I believe $50 a month for 50 GB is still too expensive even for back up purposes if they sweeten the deal and allow you to roll the data over providing you were paying for the next month service and not suspending it then I think that would be a lot better
Id love a roam plan where you just pay for what you use instead of monthly payments for something you may only use a few times a year and only a couple gb at a time. I bought mine for the boat when offshore and i only go offshore occasionally.
They have a 50g roam plan as well, though you do have to pay full price for the equipment. It's meant for the mini but you can get it on standard too, or at least you could a couple weeks ago.
@ ive got it on roam, but i only use less than 2gb a month for surveying work and not for your usual social media or streaming services. I already own the dish and equipment, if I could pay $10 a month, that would be great.
This is good news, particular for those for whom Internet access is a must-have. StarLink would do well to offer a similar backup plan specifically for hospitals, fire fighters, and the police. Those would come into play when the Internet is down in a large or small disaster scenario and get priority routing. It'd include both fixed locations like fire stations and portable locations like wild fires.
I just bought the starlink dish from Walmart and just choose what I want when I sign up for there service. Seems easier, as it wasn't letting me choose if I went through there website
I ordered the Starlink mini when it was released for this exact reason as I only wanted it for a back up, but once I realized I didn’t have POE to power the dish I swapped it for the regular size and kept the $50 plan. So I guess the way I did it was sort of a workaround.
I believe the 'high congestion area' charge applies because residential plans are given priority over roam plans in congested areas. Since roam plans have the lowest priority, they don't incur the extra charge in these areas. When demand is high in a given area, roam plans will experience lower throughput than residential plans.
It's more likely a sneaky trick their Marketing Dept came up with to make their hardware price, (a long standing barrier for people wanting to get a Starlink system) look cheaper. It's considered a "deceptive and misleading trade practice) and it's generally illegal both federally and via state laws. But now, there's no one to enforce the federal side. Mark my words: someone will file a large class action suit about this so-called congestion fee. Then when the suit settles, consumers will get a $5.95 debit card.
Thanks for all this great info. I agree this is just a relable of roaming. I will be looking at roam soon for an RV, and great to know this is also a good home back up. But really i would appreciate a true back up where i pay a small fee each month for a connection, and the get charged a usage fee when I switch to back up. Like $20 a month for connection and updates (maybe a 10 gig limit) and then the $50 charge for 50 gig when i actually switch over.
Still seems like the Mini would be a better solution for the backup - lower power and you can plug it directly into your router that has backup. Well unless the standard device works better with 2 network sources?
@@StarlinkHardware yeah I hear you on that. The only reason I have a mini is because of the sale they did over the holidays. Even at $449 it was still expensive but glad I have it now.
Hmmm . First off you are tripling the GB from 50 to 150. How is that a 40% savings.🤣🤣🤣. Or do you want 150 GB for the normal price of $150 and then slash that by 40%?…… let’s just shoot for free Starlink for everyone 🤣🤣🤣🤣
I have the roam 50 Gb I have used here in Florida as backup for my hard wired internet. The problem is, if your internet goes out and your cell phone tower isn't handling data (which happened in the Hurricane this past fall), you can't start up the roam plan as it must be turned on via the internet. So in the future, when a hurricane is about to strike, you need to activate the roam plan before the regular internet goes down. This means you have to pay the $50 whether or not the regular internet actually goes out, but its worth it. I can't tell you how frustrating it was to have starlink but not be able to use it for a few days until my phone data started coming back so I could activate it, but the internet was down for a week so I still was able to use the Starlink roam for most of that week.
Not really - you miss a critical part: In a year or even half a year you can use Starlink with an LTE phone, so if the cellphone tower goes down you may be able to activate via normal phone through Starlink.
Is this what you did, you paused service previously and when the hurricane hit, you tried Unpause Service but it did not work because it needs another internet source? Starlink said when unpausing service, you can do it with the starlink cellphone app connected to satellite and you dont need another internet source like cell tower or home internet in unpausing/resubscribe to 50GB roam plan. 😊
You can unpause/pause from the starlink app on your phone once connected to the starlink wifi. No additional cellphone / internet service needed. Just make sure your app is downloaded and up to date.
Connect to your Starlink dish and then re-activate. It will let you do that, though you may have to wait for the dish to do a couple software updates first. I set one up for a family member a few months ago without any 3rd party connection.
