Starlink “Pause” Policy Change

[Tom and Doreen]

It appears that Starlink is going to charge a $5.00 monthly fee for roam plans that are paused based on the email that I received today. 

I’m not certain if it’s possible to opt out of the $5.00 standby mode. 

[johnwen]

According to (sometimes incorrect) chatgt there will be no more free pause option, now a pause for $5 per month will give you unlimited low speed data.  But...if that a good enough connection for me then $5 per month is a pretty good option over $165, but not so good if I don't need any service.  I doubt they will allow streaming, IMO, but I'll still be obliged to give up $5/mo for slower data transfer.

John

[Mike and Carol]

I’m okay with this change.  It will be interesting to see how low “low-speed data” is.

We’re currently camped at Great Basin National Park  with very sketchy cell service and the Starlink mini is working great.  No utilities here so I’m using a Jackery power supply that was 50% off on Amazon prime day.  No complaints.  Mike

[CRM]

I think it's well worth the $5 per month just for the peace of mind of having emergency connectivity if needed.  

[Tom and Doreen]

I don’t mind supporting the infrastructure at that amount, which is likely their intention. They haven’t disclosed at what speed they will limit speed to. Unlimited data at low speed, depending upon the speed, may not be all that useful. AT&T did that to our cellular plan which rendered it virtually useless. 

[Zodd]

Hmmmm, not loving this as I often have my service paused for months (especially over the winter). I am more on the side of saying this is Starlinks way of getting a bit more money out of everyone. 

Here is some more info Starlink Replaces Free Pause Mode With $5 Monthly Charge | PCMag

It is not optional:
"SpaceX is sending emails to customers who have used paused mode, telling them to opt in to standby mode or lose their paused service line."

"internet speeds will be capped at 500kbps. "

You are not doing much at 500kbps. 

[CRM]

29 minutes ago, Zodd said:

Hmmmm, not loving this as I often have my service paused for months (especially over the winter). I am more on the side of saying this is Starlinks way of getting a bit more money out of everyone. 

Here is some more info Starlink Replaces Free Pause Mode With $5 Monthly Charge | PCMag

It is not optional:
"SpaceX is sending emails to customers who have used paused mode, telling them to opt in to standby mode or lose their paused service line."

"internet speeds will be capped at 500kbps. "

You are not doing much at 500kbps. 

Look at the bright side, it's like having nearly free DSL. 🤣

Edited Wednesday at 07:16 PM by CRM

[mountainoliver]

Yeah, I received the email today and I haven’t even received my mini yet! I’m glad (hopefully) that I got one of the refurbished units. I guess I’ll find out tomorrow. 

[Patriot]

Disappointed with this newly added “parasitic $5.00 monthly draw. The optics alone give it a nickel and dime approach. I would not be surprised to see this fee will slowly continue to go up. We may explore just canceling our service over the winter months when we are not using the it. 🤔 

 

Edited yesterday at 01:34 AM by Patriot

[jd1923]

2 hours ago, mountainoliver said:

Yeah, I received the email today and I haven’t even received my mini yet! I’m glad (hopefully) that I got one of the refurbished units. I guess I’ll find out tomorrow. 

Got my email today too. I just signed up and paid $3.54 for this month and will be billed $5 monthly starting September. What-cha goin' to do?

At least the un-pause will occur quickly. It would be a pain to cancel and create a new account each time. Also, it allows you to setup the dish and test when paused. Soon I'm going to work a "Wi-Fi to WAN" setup on our Pepwave router. So now I do not have to wait until we're getting ready to travel to resume service.

We're leaving again in about 5 weeks. The longest we're home not camping is 2-3 months. Perhaps it's not the nickel-n-dime thing but for account maintenance issues. They likely have 100,000+ accounts on pause and without a small monthly billing they do not know whether they should carry the account.

Keep in mind the value of the $50 plan. Also, if you're planning a trip for the last 2 weeks of your billing cycle you pay half the $50 or $165 plan cost (know your billing cycle date). Try that with Dish network (they charge one full month, use it or not) or with DirecTV, Verizon, etc. with their 2-year plans. I still believe Starlink service cost is quite fair.

Edited yesterday at 02:10 AM by jd1923

[jd1923]

11 hours ago, Mike and Carol said:

I’m using a Jackery power supply that was 50% off on Amazon prime day.  No complaints.  Mike

Mike, so is your Starlink setup wireless with Jackery power supply?

