Summary
- Starlink’s Residential Lite plan is now available in 30 states, including most of California and Texas.
- For $80 a month, the plan offers 50-100Mbps internet speeds and unlimited data, but may experience slowdowns during peak hours.
- Starlink’s regular plan is faster, but the Lite option is a more affordable choice for people in hard-to-reach areas.
Starlink, the satellite internet service from SpaceX, quietly launched a more affordable “Residential Lite” package back in March. While this new plan is only $80, it has a few strings attached and wasn’t available in very many states. Luckily, over the last month, the rollout has continued, and now cheaper Starlink internet is available in several new U.S. states.
Initially, Starlink’s new Residential Lite plan was only available in select locations, such as Iowa, Maine, North Dakota, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and others. But according to a newly updated support page, it’s now an option in over 29 states, including Alaska, most of California, and Texas, half of Oklahoma, and all of New York, Oregon, and others.
So, what do you get from the Residential Lite plan? For starters, it’s only $80 per month instead of the usual $120, which is a significant discount while still getting premium high-speed internet in hard-to-reach locations. That said, the speeds are a bit slower than Starlink’s regular service, and your unlimited data is prone to deprioritization. Here’s what you need to know.
As explained by SpaceX itself, the new Starlink Residential Lite plan is “an affordable option for low usage and smaller households.” Customers will get internet speeds ranging from 50-100Mbps with unlimited data, meaning no usage caps. However, Starlink does mention that this lower tier is subject to slowdowns during peak usage hours. This means your internet speeds may get deprioritized during busy times of the day for Starlink’s higher-paying customers.
For comparison, Starlink’s regular Residential plan delivers fast internet speeds of 150-250Mbps, so this option is a bit slower. That said, it’s still more than enough for most, not to mention far faster than anyone is used to in many rural areas. Better yet, if you realize you need faster speeds, upgrading to the faster Residential speeds is easy.
So, if you’re somewhere that doesn’t offer the best internet, consider looking into Starlink Residential Lite internet for only $80 per month. And if you live somewhere it’s not offered, we have a feeling it’ll arrive soon. After launching in a handful of states, this cheaper option now covers nearly half the U.S., so expect support in more states soon. Additionally, this same cheaper tier is expanding to more areas in Alberta, Canada, and parts of Indonesia.
In other news, Starlink is coming to United Airlines flights for faster Wi-Fi, and Amazon recently launched its Starlink rival, too. This should cause SpaceX to speed up its rollout, and eventually, customers will have another option for fast satellite-based internet. Then, at some point in the future, Starlink may even launch its direct-to-cell service, so its satellites will work with smartphones for texting and more.
Source: PCMag