Update: Looking at the replies to my original message and thinking back I realized that I had never turned on the roam service via the app. I had thought I had done so on the website the year before but apparently I had not. The other issue was my app was not up to date, so I had to update it over the cell data network and then enable the roaming service. I tried a lot of things over a 2 day period before I could get it up and running with the intermittent cell data I was experiencing. I guess the lesson is to keep the app updated and be sure you have enabled the roam feature.
Possibly if you are in a congestion area then if/when there's an area-wide-outage on your primary line, there will be a huge uptick in usage in the congestion-flagged areas. This way there's a little disincentive or penalty to dissuade users. I'm in New Zealand and there's no-one here so we don't ever see congestion... :)
Can you buy the Starlink Standard kit from Home Depot or Best Buy and then during sign up select the Backup Plan??? Question is does it still force you to pay the Congestion Charge?
Yes, assuming your address isn’t in a “sold out” area. You’ll pay the congestion charge if it applies for your address even with 3rd party kit activations.
The Standard dish has the best performance while the Mini dish prioritizes size and power efficiency. Depending on where you live the Mini can be more expensive, so unless power/size are your top concerns, Standard is the best option for home backup.
Starlink had a survey go out to some people a little while back asking if they would get a $5 for 5GB backup plan instead of cancelling their service if it were avaliable.
Backup plan not available in Canada yet. I have a Gen1 Starlink dish. Canceled service when 5G became available. Never took down the dish. Then the 5G promo period ended so I reactivated Starlink - I could not believe how easy it was to reactivate my account after 12 months. Powered up the dish, used the Starlink App to update creditcard and service was fully working within 15mins. I do recommend just powering up dish every 6months or so, leave it on for 24hours, and it will automatically get firmware updates.
I don't understand this, do you still have to pay the first month as the full price of unlimited and then the next months can be downgraded? Because the unlimited is $115 more (for the roam plan) wouldn't that buff to the same price for the more expensive mini? I can see the residential ordering unlimited would currently save you $30 due to the congestion fee. Please let me know if I am wrong on this assumption
The extra $100 charge is a way to get nearly the same price for the Standard Kit as the Mini without having to actually have any additional cost or real margin loss since they aren't selling a mini.
Honestly $50 a month is too high really 10-15 a month would make more sense and if you have you network fail over it jumps after 15gb or 1 day to the $120 a month plan. So you can have things ready until you need it and that’s where the backup really makes sense. Not to mention it should help to fund the continued build out the network at 50 a month it’s about what gigabit symmetrical fiber costs per month in my area
I have a different maybe answered before question: If i have residential plan at City address, but every weekend or at least twice a month i power it off, then power it on at farm area ~200 miles from my city address. 1. Will i get a warning or some sort? 2. Will they ask me to switch to roam? Note: I will not be using it in motion. 80-90% of time it will be operating at registered address (ie. City address). I want to get it for residential use, but use it at farm when im there weekends(no cell reception).
Sure but you still have to select a service plan, like Backup 50GB. And be sure to set up your Starlink account and log in to the app in advance. Starlink requires 2FA to login. If cellular and your other internet goes down, you won’t be able to get the login code, and you won’t be able to activate Starlink services. I recommend creating your account and downloading the app in advance, regardless of where you buy the kit. Then just pause service. When you need it, internet is just a tap of a button away even with no cell signal, assuming you are already logged into the app.
we need a "pay as you consume" plan from starlink for true backup since we bought the material for a good buck and just need it to work just in case of outage
Is there anything stopping One from just using this as their main Internet? Here in Canada wireless Internet often is data capped at ridiculously small amount of data. So this is actually quite competitive for Canadians. Could be used as their primary when you don’t have another choice. And a lot of people who don’t use a lot of Internet bandwidth 50 gigs is more than enough. Especially when you’re supplementing it with a cell plan.
No, this could be a primary internet option. The two limitations are the deprioritized Roam data (compared to Residential) and the data cap. But if you don't use much data it would work great as a primary connection.
Wish they would add a data plan like the old prepaid cell phone . Buy data upfront, 100 Gb or w/e and use it as needed. I never want to activate my Roam mini plan for a day. So it tends to sit. Would get so much more use, even if they did a daily service fee like boost mobile did with the PTT. 2 or 3$ a day and then data on top of that...
I noticed a big difference in performance for the same location when comparing roam to the residential tier - that is probably what you are paying the extra congestion charge for.
Ya I would understand if the Backup 50GB plan was Residential data, but it uses Roam data, so you would be getting the same speeds as using a Roam plan.