Edited yesterday at 03:15 AM by jd1923

[ScubaRx]

10 hours ago, CRM said:

Look at the bright side, it's like having nearly free DSL. 🤣

Back in the 1990's, I downloaded hundreds of hours of music (Napster anyone?) over dial-up. It usually took about 2-3 times the length of the song to get it downloaded, if it didn't fail. Then came DSL, Oh my Goodness, it was usually finished before I could queue up the next download. My goal was to get and catalog every Billboard Hot 100 single from 1940-1999. It took me 10 years. Anybody have a request from that era?

[Patriot]

It will be interesting to see a year from now or possibly sooner if SL increases their $5 monthly parasitic draw. What else could happen? 🤷‍♂️ 😄 

[Patriot]

9 hours ago, jd1923 said:

Mike, so is your Starlink setup wireless with Jackery power supply?

I will chime in since Mike is traveling, yes we have a Jackery and it runs the SL mini fine. In fact it does a great job running our Truma Frig/freezer as well. A great little power bank.

[Mike and Carol]

11 hours ago, jd1923 said:

Mike, so is your Starlink setup wireless with Jackery power supply?

I plug the SL into the Jackery for 110 power. Here I have the dish sitting on aluminum box on the tongue and Wi-Fi is plenty strong both inside the trailer and behind the trailer where we’re sitting. I have the mini router but haven’t needed it yet. Heading to Lake Tahoe today. 

[CRM]

This change isn't costing everyone money... Those who are using Starlink for alarm monitoring of second homes are making out on this deal. Instead of paying $50 per month for low level roam they can just pause it and pay $5 instead. 

[johnwen]

9 hours ago, ScubaRx said:

Back in the 1990's, I downloaded hundreds of hours of music (Napster anyone?) over dial-up. It usually took about 2-3 times the length of the song to get it downloaded, if it didn't fail. Then came DSL, Oh my Goodness, it was usually finished before I could queue up the next download. My goal was to get and catalog every Billboard Hot 100 single from 1940-1999. It took me 10 years. Anybody have a request from that era?

Steve,

I never did get dsl back in the day...only 28.8 (sometimes).  That finally changed when we started full timing in '20.  I would have gladly paid an arm or leg for dsl.

If I get dsl speed from StarLink it would probably be enough for us :)

[Patriot]

6 hours ago, Mike and Carol said:

I have the mini router but haven’t needed it yet.

Good to know Mike, 

I wonder if you will need it at all. We never had an issue last fall on our 48 day trip out west. Our Mini worked great. Safe Travels to Lake Tahoe! 

[Patriot]

6 hours ago, CRM said:

This change isn't costing everyone money... Those who are using Starlink for alarm monitoring of second homes are making out on this deal. Instead of paying $50 per month for low level roam they can just pause it and pay $5 instead. 

Excellent point! I went ahead and signed up for the monthly parasitic draw $5 fee. 😏

Edited 23 hours ago by Patriot

[Jps190]

18 hours ago, ScubaRx said:

Back in the 1990's, I downloaded hundreds of hours of music (Napster anyone?) over dial-up. It usually took about 2-3 times the length of the song to get it downloaded, if it didn't fail. Then came DSL, Oh my Goodness, it was usually finished before I could queue up the next download. My goal was to get and catalog every Billboard Hot 100 single from 1940-1999. It took me 10 years. Anybody have a request from that era?

Fast forward and now we have 5 million songs on demand in our pockets!

[Jps190]

I just setup standby mode and I am sitting here watching youtube with zero buffering. 🤷‍♂️

[jd1923]

4 hours ago, Jps190 said:

I just setup standby mode and I am sitting here watching youtube with zero buffering. 🤷‍♂️

I gotta try this! True most of the time for most of us? Then it’s worth twice $5/mo! 🤣

I love Elon when he’s not arguing with the President. When he is, our Tesla stock goes down, but today it's >$100 a share higher than when they were fire-bombing EVs at Tesla dealerships! ‘twas the time to buy!

He’s got my $5/mo!!! 🤣

Edited 15 hours ago by jd1923

[johnwen]

3 hours ago, Jps190 said:

I just setup standby mode and I am sitting here watching youtube with zero buffering. 🤷‍♂️

Totally....good to hear :)

[rideandfly]

11 hours ago, Jps190 said:

I just setup standby mode and I am sitting here watching youtube with zero buffering. 🤷‍♂️

Wow, did not expect that, started the standby mode earlier this week when StarLink set the email. Going to try ours out, too!

Thanks,

[Steve Morris]

Hmm, I did not receive an email from Starlink concerning anything about pausing my account. 🤷‍♂️