(Credit: Best Buy)
A cheaper Starlink monthly plan is coming to more markets, but not the US for now.
SpaceX today debuted a new "residential lite" plan for Starlink, which cuts the monthly internet fee in return for slower internet speeds. The program is essentially a stripped-down version of the normal residential plan for Starlink, which costs $120 per month in the US.
(Credit: Starlink.com)The new residential lite program appears to be a rebrand of Starlink's “Deprioritized plan," which the company debuted in February in New Zealand with a 50% discount on the monthly fee.
The company then quietly expanded the Deprioritized plan to Italy and Spain, saying users there could expect download speeds between 50-100Mbps — a reduction from the more typical 150Mbps+ speeds. But we hadn't heard much about moving into other markets since then.
SpaceX has now updated Starlink.com to mention that the newly rebranded residential lite plan is available in over 30 markets. This includes expanding the program to countries in Latin America, Africa, and islands in the Pacific. However, SpaceX won't offer the program to its largest markets, such as US, where pricing for Starlink has often been the highest.
(Credit: Starlink.com)The discount for the residential lite program can also vary between countries. For example, in Ecuador, the residential lite plan only costs $35 per month, a $10 discount from the already-low $45 monthly fee on the regular plan. Meanwhile, in Spain, the lite plan goes for €29, down from the regular €40 residential fee.
Although the more affordable option isn’t available widely, SpaceX did update the official Starlink specifications for the US to mention the residential lite plan, saying it’ll offer download speeds between 30 and 100Mbps. So perhaps, the company will offer the lite plan at a later date to address US subscribers looking to reduce their monthly Starlink fee.
(Credit: Starlink.com)