@@StarlinkHardware Thanks. Good point, i missed the specific fine print you showed on screen while describing this. They are indeed describing that Backup plan including "roam" specifically worded as the data tier. Very weird and such a missed opportunity....they could've made that $100 seem legit by at least using different wording than just copy-pasting the roam plan - probably where my wishful thinking came from. Nice work again on this scoop! Keep 'm coming.
I have a T-Mobile 5G tower less than 1 mile away, I did their “BYOD” plan, which is 30GB for $10/month.. they send you the SIM card, pop it in your 5G router, done. I use this as a backup for Comcast, which is auto switched via my Ubiquity network.. still 1/5 the cost of StarLink backup, only 30GB.. plenty for occasional internet outages on Comcast.
@ of course…. Just pointing out their are 5G solutions as well, and they are in general lower cost. LA has a lot more issues than no internet, right now.
The problem with using mobile as backup is that when the primary line is down it will often be for a number of people in the same area and then everyone switches to mobile, congesting the NW. From a business perspective it haven’t worked for us using mobile as backup.
@ it works for me, Comcast has too many minor outages to count, my Ubiquity router auto switches to the backup WAN connection when it’s detected.. my T-Mobile backup connection is already running, just idle, never had an issue
Like your tactics but often times Comcast is the cel tower backhaul provider. So if your leg of Comcast goes down near your home and it goes down near a cel tower there is a chance you'll be completely down.
Interesting that it's the same price as the Verizon and T-Mobile 5G home options. I think it's just staying in the mix with those solutions. I'm glad they are doing it. For widespread power outages (fire, ice storms, etc.), I can provide the local power and the starlink solution is more likely to be there than the cellular network.
True, but in the case of T-Mobile & Verizon, you dont have to pay $500 for the equipment, which includes their fake $100 congestion fee (a misleading and deceptive trade practice, illegal in nearly every state). The cell providers give you their router for free.
From Groak Roam is deprioritized. This means that during times of network congestion, Starlink Roam users might experience slower speeds compared to users on higher-priority plans like Starlink Residential or Business. The deprioritization is in place to manage network resources, particularly in areas or times when there are many users online. This can lead to speeds ranging from 5-50 Mbps for Roam users, although this can vary based on location and network load. New residential back up plan. This plan is essentially the Roam 50GB plan repackaged for residential backup, meaning it shares characteristics with the Roam plan, including potential for deprioritization during peak usage times. However, it's structured to serve those who need internet only occasionally or in emergencies, thus not requiring the unlimited data of the standard Residential plan
This might be a GEO-limited service option. I live in West Los Angeles area and there is no such option for 'BACKUP' so only the $120/mo option. Good for those who can get it though!
I have a decent sized network here at my house and i have starlink setup as a backup/failover internet service due to speeds not being what i have with cable internet. Anyway, we recently had a cable internet outage here in my area due to storms. My main internet was down for 2 days 19 hours and within those 2 days 19 hours i have used 52.13GB of data sooooooooo the backup internet plan will not work for me as most everyone streams tv service so 50GB limit is not worth it
We live in the US and have a summer place in Sweden. There are people there during two summer months. Can we bring our Starlink Roam and use it there during this time and then bring it back. Pls explain if it is allowed and how to manage settings etc?
Yes, Roam would work for your situation. Every Roam plan has international travel for up to 2 months, so it will just work. No settings to change. The 2 month clock resets once you get back home and power it on.
Please confirm this in the terms of service, but I believe you are allowed to take your Starlink Roam out of its service area for up to 60 days, before you have to bring it back to the USA and connect from your service area.
Roam 50GB can be paused. It’s the Residential + Mini bundle offer that can’t be paused. I know, Starlink makes this unnecessary confusing with all their plans and promotions.
How can I tell how many GB's I use during an average month? If it is less than 50GB, can I just switch to the "Backup 50GB" plan as my only plan. Thanks!
A $45 APC gets you 7 hours uptime on your wired internet provider. An $250ish Ecoflow River wil get you 36+hours. If you have to bail and need Internet on the run Starlink Roam/backup for $500 is an option 😂 It's all about the options.
Sometimes the wired ISP’s go down. That’s what it’s backing up. The APC doesn’t keep the terrestrial networks up, just your devices powered up at home.
It’s backup because it’s an alternative connection for when the primary ISP goes down. T-Mobile has a similar plan with their 5G network. You still have to pay to maintain access. With Starlink’s plan you can keep billing paused and only pay when you need to activate it.
