SpaceX has slashed its Starlink satellite internet pricing in France, down from 99 EUR to 50 EUR ($50.82 USD), a discount of nearly 50% off.
But this change comes with something new: soft data caps per month on bandwidth usage as part of a new fair use policy. SpaceX says users that consume less than 250GB of data per month “will be prioritized.”
Also, going beyond 250GB per month will require data overages billed at 10 EUR for 100GB to regain full priority speeds.
“Under the Fair Use policy, all users will continue to have access to unlimited data. Users who consume 250 GB/month or less of data will be prioritized. Users who exceed 250 GB/month will still have access to unlimited data, but may experience slower speeds during times of network congestion. Users can also choose to purchase additional data to recover priority at €10/100GB,” reads the fine print (via Reddit).
The email sent to Starlink users in France says starting August 3, 2022, the company is reducing the monthly service fee automatically. The price cut is part of a pilot program to connect the greatest number of people without degrading the quality of service, explains SpaceX’s email.
As a loyal Starlink user, the short term payoff for you will be the same Starlink service at half the price, says SpaceX.
As for the new Fair Use policy, it begins in October to ensure that as our customer base grows, the typical user’s quality of service will not be negatively affected by users consuming large amounts of data.
Theoretically, if you pay the 50 EUR price and 50 EUR more for overages to meet the original 100 EUR price, you’d get 750GB of bandwidth to use.
Essentially, it appears this price cut and pay as you go bandwidth option will benefit light users of Starlink internet, particularly those that don’t stream video online or play video games.
