Starlink speed limit nerfing
- Thread starter SebIp
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JEB
Pre-takeoff checklist
I bought the hardware and signed up based on their Roam plan allowing 300MPH speeds and 100GB for $50/month.
This morning Starlink forced me into an Aviation plan that changes the deal to $250/month, drops usage to 20GB + $10 for each additional GB. A 5X increase in price and a 5X Decrease in usage allowance.
I put my plan on hold and sent a nasty note to Starlink telling them how crappy this is.
EVERYONE with Starlink needs to put their plan on hold Now. They are banking on being able to keep 1 in 5 pilots enrolled, thus keeping their profit while freeing up bandwidth. If just one pilot in 5 keeps the subscription, we all get screwed. Don't be that one pilot...
This morning Starlink forced me into an Aviation plan that changes the deal to $250/month, drops usage to 20GB + $10 for each additional GB. A 5X increase in price and a 5X Decrease in usage allowance.
I put my plan on hold and sent a nasty note to Starlink telling them how crappy this is.
EVERYONE with Starlink needs to put their plan on hold Now. They are banking on being able to keep 1 in 5 pilots enrolled, thus keeping their profit while freeing up bandwidth. If just one pilot in 5 keeps the subscription, we all get screwed. Don't be that one pilot...
schmookeeg
Final Approach
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I started at the 250/mo plan. Now it's back. Still worth it for me. Magic sky internet is awesome. 
I dislike the rug-pull intensely, but... seems to be the way of things lately. More Enshizzlification.
I dislike the rug-pull intensely, but... seems to be the way of things lately. More Enshizzlification.
JEB
Pre-takeoff checklist
Don't settle for being enshizzified.
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ISP has low teaser rate and then jacks the price, film at eleven.
Thank goodness my 140 is safe...
JEB
Pre-takeoff checklist
They noted that I used it in cruise (about 170 knots over the ground) and forced me over to their newly created Aviation plan.
Elon's gonna Elon. Has demonstrated time and time again not to be trustworthy. This should surprise no one. Which isn't to say I'm unsympathetic to those who got the shaft in this deal. It's still a bogus deal. Just that it's predictable.
That said, I do have to say that I'm surprised so many people want inflight internet this badly. From a flight perspective, I'm not getting anything I couldn't get on adsb. I can count on two fingers the number of times I've bothered to set it up in flight. One was to see if it worked. The second was to download a podcast.
From a pax perspective, yeah, internet is a nice to have. But is it really worth $600 or $1200 or $1980 or $3000 (all of which have been annual starlink subscription prices at various points for services that worked at piston single speeds) to avoid having to download media into their devices before the flight?
That said, I do have to say that I'm surprised so many people want inflight internet this badly. From a flight perspective, I'm not getting anything I couldn't get on adsb. I can count on two fingers the number of times I've bothered to set it up in flight. One was to see if it worked. The second was to download a podcast.
From a pax perspective, yeah, internet is a nice to have. But is it really worth $600 or $1200 or $1980 or $3000 (all of which have been annual starlink subscription prices at various points for services that worked at piston single speeds) to avoid having to download media into their devices before the flight?
You must not have a spouse or kids, lol.
For $600 a year it's worth it to keep them entertained. Having the ability to file flight plans, get expanded weather info, send text messages, etc., is also pretty helpful to pilots.
hindsight2020
Final Approach
Agree. Plus, I like my family members (pax) to participate in the flight experience. They can surf the internet and watch YouTube anytime. The few hours they are in the air is better spent looking at scenery, helping me watch for traffic, and other cockpit duties as assigned by the Chief Pilot (me).
I have both.
When necessary (rarely), we download content before the flights. But the real answer is that my pax are interested in the flight.
For me (YMMV):
Flight plans are on the ground.
I don't need anything beyond radar and metars in the air. Both of which are free on adsb.
Text messaging works surprisingly well below 5000 ft. Certainly wouldn't pay $600 a year to have it work better.
Mtns2Skies
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Buy three of them so that the combined speed nearly matches that of his current plane!
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I don't need internet when I'm flying, but you guys got my attention. Spectrum is now $100 at my house. I looked up Starlink and I can get their Max plan for $120 and they'll give me a free Mini. So I could have internet at Oshkosh... very tempting.
Anyone use it at home? I understand you can turn the roaming on and off. I assume they charge you for a full month when you activate it, right?
Anyone use it at home? I understand you can turn the roaming on and off. I assume they charge you for a full month when you activate it, right?
Depending on when you are trying to get internet, starlink at Osh could be life changing. After the day users leave, the mobile connectivity is plenty for what I need. But during the day, starlink is the difference between barely being able to get a message out and having full-on internet.
Mtns2Skies
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Fly to locations in Parallel, not in Series. I like it.
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Yeah, I take off from my day job when I'm working at OSH, but sometimes I have to log in. It would be worth $50 for sure.
The way it worked for our second home:
Receive hardware, set up, go online and start service. Charged for one month of service at the service level we wanted.
Leave house after two weeks, put unit on $5/month standby plan, which takes effect next billing cycle.
Return to house 3.5 months later, immediately upgrade back to full service plan, get charged right then and get service.
Rinse, repeat. Starlink pockets some money for services we don't use, but we do get to save some while away.
