Starlink UK Introduce Cheap £35 100Mbps LEO Satellite Broadband Plan
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 on a 12-month term. 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“.
Advertisement
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.
Advertisement
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.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
« Grain Expand UK Full Fibre Broadband Network into Goole, East Yorkshire
In my account the residential lite now has a firm cap of 200mbs.
Where does it show that please? I need to check that.
Hi Simon
It was showing under the residential lite plan. It showed me 2 package. Residential, Residential 200 and Residential 100.
I did wonder when they might finally attempt to compete with FTTC at similar pricing. I am not sure I’d move from my literally flawless FTTC line over to it, though. Got to try to get some customers before FTTP truly takes much of their business away.
There appears to be a catch to obtain that “free” equipment – you must pay £75 for “professional installation” whether you need it or not. With the higher speeds the message changes to “free, opt in” installation. Musk will get your money somehow.
Probably not worth it if you can get decent FTTC anyway, but if you’re stuck with 0.5 megabit ADSL…..
Rapidly making the construction of deep rural fibre (the final 1-2%) look financially ridiculous.
We built out deep rural copper, as long as regulations are in place to ensure costs are properly amortised across the rest of the network then there is no reason that last 1% – 2% should miss out on fibre line connectivity.
Myself and others are having serious issues with Teams dropping out with Starlink Lite, only for a second just whilst you’re making your point or listening to anothers. I’ve made a complaint to Starlink, and to the ASA as Starlink don’t advertise that Lite is unsuitable for Teams calls – so far their resolution is to upgrade to the max version. I’d prefer to send the kit back and go either on 5G or 50Mbps FTTC.
Isn’t that a nature of it? When it switches satellite, you get a blip?
@Badger there shouldn’t be any drops between sat swaps.
@badger it swaps satellites seamlessly to be fair, and the speeds are great. VPN and Teams don’t and shouldn’t drop. And no it’s not a WiFi issue or a VPN Gateway issue, and it’s affecting others on different home configurations. I’d welcome to learn about any outages from anyone else of a similar nature.
I’ve had this issue since day dot on any package. I tunnel everything through AAISP with it and it’s fine then.
I can see Residential Lite and Residential Max but not this yet – still it’s fantastic to see!
Same here, I guess it will update in a day or two.
Nah. Elon can stick it.
Just about to order my second subscription
This might be an option for me now stuck on 4G as ADSL died years ago and was downgraded to zero, BT wanting £100k for putting in the Fttp line all my neighbours surrounding me got for free 4 years ago, there is no FTTC. I didn’t fancy paying the £75 for their original service when my neighbours rub it in getting 1gb for £38 / month
Unfortunately tied into our £75/month contract till May as they wouldn’t let me switch but great to know there’s a much cheaper option coming my way while we wait for rural fibre to arrive
For the 1% or so, still with no reliable or stable connection at 10mbps or below, or people still only with access to ADSL, it’s a good, relatively affordable option.
It represents Tesla moving towards a mainstream and affordable offering for internet connections. I wonder how many current Starlink customers, will downgrade to the cheaper £35 package?
Ideal for those people who want to fund someone intent on breaking up the West
And for him to continue supplying Starlink to a genocidal Russian State who build them into their drones which targets actual families in apartment buildings
Despite only getting 3.5mbos at home and Openreach seemingly not interested in my rural house, I’d never give this guy a single penny of mine
“And for him to continue supplying Starlink”
Quite the opposite.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlink_in_the_Russian-Ukrainian_War