@@StarlinkHardware Oh, that makes sense...I though you paid monthly whether you used it or not, not sure if that was clear & I just misunderstood, but thanks...what I was missing :O) In my situation I'm getting starlink but they are putting fiber out front so eventually I'll have that. Now I see a way to make the 'future' non-used starlink worth having invested in after that point :O)
Using the Mini with unlimited plan with gen 3 router for home internet right now. Only had it about a month to test out. Just ordered the Standard Gen 3 kit because the Mini was for testing starlink and to take to the Philippines with me. I know the Standard has better preformance and it's $120 instead of $165 a month. I had to pay the $100 congestion charge, it hurt.
"I really don't get the congestion fee... I don't think that's fair...". That's because it's ILLEGAL under both federal and state laws. It's a "misleading and deceptive trade practice" and is therefore illegal in FL, CA, NY and any state that has a DUTPA law. It's also quite ripe for an FTC action or a state attorney general's office action, or a class action law suit, for the reason you cite: "it's unfair." It's unfair (misleading & d3ceptive) because it makes their system price APPEAR to be $100 cheaper when it's not! I looked up my own address in FL and that same "congestion fee" appears so it likely appears for EVERYONE in the US. Maybe the entire planet. With Trump in charge and Musk in charge, don't hold your breath on the FTC taking federal action against Starlink. It'll never happen. But, people in NY, VT, MA and CA should file complaints with their state attorney general's office if they got stung by this.
3rd party kits, including used, are still subject to availability checks, congestion charges, and plan restrictions. So you won’t be able to initially activate a Best Buy Standard kit on Roam 50GB. But you could activate on Backup 50GB.
@@StarlinkHardware and my comment was about what you said at 4:55 just because you cant order the less expensive kit option from the website. doesn't mean you cant go to a retailer
So basically, it's like the T-Mobile backup plan, expect that this is $50 instead of $20. I know Musk wants to go to Mars really bad, but by overcharging his customer is not the way.
Big difference between cellular and Starlink. Cellular goes down in natural disasters. Just look at California right now, or the southeast US during the hurricanes last year. Starlink stays up.
@@StarlinkHardware yeah but t-Mobile is joining Starlink so that’s not gonna be a problem and eventually every other phone service we probably switched to
I hope you can help me or lead me in the right direction, we got solar panels, that Tesla bought out the company that put them in(‘solar city) we had century link internet that kept failing, so we got Starlink, now we are getting messages from telsa, that they can’t let us know about our solar panel’s efficiency, is this a Tesla problem or a Starlink problem, it’s hard to find someone to talk to
Wrong again, other companies are putting up their own constellations, so it will get cheaper. Plus it's been around for years already and he hasn't done it.
I believe $50 a month for 50 GB is still too expensive even for back up purposes if they sweeten the deal and allow you to roll the data over providing you were paying for the next month service and not suspending it then I think that would be a lot better
Id love a roam plan where you just pay for what you use instead of monthly payments for something you may only use a few times a year and only a couple gb at a time.
I bought mine for the boat when offshore and i only go offshore occasionally.
They have a 50g roam plan as well, though you do have to pay full price for the equipment. It's meant for the mini but you can get it on standard too, or at least you could a couple weeks ago.
@ ive got it on roam, but i only use less than 2gb a month for surveying work and not for your usual social media or streaming services. I already own the dish and equipment, if I could pay $10 a month, that would be great.
This is good news, particular for those for whom Internet access is a must-have. StarLink would do well to offer a similar backup plan specifically for hospitals, fire fighters, and the police. Those would come into play when the Internet is down in a large or small disaster scenario and get priority routing. It'd include both fixed locations like fire stations and portable locations like wild fires.
Thanks for keeping us up to date. Probably not a service I need as I am a Mini/Roam.
Yes sir! Just downgraded to the plan from full service. I was only using it as a back up anyways. Thanks for saving me some bucks!
Sus.
How did you change the plan? The change option is locked out on the website and the app.
@SwollenCranium I just logged in and downgraded it. Easy peasy
@SwollenCraniumYour sus comment is sus. Maybe do some more research first?
@@media6969 I just paid my $50 back up bill for the second month. I'm happy as a clam.
I just bought the starlink dish from Walmart and just choose what I want when I sign up for there service. Seems easier, as it wasn't letting me choose if I went through there website
I ordered the Starlink mini when it was released for this exact reason as I only wanted it for a back up, but once I realized I didn’t have POE to power the dish I swapped it for the regular size and kept the $50 plan. So I guess the way I did it was sort of a workaround.
