charge me more for poorer service that is their fault. To me, there is something wrong with this picture. Time to call Verizon to see what they have for mobile hot spot service. This is my second increase in a year, I doubt I will drop them this time. But I want to be prepared as they will get dropped if rates go up again this year.

 

[LouNY]

Well I'll be danged;

​ ​ ​ The Starlink monthly service for residential customers is changing as follows: $20 decrease in areas with excess capacity. New price will be $90/month. $10 increase in areas with limited capacity. New price will be $120/month. As a current customer in an area with excess capacity, your monthly service price will decrease to $90/month beginning today. If you do not wish to continue service, you can cancel at any time on your account page. Your Starlink hardware can be returned for a full refund within 30 days of purchase, or a partial refund of $250 within 12 months of purchase. As the SpaceX team launches more satellites to increase capacity, the Starlink team is making continuous network updates to improve performance over time. Thanks for being a customer and for your continued support of Starlink!

I got the decreased price,
I guess it's to go along with the also decreased speeds and increased latency's.
However it's still better then my previous connection.

 

[sd455dan]

Yep, just got the same notice. I waited 18 months to get the service, and saw a price increase even before it was installed. And month to month I've seen speeds drop to the point now that I get buffering when streaming videos, just like with the HughesNet service Starlink replaced. It would be a different story if performance actually increased. Now I'm feeling punished because I live in an area with no other choice than satellite internet, and just like HughesNet, WildBlue, and Exede before it, Starlink is oversubscribing the service and I'm suffering the consequences.

You have to be kidding comparing it to Hughesnet...



We Barely ever saw more than 50kbs down.

A 2 minute video took a half hour to download and would virtually wipe out a months data usage. That is if it did not close the connection

Our original dial up service was equal or better than what Hughesnet provided. That is No joke.

Couldn't even order off of amazon due to slow connection speeds closing the connection.

 

[scootr]

I got the email this morning. Let's see, Starlink over subscribed my area, service has dropped due to that and now they want to charge me more for poorer service that is their fault. To me, there is something wrong with this picture. Time to call Verizon to see what they have for mobile hot spot service. This is my second increase in a year, I doubt I will drop them this time. But I want to be prepared as they will get dropped if rates go up again this year.

Exactly. Who makes these policy changes!? We all have experienced decreased service in oversold service areas plus a data cap and 2 cost increases in a year. Decreasing somebody else's cost at the same time stinks of a socialized internet supply. Basically that tells me everybody's cost could have stayed the same. You can't make more people sign up by charging me more. Idiots at work.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Woodchuckdad, enjoying the popcorn?

Best effort should get reduced, not increased. We’re just using the leftover.

 

[dmccarty]

Got the notice this morning. Not happy about it but there are really no alternatives. We have not seen any performance issues.

When we were using a cell based Internet, one could see performance issues in the evening, and Starlink is now at the price we were paying for that cell service but with better performance. That cell service had performance issues and was better than CenturyStink DSL, but the service eventually just stopped working while increasing the month cost.

I have been at a relatives house with cable Internet and I could not see a performance difference compared to Starlink.

I do wonder how many people are in my cell. There are many homes in my area that cannot use Starlink due to tree cover.

 

[RedNeckGeek]

You have to be kidding comparing it to Hughesnet...

Sadly, I'm not. HughesNet buffered more often while streaming, but Starlink now buffers where it never used to. And Starlink customer service is basically non-existent, where I could at least get a HughesNet person on the phone to tell me lies. Starlink is still marginally better than any of the four stationary satellite providers I've had, but the margin of improvement is steadily decreasing. This in spite of the glowing promises made by Elon and crew, and now two price increases. Paying more for less isn't exactly the American Way. At this point, if there were a viable alternative to Starlink, I'd be on it like a rooster on a June bug.

 

[IXLR8]

We actually have a Verizon mobile hot spot the miss's uses when she is traveling, which is about 18 days a month. I'm not sure if I could add a second MHS. If we use the MHS at home, download speeds are in the 30-40Mb/s range which is plenty for us. Which I would be using if she didn't travel so much. She has at least another year of this traveling.

 

[IXLR8]

Sadly, I'm not. HughesNet buffered more often while streaming, but Starlink now buffers where it never used to. And Starlink customer service is basically non-existent, where I could at least get a HughesNet person on the phone to tell me lies. Starlink is still marginally better than any of the four stationary satellite providers I've had, but the margin of improvement is steadily decreasing. This in spite of the glowing promises made by Elon and crew, and now two price increases. Paying more for less isn't exactly the American Way. At this point, if there were a viable alternative to Starlink, I'd be on it like a rooster on a June bug.

Bet you will have alternatives if you move back into town.

 

[scootr]

I'm not so upset by the increase... inflation makes your dollar worth less so everybody needs more of them. What pisses me off is the reduction of the cost for somebody else's service at my expense. This move stinks of socialism with all the markings of wealth distribution.

