Starlink for RV's price increase

[craigav]

I suppose they base the pricing on your billing address instead of your actual location... or as I suspect now, they are raising the price for Starlink for "RV" regardless of your location In any case, this is the email I received last night. ~CA


The monthly service price for Starlink is increasing in areas with limited capacity. As a service that can be used in any area, including those with limited capacity, the monthly service price for existing Starlink for RV customers will increase by $15 to $150/month beginning April 24, 2023.

If you do not wish to continue service, you can cancel at any time on your account page. Your Starlink hardware can be returned for a full refund within 30 days of purchase, or partial refund of $250 within 12 months of purchase.

As the SpaceX team launches more satellites to increase capacity, the Starlink team is making continuous network updates to improve performance over time. Thanks for being a customer and for your continued support of Starlink!

[Jagiven]

I guess the price of everything else has been going up so it should not be unexpected. I was looking at the website a month ago, and I swear it said the monthly rate was $120. Now it is $150/mth. I was thinking it might be a tough swallow before, but now, I am not sure it is worth it.

DW and I can work remotely, and now the last kid is in college, we have been talking about going out for extended trips, aka a few weeks at a time. Starlink would give us good internet to work very remotely.

[CAG]

I originally had RV service but dropped it during the 30 day period, got my money back and then ordered residential service. I have not looked to see if there are price changes for me but residential can be put into "portability" mode which then allows you to move it when you RV. In my case we are in the same spot all summer so I am set up to take it with us when we go to the mountains. That adds about $20 a month for the four months we are away from the residence and when we return in September I will change it back to the home address.



A couple of reasons for this. Mainly I do not have to pay the RV fees all year long. As it stands now RV coverage is spotty in some areas and I would prefer to have the priority service with residential. At some point coverage will be better in our summer location and I might consider switching to RV just so that I can shut it off during the remainder of the year when not in use. As it stands now if you switch to RV there is no turning back, you are stuck with RV and back of the line speeds in areas where others already have service and priority but you can shut it down when not in use, on a monthly basis.



There is no "price for billing address" but there is no ability to order residential if the service is still in the "pending" stage. With RV you can order in about any area but you are again at the back of the line behind residential/business until coverage picks up.



Here is the info as of today and you can thank inflation for some of this.

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/22/spac...y-pricing.html


On top of this SpaceX/Starlink increased the price for those who were gobbling up bandwidth while working at home and slowing the speeds for others. If you use over a certain amount during the month you will be billed extra. That is only fair to we who are not running a business or working from home.

[CAG]

This is the Starlink coverage map that is currently on their site if you want to see what is available.



The area that my residence is in currently is listed as available to order and my speeds, depending upon time of day run from 70-80 to over 250 Mbps. At the RV spot last summer, and there are more sats up now, the speeds were as low as 10 and as high as 250.



Location, location, location.



https://www.starlink.com/map

[craigav]

I am getting between 50~75 most often, right now ~55 Mbps and that is about an hour NW of DFW TX. I am fine with that speed though, streaming video services tend to be less than 10 Mbps for my usage and I don't download a lot. When I first got the service I was getting upwards of 150 Mbps according to speedtest . net However, about a year ago I would drop down just below 10 Mbps during peak times of the day, so while I get a slower maximum speed now, I never see it drop below ~20 Mbps... so no video buffering anymore even during peak times. ~CA

[SloPoke]

Starlink Residential with Portability:

The Starlink monthly service for residential customers is changing as follows:

$10 increase in areas with limited capacity. New price will be $120/month.
$20 decrease in areas with excess capacity. New price will be $90/month.


As a current customer in an area with limited capacity, your monthly service price will increase to $120/month beginning April 24, 2023. For new customers in your area, the price increase is effective immediately.

If you do not wish to continue service, you can cancel at any time on your account page. Your Starlink hardware can be returned for a full refund within 30 days of purchase, or a partial refund of $250 within 12 months of purchase.

As the SpaceX team launches more satellites to increase capacity, the Starlink team is making continuous network updates to improve performance over time. Thanks for being a customer and for your continued support of Starlink!

[TomC_AZ]

From everything I have seen they have also cancelled the portability option for residential users. You can possibly move to a new location and change the account address etc. But you may not be able to move it back into your home location if its at capacity. They do offer residential users the option of moving to the RV service but there is no option to move back....

Seems like they are trying to force some out based upon price and options.

Thankfully they have not increased the price of the hardware again, yet... :-)

Now they do offer the ability to transfer the equipment to a new owner allowing those who have it and dont want/need it anymore the option to sell it. I have been looking at the aftermarket sells to save some upfront money.

