Starlink Residential Lite: New affordable unlimited data plan goes live in the US

SpaceX has quietly introduced a new affordable Starlink service plan in the US. Dubbed "Residential Lite," the new plan costs $80 a month and offers unlimited deprioritized data. It’s $40 cheaper than the regular Residential plan which is priced at $120 a month.

So what’s the catch here? Starlink says Residential Lite is given a lower network priority compared to the Residential plan and Priority service plans. In other words, customers on the Lite plan will get slower data speeds when Starlink’s network is at its peak capacity. On the plus side, there are no data caps and, the company notes that there are no artificial speed caps in place either, meaning the network availability is the sole factor determining your data speeds. According to Starlink, Residential Lite users should expect speeds between 30Mbps to 100Mbps. That doesn’t sound bad, especially for smaller households that don’t require high speed internet all the time. And should your bandwidth needs increase later on, you can switch to the regular Residential plan any time. 

The Residential Lite plan is currently limited to the following 15 US states where Starlink has ample network availability:

As confirmed by Reddit user /u/jester_56, existing Residential users in the above states can downgrade to the Lite plan. To do so, log into your Starlink account through the Starlink app or website and navigate to "Manage Subscription" > "Change Service Plan". Note that the new plan will take effect from the next billing cycle. 

The new Residential Lite plan is meant for personal and household use at a fixed, land-based location, and while it promises unlimited data, Starlink's fair use policy applies.

As parts of its broader push to reel in new users in the US, SpaceX has also slashed the price of the Starlink Standard dish by $200 in select states.