Well, it has finally happened. After seeing success with its Starlink service, Elon Musk’s SpaceX-backed internet service has finally started to alienate some of the customers that the service was built to serve. According to posts shared by Starlink customers, the company will soon do away with its free “pause” service feature, which has allowed many Starlink users to pause their internet service when they don’t need it.
Now, though, it looks like Starlink is doing away with this feature in favor of a paid alternative called Standby Mode. Standby Mode will cost $5 a month (so roughly $60 a year if you keep your service paused for an entire year), at least according to emails sent to Starlink customers. There are some notable differences between Standby Mode and the original pause feature, but overall, some customers feel like the move is a slap in the face. Others are less convinced about it being a bad decision, though, and some even seem to support the move.
What’s the difference?
As I noted above, there is a key difference between the original pause feature and the new Standby Mode, aside from the attached price tag. On top of keeping your service active, subscribing to Standby Mode gets you access to unlimited low-speed data, as well as texting, calls, and instant reactivation of your service in the case of emergencies or dead zones.
With the original pause feature, your service was paused — exactly like it sounds — but not deactivated, and you could reactivate it at any time. Essentially, it was like having a reserved seat on the Starlink network, so you could reconnect at any point, which seems to be one of the main reasons why many of those outraged at the change purchased Starlink devices in the first place.
So, why not just let your Starlink subscription lapse instead of changing to Standby mode? Well, support documents suggest that Starlink will charge an activation fee for new Roam services. There’s also the concern over Starlink availability, and how many customers the service provider is willing to take on as it continues to expand across the world.
Why people are upset about the change
While Starlink is at least offering something in return for the price, customers who bought into the service — especially those who subscribed to the Roam service specifically to occasionally make use of the Starlink Mini and other satellites — also used to be able to switch to a $10 a month plan which gave them 10GB of data, but now Starlink’s Roam service appears to start at $50 per month for its 50GB plan.
It’s unclear if the $10 plan was ever meant to be a standard offering, as some Reddit comments suggest it was merely a stopgap to convince customers not to cancel their service. Still, several users report that their pending changes for the $10 plan suddenly disappeared overnight.
This isn’t the first time Starlink has found itself in hot water, as previous scientific studies suggested Starlink satellites might be killing the ozone. However, this issue is notable because it actively seems to be alienating some of the community that has helped Starlink become successful, and many feel as if the company has pulled a bait-and-switch to try to make more money off of them.
