Starlink impose 10Mbps speed cap on heavy users of its “unlimited” broadband

Some customers of Starlink’s ultrafast satellite broadband service, specifically those on their residential plans with “unlimited” data usage, have reported that they’ve had their internet speeds capped to c.10Mbps after consuming huge amounts of data. But this is despite their usage patterns being the same for, sometimes, several years.

Starlink currently has around 11,100 satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) – mostly at altitudes of between c.340-550km. Residential users in the UK pay from £40 a month for the 100Mbps unlimited data plan, which also promises uploads of c.15-35Mbps and low latency connectivity (c.20ms). Faster packages exist at greater cost, while more restrictive (data capped) options are available for roaming (e.g. £55 per month for 100GB of data).

However, according to feedback on social media (examples here and here – credits PC Mag), some customers who have frequently been exceeding around 5 TeraBytes (TB) of data usage in a month (sometimes up to 8-9TB), as well as somebody else who had daily usage exceeding 500GB for several days, have recently found their download speeds capped to c.10Mbps (Megabits per second) after receiving a “Terms of Service Violation” notice.

Just for some context. The UK’s comms regulator, Ofcom, stated at the end of last year that the average monthly data usage per fixed broadband connection is 583GB (GigaBytes) across “all technologies” (up from 531GB), which rises to an average of 738GB for full-fibre lines. But in this age of 100-200GB video game downloads, 4K streaming and regular software patches, it wouldn’t be hard for a big family to reach multi-TeraByte territory.

Copy of Starlink’s Notice

Terms of Service Violation

Your Residential or Roam service plan is intended for personal, family, or household use only. Business or Enterprise use is prohibited, as outlined in our Terms of Service. We’ve identified activity on your account that violates these terms.

Your service has been restricted for the remainder of your billing cycle. To restore high-speed service, you must switch to a Priority plan, which permits Business or Enterprise use.

As above, the users were advised to switch to one of Starlink’s Priority plans that allows Business or Enterprise use, which would be significantly more expensive for similar levels of usage (i.e. hundreds of pounds per month). At this point it’s worth noting that the wider service does come attached to a vague Fair Usage Policy (FUP), which states that Starlink “reserve the right” to reduce speeds for some or all users to “preserve the integrity and security of the network“, as well as to “prevent or mitigate network congestion“.

Customers impacted by this have been informed by the provider’s support agents that the speed restriction was indeed imposed because their “current data usage is significantly high“, although so far this mostly seems to be impacting users in the USA, Mexico and the odd European country (we’ve yet to verify any UK users receiving it, but that may change as this seems to be a new development).

However, given that Starlink’s capacity can vary between locations, due to things like differing regulatory arrangements and capacity at ground stations, it’s possible the company may not have a one-size-fits all approach to this (their packages and prices do also vary between countries). But unfortunately, their FUP is so vague that it’s impossible to know.

Customers who receive such a message might wonder if they can get around the issue by cancelling and re-subscribing, such as under a different family member. But violations can be attached to the unique hardware identifier of your dish (terminal), which makes it important to try and resolve the issue directly with Starlink.

In the UK the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) does require ISPs to be clear about their FUP limitations and, if they do impose limitations that affect the speed or usage of the service, these must be “moderate only“. Past experience suggests that a speed restriction from 100-200Mbps to 10Mbps on their residential plans may NOT be considered “moderate” (see Virgin Media’s 2013 case).

Just to be clear. The ASA’s guidelines don’t prevent Starlink from doing what they’re doing. But if a UK user were to suffer the speed cap and complain then, based on past examples, the company might have to produce a clearer FUP or stop advertising their plans as offering “unlimited” usage.