Its nice for weather and D-ATIS and downloading stuff in flight, but I take issue with the fact that they are doing this for no other reason than their belief that its okay to rip pilots off because they believe that we'll put up with it. We are being targeted. It's like a cable company charging you for internet based on the size of your house, not how much you actually use the service. Most people who have the intelligence and the money to succeed at owning a plane didn't get to where they are at in life by accepting being gouged because of who they are. I cancelled my service this morning, and will be putting my dish on FB marketplace. I still have my trusty ol' bendix radome and FIS-B weather that has always worked just fine and kept me safe.
And that is sort of the point. On a GA flight with the family for some of us only the pilot thinks like you do.
MauleSkinner
Touchdown! Greaser!
So is pilot class.
schmookeeg
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Obviously an opportunity here to field a fleet of piper cubs, each with $50 starlink dishes, and let the planes flying near them connect wifi from cub to cub. Enjoy that delicious arbitrage. 
Exactly. If you want to charge me more because the hardware is more expensive due to some sort of aviation requirements. Fair game.
If you want to charge me more over the ocean because that requires lasers on the satellites to beam to one another when out of sight of a ground station. Ok.
But if you want to charge me more to use the same hardware with an arbitrary speed limit. Well, that's just Elon doing Elon things.
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I'm glad I didn't pull the trigger on the mini. Perhaps my memory is fading but I thought the maximum speed was raised not too long ago. Whereas before it was priced at a point that didn't make sense. And now they lowered it again. Perhaps im misremembering.
Hang 4
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That assumes that price should be a function of cost. A business should set prices based on what customers are willing to pay. I think Starlink just lost a ton of customers by setting the price where they did, but the cost of delivering the service is irrelevant. Back of the napkin math says if they lose 4 out of 5 customers, they are still ahead on profit.
Got two trips out of my mini for the $50 roam plan. And now this. IMHO nothing more than an outrageous bait and switch. Unfortunate because I did like having it. But I’m canceling at the new 5x $ rate. And I’m clearly telling them why.
RockyMtnFlyer
Pre-takeoff checklist
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I have it at home and in my RV; I assume the aviation plans are similar. Home is on all the time ($120/mo); RV only when I am using it. You can switch from standby to one of the plans (100Mb or unlimited) at any time; they charge you a prorated amount for the number of days until your next billing date (12th of the month for me). Unless you put it in standby, you get charged for another month on your billing date. You can select standby at any time, but it will not switch until the end of the billing cycle. Rule of thumb: once they have your money you won't get any back. When I switch from standby, I select the 100Mb plan for $50/mo; when I reach the 100Mb limit I switch to the $165/mo unlimited plan.
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I have it for my home internet, don't have a viable alternative. They were offering to add on the mini for another $5/mo in standby mode and it would be something additional to actually use it. I don't really feel like I need internet in my plane, ADS-B gives me what I need. I had some thought of getting it in case I need internet in some remote area but I can't remember the last time I couldn't get signal with my phone and just do tethering so... meh.
Based on what I saw as an early adopter for the starlink home service, I'm pretty sure they're still figuring out their business model. They also were initially dividing up the world into different areas and allocating so many dishes per area. Apparently, at least early on, they were concerned about too many customers in a given area overloading their capacity. I think it's at least conceivable there's some technical/infrastructure challenge that comes with too many dishes quickly transitioning through these areas. That doesn't mean they're not still price gouging but I can see something like that being at least part of it.
Based on what I saw as an early adopter for the starlink home service, I'm pretty sure they're still figuring out their business model. They also were initially dividing up the world into different areas and allocating so many dishes per area. Apparently, at least early on, they were concerned about too many customers in a given area overloading their capacity. I think it's at least conceivable there's some technical/infrastructure challenge that comes with too many dishes quickly transitioning through these areas. That doesn't mean they're not still price gouging but I can see something like that being at least part of it.
That’s my recollection as well. At some point last year (summer maybe?) they modified the maximum speed of one of the lower tier non-aviation packages to 250mph. While airborne use wasn’t prohibited, they still offered aviation hardware and packages marketed to the aviation industry.
I never actually pulled the trigger either, although I was strongly considering, but $50/mo sounded almost too good to be true, considering that’s the cost of Sirius XM weather services.
flyingcheesehead
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"Kids, there's an amazing movie on, and we have surround screens!"
* Does not work in IMC.
Filing, I do on the ground. Weather, I get plenty from FIS-B. Text messages, I can send via satellite if I really need to, right from my iPhone.
I never felt the need to get Internet when airborne... And at work now I do get Internet while airborne, but the only thing it gets used for is submitting engine trend monitoring data to the mothership from my iPad.
Depending on how you connect the Cubs, you either get 6 seats at 80 knots, or 2 seats at 240 knots!
k9medic
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Bait and switch... 100%
I got my mini in November during one of the promotions. Used it 3 times before this event and I just cancelled it.
I got my mini in November during one of the promotions. Used it 3 times before this event and I just cancelled it.
Yes, that's right.
Hmm.. we were flying from FXE to EIS and back with a Starlink mini suctioned to the window and didn't have a probelm. We were doing about 260 kts ground speed.
It is supposed to go into effect today. Maybe they are doing it at midnight?
455 Bravo Uniform
Final Approach
This is only true to a point. I’m sometimes a chump because it’s not worth the fight dollars-wise. Screw me over because I’m too lazy to fight the annoyance (another way to put it is some saying about wrestling with a pig in mud…).