It was good while it lasted. On Nov. 10, Starlink quietly began offering its cheapest plan yet: $40 a month for 100Mbps speeds in select locations.
Just as quietly, it’s now been removed as an option in those same areas.
Reddit users first spotted the change on Tuesday, when some who had previously subscribed to the $40 plan tried to switch back and found that it was no longer available. The plan is still available in Australia and Canada.
Locating local internet providers
The plan, called “Residential 100 Mbps,” listed download speeds up to 100Mbps. There was no cap on upload speeds, but Starlink’s specifications page listed expected speeds between 15 and 35Mbps.
“If you don’t see a particular offer in your account, it just means it’s not currently available for your current service location,” Starlink’s support page for the plan says. Representatives for Starlink did not immediately return CNET’s request for comment.
Locating local internet providers
When the plan debuted last month, I checked ten random addresses throughout the country and found only one area where it was actually available: a rural town in Nevada. It’s no longer available at the same address.
It wasn’t surprising that Starlink would only offer the cheaper plan in areas where it has excess capacity, as it has struggled to keep up speeds in areas with lots of users. (One recent study found that it can only handle 6.66 users per square mile before speeds dip below the FCC’s minimum standard.)
Starlink’s Residential Lite plan, which advertises download speeds up to 250Mbps for $80 per month, is still available in most suburban and rural areas. The Residential plan advertises speeds over 400Mbps for $120 monthly.
But I’d take those speed numbers with a grain of salt. The most recent report from Ookla found that Starlink’s median download speeds in the US are 105Mbps -- right around what customers were supposed to get with the discontinued $40 plan. (Disclosure: Ookla is owned by the same parent company as CNET, Ziff Davis.)
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