Wish this existed before I got my mini, would’ve gotten the full sized over my mini unit for better speeds
I believe the 'high congestion area' charge applies because residential plans are given priority over roam plans in congested areas. Since roam plans have the lowest priority, they don't incur the extra charge in these areas. When demand is high in a given area, roam plans will experience lower throughput than residential plans.
That’s true, but the Backup 50GB plan is using the deprioritized Roam data even though it’s a plan listed on the Residential page.
It's more likely a sneaky trick their Marketing Dept came up with to make their hardware price, (a long standing barrier for people wanting to get a Starlink system) look cheaper.
It's considered a "deceptive and misleading trade practice) and it's generally illegal both federally and via state laws. But now, there's no one to enforce the federal side.
Mark my words: someone will file a large class action suit about this so-called congestion fee. Then when the suit settles, consumers will get a $5.95 debit card.
I didn’t even buy my Starlink mini for home internet back up and I’ve already had to use it as a backup for a week while Cox was down in my area..
Thanks for all this great info. I agree this is just a relable of roaming. I will be looking at roam soon for an RV, and great to know this is also a good home back up. But really i would appreciate a true back up where i pay a small fee each month for a connection, and the get charged a usage fee when I switch to back up. Like $20 a month for connection and updates (maybe a 10 gig limit) and then the $50 charge for 50 gig when i actually switch over.
Still seems like the Mini would be a better solution for the backup - lower power and you can plug it directly into your router that has backup. Well unless the standard device works better with 2 network sources?
I think so too, the Mini is what I would pick. But price is a factor too, with the Mini being $599 and the Standard $349.
@@StarlinkHardware yeah I hear you on that. The only reason I have a mini is because of the sale they did over the holidays. Even at $449 it was still expensive but glad I have it now.
Do they have a senor rate for Star Link, would be something.
How about a senior citizen plan. Maybe 150 gig for 40% savings.
Hmmm . First off you are tripling the GB from 50 to 150. How is that a 40% savings.🤣🤣🤣. Or do you want 150 GB for the normal price of $150 and then slash that by 40%?…… let’s just shoot for free Starlink for everyone 🤣🤣🤣🤣
I have the roam 50 Gb I have used here in Florida as backup for my hard wired internet. The problem is, if your internet goes out and your cell phone tower isn't handling data (which happened in the Hurricane this past fall), you can't start up the roam plan as it must be turned on via the internet. So in the future, when a hurricane is about to strike, you need to activate the roam plan before the regular internet goes down. This means you have to pay the $50 whether or not the regular internet actually goes out, but its worth it. I can't tell you how frustrating it was to have starlink but not be able to use it for a few days until my phone data started coming back so I could activate it, but the internet was down for a week so I still was able to use the Starlink roam for most of that week.
Not really - you miss a critical part: In a year or even half a year you can use Starlink with an LTE phone, so if the cellphone tower goes down you may be able to activate via normal phone through Starlink.
Is this what you did, you paused service previously and when the hurricane hit, you tried Unpause Service but it did not work because it needs another internet source? Starlink said when unpausing service, you can do it with the starlink cellphone app connected to satellite and you dont need another internet source like cell tower or home internet in unpausing/resubscribe to 50GB roam plan. 😊
You can unpause/pause from the starlink app on your phone once connected to the starlink wifi. No additional cellphone / internet service needed. Just make sure your app is downloaded and up to date.
Connect to your Starlink dish and then re-activate. It will let you do that, though you may have to wait for the dish to do a couple software updates first. I set one up for a family member a few months ago without any 3rd party connection.
Update: Looking at the replies to my original message and thinking back I realized that I had never turned on the roam service via the app. I had thought I had done so on the website the year before but apparently I had not. The other issue was my app was not up to date, so I had to update it over the cell data network and then enable the roaming service. I tried a lot of things over a 2 day period before I could get it up and running with the intermittent cell data I was experiencing. I guess the lesson is to keep the app updated and be sure you have enabled the roam feature.
Possibly if you are in a congestion area then if/when there's an area-wide-outage on your primary line, there will be a huge uptick in usage in the congestion-flagged areas. This way there's a little disincentive or penalty to dissuade users. I'm in New Zealand and there's no-one here so we don't ever see congestion... :)
Can you buy the Starlink Standard kit from Home Depot or Best Buy and then during sign up select the Backup Plan??? Question is does it still force you to pay the Congestion Charge?
