Speeds for Starlink took a hit last year amid a flood of interested users, but SpaceX is now upgrading speeds for some subscribers of the Starlink “Best Effort” tier.
Last week, several Best Effort tier users reported receiving emails about SpaceX upgrading their service to the normal residential Starlink tier.
“With Residential, you will receive prioritized service, resulting in improved speeds, particularly during times of network congestion,” SpaceX wrote in the email. “There is no change in your monthly service price or additional cost for this upgrade.”
The Best Effort tier currently offers advertised download speeds from 5 to 50Mbps. In contrast, the standard residential tier offers speeds from 20 to 100Mbps.
The emails arrive as SpaceX has been freeing up capacity for Starlink, which uses orbiting satellites to beam broadband to users on the ground. Last week, the company also lifted the Starlink residential tier waitlist for most parts of the western US.
To increase capacity, SpaceX has already launched 495 additional Starlink satellites in this year alone. In the email, the company added: “This upgrade is made possible through the introduction of Starlink’s higher performing satellites, SpaceX’s faster launch rate, and the continuous deployment of software features to optimize the Starlink network.”
It's unclear how many Best Effort users have been upgraded to the normal residential tier; some say they haven't received an upgrade. SpaceX didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, but on Facebook and Reddit, users who received the upgrade reported being based in Georgia, Texas, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, along with Ontario, Canada—all areas mostly waitlisted on Starlink.
SpaceX originally introduced the Best Effort tier in August for pre-order customers who had been waiting months or over a year for access to Starlink. The program offers customers access to the satellite internet service, but at significantly slower speeds. For now, the company has been giving consumers access to the Best Effort tier only "to existing pre-order customers in areas where Residential service is currently at capacity." To bypass the waitlist, users can try Starlink Roam or a business-tier, but they'll have to pay more.