Starlink Speed Limit Changes?

Skepilot

Skepilot

Pre-takeoff checklist
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Skepilot
I just received an email from Starlink stating the following:

Effective November 7, 2025, we will be lowering the maximum supported operating ground speed for all Roam, Local Priority, and Global Priority plans from 550 mph (471 knots) to 450 mph (391 knots).
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However, previously the Roam plan was limited to 100 mph. We GA pilots had to get the Local Priority plan for it to work at groundspeed faster than that. Has anyone confirmed that this is correct that the Roam plan is now good up to 450 mph?? I can find no confirmation of this on the Starlink website. I wonder if it's a clerical error, considering the email uses the word "lowering" to describe the speed limit change for all three accounts, when it would actually be a huge increase for the Roam plan.
 
Skepilot said:
However, previously the Roam plan was limited to 100 mph. We GA pilots had to get the Local Priority plan for it to work at groundspeed faster than that. Has anyone confirmed that this is correct that the Roam plan is now good up to 450 mph?? I can find no confirmation of this on the Starlink website. I wonder if it's a clerical error, considering the email uses the word "lowering" to describe the speed limit change for all three accounts, when it would actually be a huge increase for the Roam plan.
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The topic of Starlink Mini use in small aircraft came up on another aviation forum I frequent just a few days ago. I recalled the 100mph limit, so I went to the Starlink website to see if that was still a thing.

From what I could find, the 100mph limit had been replaced by a 550mph limit. This was what I found about in-motion use (quoted below in case the page content changes): https://starlink.com/support/article/50e933eb-54f5-1a77-cc85-c6c8325564cf

Can I use Starlink in-motion?​

You can use Starlink in-motion up to 550 mph with certain service plans in locations authorized for in-motion use.

Plans that enable in-motion use:

  • Roam 50GB: Includes coverage in territorial waters and inland waterways (up to 12 nautical miles from the coast) for 5 consecutive days and up to 60 days per year.
  • Roam Unlimited: Roam Unlimited offers the same coverage and duration limits as Roam 50GB, but also allows you to enable Ocean Modefor extended use:
    • Stay connected beyond 12 nautical miles from land.
    • Exceed the 5 consecutive days/60 days per year limit in territorial waters.
    • Get higher network priority than Roam data everywhere Starlink is available.
    • Toggle Ocean Mode on/off in your account portal. Once enabled, you'll start using Ocean Mode immediately and remain opted in until you turn it off. For example, turn on Ocean Mode as you approach waters beyond 12 nautical miles, toggle off when within range to switch back to unlimited Roam data.
  • Local Priority: In-motion and on land
  • Global Priority: Offers prioritized speeds on land, coastal, and international waters, wherever Starlink is available. Select one of our pre-set plans and adjust data as needed.
Plans that do not enable in-motion use: In-motion use is not permitted for the Residential or Residential Lite plan, as described in Fair Use Policy.
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The speed limits have been a moving target over the last year (pun intended). The current roam plan went up pretty high and was just moved back a bit. Think the latest change hits the line between jets and SETP. Good for any piston plane. You can also suspend your plan and get very speed limited data for $5/month. Think dial-up speeds. Good for email, text and perhaps weather. You have to get the full plan first, then suspend it. There's some language that says you have to unsuspend once a year, but it's ambiguous.
 
Elon now has about 9,000 satellites in orbit. He's launched 10,000, but are inop and others fell from orbit.
Perhaps the system hit some critical population which now supports a faster roaming plan.
 
Skepilot said:
I just received an email from Starlink stating the following:



However, previously the Roam plan was limited to 100 mph. We GA pilots had to get the Local Priority plan for it to work at groundspeed faster than that. Has anyone confirmed that this is correct that the Roam plan is now good up to 450 mph??
Click to expand...
One of the frustrating things with starlink in recent years has been the moving of the goalposts. In the early days (we were a very early off-grid adopter at our place in Mexico) you signed up for a plan and the plan existed for years, even being grandfathered in when new plans were introduced. More recently they seem to have moved to a model where they are willing to change things with little or no notice to people with existing subscriptions. On the whole, the experience mostly improves. But it's still frustrating to not know what's going to happen quarter to quarter.

In this particular case, I also don't remember getting any notifications that the speed limit was going to jump massively from 100 to 550, but I can tell you from my recent trip to HSF that my starlink roam subscription worked flawlessly at maximum Maule speed, or about 150mph.

Further, while I didn't get a notice of the increase in speed limit to 550, they did send me an email saying that they had noticed I was using it at high speeds and were therefore alerting me about the 550 -> 450 mph speed limit reduction.
 
Skepilot said:
I just received an email from Starlink stating the following:



However, previously the Roam plan was limited to 100 mph. We GA pilots had to get the Local Priority plan for it to work at groundspeed faster than that. Has anyone confirmed that this is correct that the Roam plan is now good up to 450 mph?? I can find no confirmation of this on the Starlink website. I wonder if it's a clerical error, considering the email uses the word "lowering" to describe the speed limit change for all three accounts, when it would actually be a huge increase for the Roam plan.
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These are of interest to me--the speed limit issues would not be a factor in our plane---even the old limits. Are these being hardwired to the power source for the plane or are they running off of some other source?
 
