(Photo by Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
If you decide to pause your Starlink service, be careful: One customer encountered a $1,500 fee to reactivate their subscription after SpaceX quietly changed the rules for Standby Mode.
On Facebook, a Starlink customer writes that she believed Standby Mode would let her easily return to a Residential Starlink plan. But when she tried to make the change, SpaceX demanded an additional $1,500 "demand surcharge" on top of the regular monthly fee because she lives in an area where the Starlink network is saturated with subscribers.
(Credit: SpaceX)The extra charge is a substantial change to Starlink’s policies, according to the YouTube channel DISHYtech, which first flagged the issue. Starlink’s support page previously assured customers that they would not be hit with a congestion fee when switching back to full service after being in Standby Mode.
“If you pause your service with Standby Mode and later resume high-speed service, even in an area where demand surcharges apply, you will not have to pay the surcharge,” the company wrote in September, according to the Internet Archive.
At some point since then, however, Starlink quietly revised the policy to say: “Standby Mode does not waive demand surcharges. It only preserves prior eligibility.”
“If you already paid a demand surcharge for a specific location, you can pause and resume service in that same location without paying it again,” the support page adds. “If no surcharge has previously been paid for that location, one may apply when resuming service.”
That last part means Standby Mode users may incur an extra fee if they switch back to a Residential Starlink plan and live in an area known to face demand surcharges. The fee can range from $500 up to $1,500 in places such as parts of Alaska or the Pacific Northwest.
The Facebook user later added: “This must be new because I was told I could go on standby anytime and resume anytime with no charge other than the $5 standby fee.”
SpaceX didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. In the meantime, DISHYtech criticized the policy change, saying it threatens to harm existing customers for simply using a Starlink feature that SpaceX itself designed.
Last year, the company introduced the $5-per-month Standby Mode to replace the free pause mode. Although users can still cancel their Starlink service as usual, Standby Mode provides low-speed 500Kbps internet to the dish hardware, enabling it to serve as a backup. Still, the company recently imposed a new restriction on Standby Mode, prohibiting its use while in motion.