Starlink, the SpaceX-run satellite internet provider, has announced that the company will be introducing a data cap for internet usage for all of its customers in the United States and Canada, which will go into effect in December this year.

The introduction of the data cap is a shift from the company’s previous stance of providing unlimited data without any strings attached. With this change, the company joins the list of other internet service providers that have soft limits on internet usage.

Starlink

The company will offer 1TB “Priority Access” monthly cap for data usage between 7 AM and 11 PM starting in December 2022. Once the user crosses the data limit, the speed will be decreased to “Basic Access.” This is similar to what some of the phone network carriers do to deprioritize data when the network is busy. The regular user with typical usage may not notice any major difference in terms of usage, but those users who depend on sustained performance may not be happy with this new policy.

Internet usage can become quite expensive if the user wants to continue having Priority Access beyond 1TB, as the user will need to pay 25 cents per GB of data. This means that the user needs to spend another $250 to get an additional 1TB of data. With those numbers, it would be cheaper to get another connection if the cost of an additional terminal isn’t an issue.

Also, users of RV, Portability, and “Best Effort” don’t have any Priority Access. Fixed business service has peak-hour caps that range from 500GB to 3TB, and any additional data will cost $1 per gigabyte. Mobility users don’t get any Priority Access, while Premium/Maritime users have a data cap of 1TB and 5TB, respectively, and will have to pay $2 per gigabyte of additional data.

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