Starlink Start Replacing First Gen Satellite Broadband Routers for Free

Some of Starlink’s (SpaceX) customers with first generation broadband routers (UTR-201) – the ones with a dual-tone prism-like design – have recently started to be notified that their kit will soon become obsolete. But don’t worry if you’re one of the smaller portion of consumers with such hardware, because they’ll send you a free replacement.

The kit in question first shipped back in 2020 to early adopters and came alongside the provider’s old round shaped dish/terminals, although Starlink phased this hardware out roughly a year later (this occurred at around the same time as they transitioned to a flat-dish design).

However, the company has now begun to inform customers (credits to PC Mag) that software updates for the Gen 1 router “will be discontinued in the near future,” as part of the company’s “ongoing upgrades for security, performance, and reliability.” The support page for this suggests they first began notifying customers about the issue last month and now seem to be ramping-up that effort.

The good news is that those being impacted by the change will be sent a free replacement Starlink Router Mini. Customers do NOT need to return their old GEN1 router either and it will continue to function. But if you choose to keep using it then Starlink warns that “without future updates, we cannot guarantee long-term security, performance, or reliability. We strongly recommend upgrading to the Router Mini for the best experience.”

At present only those who have received the email can click the “Claim Free Router” button it includes to start the process, although we hope they provide another way for customers to receive it as email isn’t always reliable. So far as we can tell this seems to be happening in phases, so if you have the GEN1 kit and haven’t been contacted yet then it might be worth waiting another month or so before raising it with support.

Starlink currently has around 9,400 satellites in Low Earth Orbit (c.5,900 are v2 / V2 Mini) – mostly at altitudes of c.500-600km. Residential customers in the UK usually pay from £55 a month, plus £299 for hardware (currently free for many areas) on the ‘Residential Lite’ unlimited data plan (kit price may vary due to different offers) directly from Starlink, which promises downloads of up to 250Mbps (175Mbps average) and uploads of c.15-35Mbps. Faster packages exist at greater cost and cheaper, albeit more restrictive (data capped), options also exist for roaming users (e.g. £50 per month for 50 GigaBytes of data).