About Starlink Service Plan: When Starlink came onto the scene in 2019, its main aim was to provide reliable internet to traditionally neglected areas.
Such areas include the rural and remote areas such as the desert, sea, and even the air where conventional internet is limited.
To this end, the company has made several strides, including launching several satellites, enhancing technology, and, most importantly, designing several internet plans.
Today, I will review each Starlink service plan, performance, and cost to help you choose the best for your needs.
Starlink Residential
To start our review is the Starlink residential plan, which is mainly for home usage.
But still, sometimes you may order it and get on the waitlist, especially if you reside in the US.
The phenomenon is mainly because a single satellite can serve predetermined users, which explains why some areas are at full capacity.
When you order the residential plan, the kit includes a router, standard dish, stand, ethernet cable, and power cords.
Cost and Performance
The setup costs $599 for the standard and standard actuated kit. You will also have to pay a monthly subscription of $120 plus shipping costs and taxes, depending on your location.
While this seems like a lot, the good news is that there are no contacts or data caps, and you have a 30-day trial window.
After you order, the next thing is to install the dish in an open field according to the manual.
Once done with the installation, expect download speeds of between 25 and 220 Mbps, according to the company.
Its upload speeds are 5 to 25 Mbps, while the advertised latency is 20 to 40 ms.
For a satellite ISP, this performance is tremendous, given that most satellite ISPs like Viasat achieve only a fraction of this.
However, the performance may depend on the weather, network congestion, and other network interferences.
Installing Starlink
Starlink Business
As the name suggests, Starlink was developed to serve businesses, corporations, government organizations, and other entities.
With this service, your office internet can serve up to 20 users without experiencing downtime.
Like the residential plan, the service is also available globally, but ensure you visit the Starlink website to see if it’s available where you stay.
Most importantly, the business plan is faster than the residential since it gets more priority access.
Cost and Performance
You have three options for owning the kit for the Starlink business plan. For starters, you can order the standard dish, like the one in the residential plan, for a $599 one-time fee.
Secondly, you can go for the flat high-performance dish, which sells at $2500 in Starlink online stores.
The kit is more advanced, especially for establishing and maintaining satellite connections, making it excellent for networking.
Lastly, you can rent the Starlink business kit for $99 per month, but you will have to pay an activation fee of $200.
Whichever way you acquire your kit, you can buy priority access data. This data sells at 500 for 2TB, 250 for 1TB, and 140 for 40GB.
The good news is that when you exhaust the priority access data, you can use the standard one, but it may not be fast enough.
Note that the above prices do not include shipping and handling costs and taxes.
When it comes to performance, you can enjoy download speeds of up to 350Mbps when on priority access data.
However, when you exhaust this data, you return to the same speeds experienced by residential users.
Its upload speeds are between 10 and 25 Mbps while the latency is 20 to 40 ms enough for most business online tasks.
Satellite dish for office use
Starlink Roam
The Starlink Roam was formerly known as Starlink RV when available in the US only. But now it is available globally.
Starlink created this plan for digital nomads and other people who like to use the internet while traveling or RVing.
Apart from using the roaming plan while on the go, the service does not have a waitlist, and your equipment ships immediately.
However, it’s deprioritized, especially during hours of network congestion.
Cost and Performance
Typically, the Starlink roam kit is the same as the residential plan kit and costs the same $599.
But when you install this kit on your RV, you can only use it while camping and not when in motion.
However, there is an option to buy the Flat high-performance kit for $2500, which you can use even when your ride is in motion.
For the monthly price, it depends on the option you choose. First of all, you can go for the regional roam, which goes for $150 per month.
You may also opt for global mobility, which has a monthly price of $200. However, note that for the global roaming plan, you can only use the standard dish since the option for the Flat high permanence one is not available.
In addition, if you want priority data to ensure no throttling during congestion, the company sells it starting from $250 for 50GB.
For performance, expect the same speed as the residential plan, which is 25 to 220 Mbps for downloads and 5 to 25 Mbps for uploads.
Satellite dish on RV
Starlink Maritime
Starlink Maritime serves sea voyagers when riding their yachts, ships, or boats.
For the maritime plan, you can buy a new flat high-performance dish for $2500.
You can also buy a refurbished one, which you can get at a one-time cost of 1500.
The monthly price of this plan will depend on the priority access data you want.
For example, 50 GB goes for $250, 1TB for $100, and 5TB for 5000.
You can use the standard data once you exhaust the priority access data, but only when not on the sea.
The performance of the Starlink maritime is 40 to 220 Mbps for download and 8 to 25 Mbps for uploads, while latency is around 99 ms.
Starlink aviation
The aviation plan is the most high-end and expensive Starlink plan for air travelers who want internet in their jets.
Its kit costs a whopping $150,000, while the monthly cost is $25,000. For the performance, you get the same one as the maritime plan for both speed and latency.
What Is Starlink Priority?
If you can recall from our discussion, we established that Starlink’s internet performance may be affected by network congestion.
Suppose you don’t want your network to slow down even if you are browsing during congestion hours.
Now, this is where Starlink priority data comes to your aid. It means you can buy this data and not experience speed downtime when others do.
So long as you have not exhausted your priority access data, your internet speed will always be high.
The opposite is the standard data mostly found in residential plans but experiences downtimes when many people are logged into the network.
Conclusion
With my research, now you know all the plans that Starlink offers their customers in the quest to provide internet to all.
All remaining is for you to choose the best plan that suits your needs and your pocket.