Terms of service updated data caps coming

[DirecPC]

This may be the kiss of death,  it was for me with every other satellite provider

https://www.pcmag.com/news/spacexs-starlink-quietly-mentions-high-speed-data-caps-are-coming-for-us

[RicochetStarlink]

21 hours ago, DirecPC said:

This may be the kiss of death,  it was for me with every other satellite provider

https://www.pcmag.com/news/spacexs-starlink-quietly-mentions-high-speed-data-caps-are-coming-for-us

My first reaction is "YIKES!"

I am in the computer security software business. I work from home and my historical data usage been around 400-500GB month -- sometimes even more. According to two previous ISPs, that places me among the top 1% of individual data consumers in the world.

A hard cap of 250GB would be problematic for me. However, according to the linked article, it appears that Starlink are offering additional data for 10 EUR/month per 100GB in the pilot in France.

Assuming that translates to about $10/month for 100GB additional bandwidth. Assuming you can buy multiple 100GB blocks per month, I'd be in for about $25 extra/month on my Starlink bill bringing it to $135/month.

Since I once paid $400/month for this amount of high-speed data, I would be more than happy to pay $135/month.

Alternatively, we have a reasonably-priced WISP locally that I could use in a multi-ISP setup like yours, @DirecPC...

[DirecPC]

1 hour ago, RIcochet said:

My first reaction is "YIKES!"

I am in the computer security software business. I work from home and my historical data usage been around 400-500GB month -- sometimes even more. According to two previous ISPs, that places me among the top 1% of individual data consumers in the world.

A hard cap of 250GB would be problematic for me. However, according to the linked article, it appears that Starlink are offering additional data for 10 EUR/month per 100GB in the pilot in France.

Assuming that translates to about $10/month for 100GB additional bandwidth. Assuming you can buy multiple 100GB blocks per month, I'd be in for about $25 extra/month on my Starlink bill bringing it to $135/month.

Since I once paid $400/month for this amount of high-speed data, I would be more than happy to pay $135/month.

Alternatively, we have a reasonably-priced WISP locally that I could use in a multi-ISP setup like yours, @DirecPC...

How you doing with speeds, for awhile there it seemed your were reporting appallingly  low  sub 10 mbs speed.   Mine have picked up a bit, get 150+ in the early AM, 100 later morning to sometimes early afternoon,  and from there it degrades to the 40-60 range by the evening.   Still  way better than the DSL.

I guess alot will depend  on what the caps and policies are,  if you go to the terms of service (https://www.starlink.com/legal/documents/DOC-1020-91087-64?regionCode=US)    )  you can see section 4 where its been updated, but, the actual limits are at this link (https://www.starlink.com/legal/documents/DOC-1138-34130-60) which at this writing is a dead 404 link.   I work from home too,   engineering, but alot of my stuff does not eat up  as  much bandwidth,  I just started tracking it and It looks like 3 +/- GB a  day.   The work I have to take in and kick out might be 30 to 100 megs,  not much on Starlink but it takes forever to upload it on a 0.5 mbs DSL service.  So 250 GB I suspect would not cause me harm, but we dont know thats what it will be or of there will be tiers of  degraded service based on usage, or what they call "basic" service will get you.   I half wonder though if it be any different from what we already have?  Speed tests in the afternoon show clear evidence of throttling., so,  will they just be making it official?

I have had Starband,  Wildblue,  way back in the day,  and the two things they all had in common were, they never delivered the  advertised speeds (and they used weasel words to wash their hands of it) , the data caps were never enough for ordinary usage and when the data caps were hit,  the service was as bad as dialup and often worse.    I was in 7th heaven when 4 mbs down 0.5 up DSL came in,  it was twice as fast as wildbue  and unlimited and was ecstatic when they coaxed it up to 8 mbs down. 

I guess we will see.

 

 

[GuyG]

Well their estmate of 1TB seems way low. The two of us stream video, and work some using cloud support, and video conference and such from time to time.  No gaming, Right now my account shows over 500GB usage since 10/28. I've no idea what this would be like with a couple of teens in the house gaming and homework etc. 1TB doesn't seem legit as a "huge user" number.