Starlink Offers Cheapest Plan Yet to Entice Inactive Users

SpaceX is now offering a new Starlink plan for about $9 per month in an effort to pull in revenue from inactive customers. 

The company is emailing subscribers in Australia about the new “backup connectivity” plan for $15 Australian dollars. However, the plan caps the monthly data limit to a mere 5GB. 

Despite the limitation, SpaceX is marketing the plan as a helpful solution “if your primary internet fails or in an emergency,” the company wrote in the email. “If needed, you can buy additional Roam data in your account for $3 per GB. You can also use Roam data on the go, in-motion, internationally, and in coastal waters.”

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The company also appears to be emailing the offer to customers who’ve paused their Starlink subscription or are about to discontinue their service. The message itself notes subscribers can “reactive” their Starlink service to enroll into the backup plan. 

The offer is drawing mixed reaction; some praise the backup connectivity plan as handy for emergencies. But others say the plan isn’t worth it. “I can’t come up with a scenario where this would be of benefit. If you lose power you can’t use it anyway,” wrote one user on Facebook.  

“5GB? Almost 100% of phone plans come with more than that these days,” wrote another user. “5GB will be lucky to not be used within about 30 mins if you aren’t paying attention.” 

The news arrives days after SpaceX also began offering new customers in the US a separate $50-per-month plan for the standard Starlink dish. That plan caps data to 50GB and is also being marketed as a backup connectivity plan for those on a $120 Starlink residential tier.

The offers suggest SpaceX is experimenting with new ways to raise revenue. The satellite internet service currently has over 4.6 million active customers across the globe. But to attract even more subscribers, SpaceX will likely need to offer bigger discounts, according to analysts.

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About Michael Kan

Senior Reporter

I’ve been working as a journalist for over 15 years—I got my start as a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017.

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