Starlink Sort of Fix Broadband Capacity Limit in South East England

SpaceX’s Starlink service, which offers ultrafast broadband speeds via a mega constellation of satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), appears to have removed its capacity restrictions from the South East of England (originally covering the Greater London area and beyond). But new customers in that same area may now be hit with a £195 one-off “congestion charge” instead.

Regular readers may recall that Starlink imposed the original restriction toward the very end of last year, after the network reached its capacity limit. This meant new customers could not be added in that area (i.e. they were put on a waiting list), at least not until more data capacity had been introduced. This was done to avoid the impact of excess subscriptions causing a bigger detriment to service quality (performance / speeds) for existing customers.

The issue of capacity isn’t just a matter of how many satellites Starlink has in orbit and their capabilities (inc. any limitations of the chosen radio spectrum bands), but also of how many ground stations you have active in the same area and whether they have enough capacity to effectively feed current demand. Localised capacity issues often tend to reflect more of an issue with ground stations, which can take a little bit of time to rectify (usually a few weeks or months).

The good news today, as spotted by Thinkbroadband, is that the capacity limit has now vanished from Starlink’s map of the South East of England. The bad news is that many people within that area are now being told this: “Due to network congestion in your area, there is an additional one-time charge to purchase Starlink Residential services.” The charge itself comes in at £195, which isn’t exactly small change.

Starlink has over 7,200 satellites in Low Earth Orbit (c.3,300 are v2 Mini / GEN 2A) – mostly at altitudes of c.500-600km – and they’re in the process of adding thousands more by the end of 2027. Residential customers in the UK typically pay from £75 a month, plus £299 for hardware on the ‘Standard’ unlimited data plan (a small postage/shipping fee may or may not also apply), which promises latency times of 25-60ms, downloads of 25-100Mbps and uploads of 5-10Mbps.

Interestingly, we have noted that the above pricing and congestion charge is correct for the South East of England, but other parts of the UK are now being offered a 12-month term with free hardware. The fact that those in the South East cannot benefit from this thus makes the setup costs even more expensive than the £195 congestion charge may at first suggest.