(Photo by Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
In certain US cities, SpaceX is increasing the one-time "congestion charge" for new Starlink sign-ups from $100 to $250.
On Tuesday, one Reddit user noticed that Starlink.com had added the $250 congestion charge to orders for Sacramento, California. “Sacramento area is pricey, ouch! Back to the waitlist for me,” they wrote. The same $250 charge also popped up on San Diego and Phoenix orders.
(Credit: Starlink.com)SpaceX hasn’t explained the price increase. But previously, the company had placed Sacramento, San Diego and Phoenix behind a waitlist. It looks like SpaceX is now reopening access, but only for consumers willing to pay up the $250 congestion charge. The company appears to have done the same in London, UK, removing the waitlist, but increasing the congestion charge.
Last year, the company began rolling out $100 congestion charges for select areas where the network had become strained from too many users. The congestion charge still allows users to sign up for a Starlink residential plan, as long as they pay a premium. In other US cities, SpaceX has revived the waitlist, forcing interested customers to wait until more capacity is added.
SpaceX continues to grapple with capacity constraints. It has imposed a dramatic speed cap for subscribers on the Priority plan and threatened to block Roam customers if they use the service in a "sold out" area for more than two months.
The good news is that the congestion charge is still $100 in many other US cities, such as San Francisco, Las Vegas, and Orlando, Florida. In other US states with plenty of network capacity, SpaceX is taking the opposite approach and going out of its way to discount Starlink through its “regional savings” program, which offers a $200 price cut.
(Credit: Starlink.com)This can lower the standard Starlink dish’s price from $349 to $149. In at least a few US states, SpaceX also offers free or discounted roof installs for Starlink dishes.