WJG-GMT-RootBeer said:
These are of interest to me--the speed limit issues would not be a factor in our plane---even the old limits. Are these being hardwired to the power source for the plane or are they running off of some other source?
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I am currently running mine off a 27,000MAh battery bank but will have a 'cigar' lighter power outlet installed in the rear of my 210 next week (When Kelly Aerospace put in the electric A/C.... woohooo!). I have a panel outlet but it is Inop and I don't like having a 8+ft run of cable from the panel to the cargo area anyway. The SL Roam will accept voltage from under 13 to 30V so, if you have a 28V system, a converter is not needed. You can plug in the SL brand cigar adapter power cord to an existing cigar outlet and power it from ship's power; the cord is around 10' long. Not all USB-c outlets will support the start-up amperage but the cigar outlet will.

BTW, I get almost 8hrs on my Anker Solix 27,000MAhr battery.
 
rwellner98 said:
One of the frustrating things with starlink in recent years has been the moving of the goalposts. In the early days (we were a very early off-grid adopter at our place in Mexico) you signed up for a plan and the plan existed for years, even being grandfathered in when new plans were introduced. More recently they seem to have moved to a model where they are willing to change things with little or no notice to people with existing subscriptions. On the whole, the experience mostly improves. But it's still frustrating to not know what's going to happen quarter to quarter.

In this particular case, I also don't remember getting any notifications that the speed limit was going to jump massively from 100 to 550, but I can tell you from my recent trip to HSF that my starlink roam subscription worked flawlessly at maximum Maule speed, or about 150mph.

Further, while I didn't get a notice of the increase in speed limit to 550, they did send me an email saying that they had noticed I was using it at high speeds and were therefore alerting me about the 550 -> 450 mph speed limit reduction.
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This is very confusing. In May, I signed up for a Roam plan, but had to switch to Local Priority as the Roam plan kicked out above 100mph or so. Now the Roam plan is the best option for small GA?
 
I switched to Roam from Local Priority, but to do so, I had to "sell" my dish from my Starlink business account to a newly created Starlink personal account.

That company's product is messy af, but it's fantastic and worth the ride in my opinion. It was worth it when I was paying $250/mo.
 
David Loftus said:
This is very confusing. In May, I signed up for a Roam plan, but had to switch to Local Priority as the Roam plan kicked out above 100mph or so. Now the Roam plan is the best option for small GA?
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Yep. In the early days starlink was pretty good about grandfathering plans and pretending to care about customer experience. Now it seems like every quarter there is a new buying decision to make. Very happy to be the beneficiary of these speed changes this time, but that can be true while it also being true that starlink used to be frictionless and now requires thought and consideration.
 
Apparently, they're getting hard up for mobile customers. I just got an offer for a free mini dish (I have a fixed base starlink installation).
 
Skepilot said:
I just received an email from Starlink stating the following:



However, previously the Roam plan was limited to 100 mph. We GA pilots had to get the Local Priority plan for it to work at groundspeed faster than that. Has anyone confirmed that this is correct that the Roam plan is now good up to 450 mph?? I can find no confirmation of this on the Starlink website. I wonder if it's a clerical error, considering the email uses the word "lowering" to describe the speed limit change for all three accounts, when it would actually be a huge increase for the Roam plan.
Click to expand...
I just returned from a trip this afternoon where we verified the Starlink Mini service was disabled until we slowed to 391 kts. After service resumed, we could go faster for a short time and then disabled. The Starlink avaiation plan is $150K of hardware plus installation and $12K-$24K per month service. Pretty wide notch for a 420 Knt aircraft.
 
schmookeeg said:
I switched to Roam from Local Priority, but to do so, I had to "sell" my dish from my Starlink business account to a newly created Starlink personal account.
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How exactly is that accomplished? Can it all be done online, or did you have to get their customer service involved over the phone?
 
Skepilot said:
How exactly is that accomplished? Can it all be done online, or did you have to get their customer service involved over the phone?
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I did it all online. In the biz account I can "sell" the dish, then I made a new account and began setup using the dish id.
 
schmookeeg said:
I did it all online. In the biz account I can "sell" the dish, then I made a new account and began setup using the dish id.
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Thanks. I just read this: "Roam plans have lower network priority than Local Priority, which could affect speeds during congestion."
Have you noticed any reduction in data speed?
 
Skepilot said:
Thanks. I just read this: "Roam plans have lower network priority than Local Priority, which could affect speeds during congestion."
Have you noticed any reduction in data speed?
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Not yet. I updated my phone to iOS (13+ gb) airborne yesterday. took about 10-12 minutes. I'm on the roam 50.

I use it for zoom calls, streaming, social media nonsense and it keeps up with it all. Simply amazing tech. I'm usually just solo or two-up so we don't consume data all that fast. I've never exceeded the 50gb cap. I frankly wonder how much I can "live with" on the $5/mo standby. Might be worth buying a dish to just install under the radome permanently in the plane, and use another dish as a traveler.
 
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