Starlink reportedly throttles “unlimited” broadband users with 10 Mbps speeds
Starlink reportedly imposes heavy speed limits on certain users
Some Starlink satellite broadband users have reportedly been hit with 10 Mbps speed limits due to high data use, even though the service offers “Unlimited Data” in all its UK product tiers.
PC Mag has reported that various users have posted online about their sudden speed restrictions. Users were told that their service use violated Starlink’s Terms of Service and were prompted to “upgrade your plan to resume high-speed service.” Some customers were reportedly exceeding 5 TB of data use per month, with another using 500GB for several days. Such users reportedly saw their speeds capped at 10 Mbps, which is 10% of Starlink’s advertised speed on its lowest UK Residential plan (which advertises 100 Mbps download speeds).
Ofcom (via ISP Review) states that last year’s average monthly internet use in the UK for a fixed broadband connection is 583GB across all technologies. This increases to 738GB for full fibre connections. With this context, it is easy to see how the usage of throttled Starlink users may be seen as excessive. That said, with 100+ GB games and 4K streamed media being commonly available, it’s easy to see how large families could use much more data than average. Light users also have a huge impact on these statistics. So far, no UK Starlink users have been confirmed to have been impacted by these speed limits.
Affected users have not changed their data use
According to PC Mag, which spoke to several affected users, none of the users hit with 10 Mbps speed limits reports any recent changes to their Starlink use. These users were caught off-guard by their sudden speed cap. One customer from Texas stated that Starlink support was unable to provide a reason for the speed limit when asked. They are now looking at “alternative solutions” for broadband internet.
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.
– Starlink Terms of Service
Unlimited should mean Unlimited
Starlink’s Fair Use Policy states that the company “reserves the right” to reduce the speeds of users to “preserve the integrity and security of the network” or “prevent or mitigate network congestion”. This vague statement does say that heavy users will be penalised with reduced network speeds.
I think we can all agree that unlimited should mean unlimited. Speed throttling should apply only when a broadband network is congested. If you market your broadband as being “unlimited”, there should be no penalty for heavy use. Unlimited broadband packages should not have limits.
Starlink has reportedly advised heavy users to switch to one of the company’s Priority plans. These plans allow for Buisness or Enterprise use. These packages are much more expensive than standard Starlink plans.
You can join the discussion on Starlink throttling “Unlimited” broadband customers on the OC3D Forums.