I think they should have raised rates across the board by half or $5 for each and every subscriber and left it at that. The idea I have to pay more to subsidize somebody who will pay less so more people will sign up if ********. And how long will those new subscribers enjoy the reduced rate before it is raised on a whim. This is a real FU move to your subscribers. Not buying the car

 

[34Willys]

When I got our notice, the first thing I thought of was that we were subsidising the $$$$ discount TESLA offered on their cars a few months ago.
Patrick

 

[scootr]

When I got our notice, the first thing I thought of was that we were subsidising the $$$$ discount TESLA offered on their cars a few months ago.
Patrick

The govt is doing that. But it does suck when you are told you will pay more so somebody else can pay less for the same thing. What if you see this trend in walmart or the grocery store. Are these idiots so stupid they think people are okay with that? I guess so. Must be nice to be so rich you just can't understand what $ means to working people.

 

[Fixastuff]

Mine went up and I'd rather it didn't. To the people yelling socialism. Isn't this just law of supply and demand. Demand is lower in some areas so price is lower, demand higher in other areas so price is higher? Seems more like capitalism to me.

 

[sd455dan]

Sadly, I'm not. HughesNet buffered more often while streaming, but Starlink now buffers where it never used to. And Starlink customer service is basically non-existent, where I could at least get a HughesNet person on the phone to tell me lies. Starlink is still marginally better than any of the four stationary satellite providers I've had, but the margin of improvement is steadily decreasing. This in spite of the glowing promises made by Elon and crew, and now two price increases. Paying more for less isn't exactly the American Way. At this point, if there were a viable alternative to Starlink, I'd be on it like a rooster on a June bug.

Starlink is still on backorder so I have not had any actual experience with it.

Decided to definitely keep the Mobley active as well for when/if Starlink drops out.


Here is hoping SpaceX gets more satellites up and your service improves.


I also think SpaceX could have learned what not to do from observing Hughesnet. To keep an average home with family happy, imo it takes at least 20 MBS down as a minimum and unlimited data.

I find it amazing that you could actually stream video from Hughesnet.

Even their newest ads I have seen, they dropped the depiction that showed a "slow motion" football game for about 2 seconds.
We Never had the ability to actually stream even a five minute at 144 resolution video.

The mobley overall has been many orders of magnitude better.

Have you seen the Youtube vids talking about Starlink adding new ground stations including one near Adelanto, CA and also adding new "E" band which should also help with quality service.

 

[sodamo]

Got the emails as well, increases to both RV and Residential. Out of curiosity I wondered if I cancelled RV maybe get a 2nd Residential, but being the price increase rationale was due to overuse I figured doubtful. Wrong. Using same address I was able to add a 2nd Residential. Of course I quit right at point of confirming order. Makes no sense. While I would likely convert my RV to Residential that still isn’t possible.
Looks like I will be cancelling RV, but haven’t decided if I will return equipment of just hang on to as spares. $250 for return, but that doesn’t account for shipping. Can’t justify $270/month. Cable for the RV system would be a pain to uninstall, likely just leave in place and convert ends to RJ45 and install access point, so not available to return. Maybe possible to add the router into mesh?
Glad I procrastinated cancelling Mobley, back to investigating Fail over.
My SL is still best system I’ve had and hope it improves, but without recurring price increases.

 

[RedNeckGeek]

My SL is still best system I’ve had and hope it improves, but without recurring price increases.

I think the biggest problem is that Starlink constantly promotes the idea that as more satellites are added to their constellation, service for all customers will improve. But instead, service quality has drastically lowered. Coupled with the horrible customer service, the price increases are just more salt in the wound.

What ever happened to under promise and over deliver?

 

[BigBlue1]

Got the notification email about price change. In oversubscribed areas increase to $120. In undersubscribed, decrease to $90. I get boosted to $120. Business wise it makes sense. I shall get the popcorn and watch people rail about it.

On the FB groups they're going off the rails about it.

I'm in an area of lower utilization so my cost is going down to $90. It would still be worth it to be at $120 though, so if it happens I'll still be using it.

 

[BigBlue1]

I'm, not okay with the price increase structure. When I signed up last year it was on a price increase. Now a price increase because no more people can fit on his now maximum capacity service which sucks right now when all his customers are on it at once. Plus there is a data limit. all this to fund people in outlying areas so Elon can bait more customers in and jack their rates up later too. Too bad, it could have been so nice.

That's the entire point for the service is to have an ISP solution for folks in areas where no other decent ISP options exist. Anyone who has signed up for Starlink while having other landline options of equal or better speeds/data capacity should be using those other options. I see this move as solidifying the service for the intended customer base and that's a good thing for those of us who need it. If anyone with other ISP options drops and frees up cell capacity and sat bandwidth that's a win for the target audience.

I find it unlikely that any location with a high density of potential users is not going to have other ISP options that are better choices for them. Certainly going to be the exception, not the norm.

 

[BigBlue1]

I think the biggest problem is that Starlink constantly promotes the idea that as more satellites are added to their constellation, service for all customers will improve. But instead, service quality has drastically lowered. Coupled with the horrible customer service, the price increases are just more salt in the wound.

What ever happened to under promise and over deliver?

They tried that for a long time and everyone was spun up about being on wait lists. Guess it's hard to satisfy folks...