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The Starlink service (SpaceX), which offers ultrafast broadband speeds to the UK and globally via a massive constellation using thousands of compact satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), has introduced a new package for residential customers that costs just £35 per month and will offer you download speeds of up to 100Mbps.
Starlink currently has around 9,500 satellites in Low Earth Orbit (c.6,000 are v2 / GEN2 variants) – mostly at altitudes of between c.340-525km. Residential customers in the UK usually pay from £55 a month for the ‘Residential Lite’ unlimited data plan (kit price may vary due to different offers), which promises downloads of up to 200Mbps (previously 250Mbps) and uploads of c.15-35Mbps. Faster packages exist at greater cost, while cheaper, albeit more restrictive (data capped), options also exist for roaming users (e.g. £50 per month for 50 GigaBytes of data).
However, regular readers may recall that the service briefly made mention of an even cheaper £35 per month tier last year, before promptly removing it. The package offered download speeds of up to 100Mbps and the usual upload speeds. The good news today is that this package appears to have been given an official launch, with Starlink’s website stating packages “Starting at £35/mo for service in select areas“.
Despite that mention of “select areas“, we have found that the £35 package appears to be quite widely available (credits to community member onephat for spotting).
Extract from Starlink’s Website:
Residential 100 Mbps
Reliable, affordable home internet service for seamless connectivity with speeds up to 100 Mbps.
Speeds* Download Speeds: Up to 100 Mbps (typically 80-100 Mbps)
Upload Speeds: 15-35 MbpsExplore Residential 200 Mbps or Max for faster speeds.Wi-Fi ** Includes one Starlink Router Mini
Coverage up to 1,300 ft² (120 m²)Usage Great for light streaming and online browsing on a few devices. Data Unlimited Data * Speeds are calculated globally and represent the 99th percentile of real user data; typical speeds fall within the 20th–80th percentile range. Actual speeds may vary based on your location.
** Starlink may provide an upgraded router compared to what is advertised.
In addition, Starlink also appears to have tweaked some of their Roaming plans (credits to Stewart), with the Roam 50GB (GigaBytes of usage) tier becoming 100GB for £50 per month. Furthermore, when customers use up that 100GB they’ll now receive unlimited data at speeds of 1Mbps instead of just having to pay per GB.
Overall, the new £35 package is a huge boost, particularly since it comes alongside the hardware you need (included within that rental price), which contributes toward making Starlink a serious consumer affordable mass market broadband solution for even those with only basic needs. In other cases, it could be taken as an affordable backup for when your main connection goes down.
The new package may however pose a significant challenge for Amazon’s rival Leo service, which is due to start going live for consumers later this year (enterprise customers are already testing it). But it will take several more years for Amazon to build the same sort of economics of scale and capacity as Starlink have already been able to build, which means it could struggle to compete.
UPDATE 8:19am
Starlink appears to have made some negative changes too. For example, their ‘Residential Lite’ package previously capped download speeds at 250Mbps, but this has now been reduced to 200Mbps. There may be other changes that we haven’t spotted yet.
Some customers may also find that they have to pay £75 (one-off) for a professional installation, whether they need it or not.