I have also heard that they are close to the release of a Starlink Mini Dish, that will be half the size of the 2nd generation (rectangular) dishy. So not sure if I want to wait or not but sounds like it might also be 12v. (all speculation at this point however)

[JFlightRisk]

It's a good thing we don't need this. Just for grins I checked availability on their website map, and it cuts across our block on a diagonal between "available now" to "waitlist. I could have it if we lived 5 houses down the street. We're in the 1/4 of the block that's on their wait list.

[CAG]

Originally Posted by TomC_AZ

From everything I have seen they have also cancelled the portability option for residential users. You can possibly move to a new location and change the account address etc. But you may not be able to move it back into your home location if its at capacity. They do offer residential users the option of moving to the RV service but there is no option to move back....

Seems like they are trying to force some out based upon price and options.

Thankfully they have not increased the price of the hardware again, yet... :-)

Now they do offer the ability to transfer the equipment to a new owner allowing those who have it and dont want/need it anymore the option to sell it. I have been looking at the aftermarket sells to save some upfront money.

I have also heard that they are close to the release of a Starlink Mini Dish, that will be half the size of the 2nd generation (rectangular) dishy. So not sure if I want to wait or not but sounds like it might also be 12v. (all speculation at this point however)

I sent the portability question to them for an answer. I asked them whether I have it or don't because it is not clear. I also asked about moving from one location to another and then back again. What are the rules? I will post what I get back as an answer.


BTW one of the other Starlink users in our summer location had residential, never notified them of his move and went all summer without an issue. I know they know where you are but wonder if they care?

[kirkelli]

this is the 2nd rate increase since having Starlink for the last 1.5 years. Like everything else, cost is going up... The Starlink service at home averages 200mb and our favorite camping locations between 100-200 MBs. For right ow, the increase is not a deal breaker but if this increase pattern continues i'll throw the dowel in.. Race Communications is currently building out a fiber network in our community and their current 1Gig service is $75 month.. Pretty attractive package....Here is a video discussing Starlink's increase and the service packages.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eM_0FKK2b_s

[CAG]

I am thinking that with the amount of money Elon is putting into this, and the fact that it is making money, it will become a good deal for the consumer and Elon. Considering the fact that I have NO Wifi at our location during the summer a price of $120 or so is a steal. It also makes a difference considering the fact that ALL wifi went out where we were at during the summer including phone and had we been on Starlink that would not have been an issue. Our kids were a little worried about not being able to text or phone during that time. There are part of this country that have little to no contact without Sat.

[TomC_AZ]

Here is another new video about the changes.. Interesting comments on it about portability, basically what they are saying is if you have it turned on you are fine and dont have to switch to the RV plan. But if you do not have it turned on (assuming that means using it in portability mode) then you have to make the choice..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sivcIPd4dZQ

[SmokerBill]

My guess is that Elon needs more money to keep Twitter going.

[kirkelli]

Originally Posted by SmokerBill

My guess is that Elon needs more money to keep Twitter going.

Yup

[DAT-IT]

Originally Posted by SmokerBill

My guess is that Elon needs more money to keep Twitter going.

I think it has more to do with covering his losses in Ukraine. He was trying to get the Pentagon to fund it, but they stalled enough that he withdrew the request. Probably decided it was easier to crowd source it...


Dave

[SloPoke]

On our account, we have Residential with Portability - and still do now. Starlink (SL) on the app says that if we have Portability, and don't remove it... then we can keep it - we have. If you are dropping Portability for a day,week,month now... you wont get it back.

We got the notice that some areas are going down by$20/month in areas... here is the exact words they sent:

$10 increase in areas with limited capacity. New price will be $120/month.
$20 decrease in areas with excess capacity. New price will be $90/month.

[bucko]

I guess its expensive to launch satellites into space, hence the price increase. If they keep raising prices for RVers for TV and/or internet service, we will have to simply hold conversations with our families around a campfire.

[RAurand]

Look how much it cost to put in an aircraft!
High-speed, low-latency, in-flight internet with connectivity across the globe. $12,500/mo-$25,000/mo with a one-time hardware cost of $150,000.

[Frosty42]

I bought an RV to get away from the connected world. To each their own but when I see a good number of our camp neighbors spending their time inside the RV instead of outside...what's the point?

For clarity I am not referring to those who work remotely. So at the end of the day, this is not a need or want for me.

[TaftCoach]

I think it comes down to how many nights a year you are using your RV. We are at about 80 per year. I don't think I need to spend every moment outside.