Yes, assuming your address isn’t in a “sold out” area. You’ll pay the congestion charge if it applies for your address even with 3rd party kit activations.
Nice review. I’m interested in a backup plan, especially if it can be paused. I’m confused on hardware, standard vs mini…
The Standard dish has the best performance while the Mini dish prioritizes size and power efficiency. Depending on where you live the Mini can be more expensive, so unless power/size are your top concerns, Standard is the best option for home backup.
Starlink had a survey go out to some people a little while back asking if they would get a $5 for 5GB backup plan instead of cancelling their service if it were avaliable.
Backup plan not available in Canada yet. I have a Gen1 Starlink dish. Canceled service when 5G became available. Never took down the dish. Then the 5G promo period ended so I reactivated Starlink - I could not believe how easy it was to reactivate my account after 12 months. Powered up the dish, used the Starlink App to update creditcard and service was fully working within 15mins. I do recommend just powering up dish every 6months or so, leave it on for 24hours, and it will automatically get firmware updates.
I don't understand this, do you still have to pay the first month as the full price of unlimited and then the next months can be downgraded? Because the unlimited is $115 more (for the roam plan) wouldn't that buff to the same price for the more expensive mini? I can see the residential ordering unlimited would currently save you $30 due to the congestion fee. Please let me know if I am wrong on this assumption
The extra $100 charge is a way to get nearly the same price for the Standard Kit as the Mini without having to actually have any additional cost or real margin loss since they aren't selling a mini.
Honestly $50 a month is too high really 10-15 a month would make more sense and if you have you network fail over it jumps after 15gb or 1 day to the $120 a month plan. So you can have things ready until you need it and that’s where the backup really makes sense. Not to mention it should help to fund the continued build out the network at 50 a month it’s about what gigabit symmetrical fiber costs per month in my area
I have a different maybe answered before question:
If i have residential plan at City address, but every weekend or at least twice a month i power it off, then power it on at farm area ~200 miles from my city address.
1. Will i get a warning or some sort?
2. Will they ask me to switch to roam?
Note:
I will not be using it in motion.
80-90% of time it will be operating at registered address (ie. City address).
I want to get it for residential use, but use it at farm when im there weekends(no cell reception).
Idk if it has changed but you just change your address and reboot and should be good to go in a few minutes
@TheSmiths-0121 if the address is not changed?
Or buy starlink hardware at homedepot 😊 and enable it when you really need it
Sure but you still have to select a service plan, like Backup 50GB. And be sure to set up your Starlink account and log in to the app in advance. Starlink requires 2FA to login. If cellular and your other internet goes down, you won’t be able to get the login code, and you won’t be able to activate Starlink services.
I recommend creating your account and downloading the app in advance, regardless of where you buy the kit. Then just pause service. When you need it, internet is just a tap of a button away even with no cell signal, assuming you are already logged into the app.
we need a "pay as you consume" plan from starlink for true backup since we bought the material for a good buck and just need it to work just in case of outage
Is there anything stopping One from just using this as their main Internet?
Here in Canada wireless Internet often is data capped at ridiculously small amount of data. So this is actually quite competitive for Canadians. Could be used as their primary when you don’t have another choice.
And a lot of people who don’t use a lot of Internet bandwidth 50 gigs is more than enough. Especially when you’re supplementing it with a cell plan.
No, this could be a primary internet option. The two limitations are the deprioritized Roam data (compared to Residential) and the data cap. But if you don't use much data it would work great as a primary connection.
Wish they would add a data plan like the old prepaid cell phone . Buy data upfront, 100 Gb or w/e and use it as needed. I never want to activate my Roam mini plan for a day. So it tends to sit. Would get so much more use, even if they did a daily service fee like boost mobile did with the PTT. 2 or 3$ a day and then data on top of that...
Just get the mini dish for backup. Much better option than the larger panel. The roam plan for the mini dish is 50 bucks a month.
I noticed a big difference in performance for the same location when comparing roam to the residential tier - that is probably what you are paying the extra congestion charge for.
Ya I would understand if the Backup 50GB plan was Residential data, but it uses Roam data, so you would be getting the same speeds as using a Roam plan.
@@StarlinkHardware Thanks. Good point, i missed the specific fine print you showed on screen while describing this. They are indeed describing that Backup plan including "roam" specifically worded as the data tier. Very weird and such a missed opportunity....they could've made that $100 seem legit by at least using different wording than just copy-pasting the roam plan - probably where my wishful thinking came from. Nice work again on this scoop! Keep 'm coming.
I have a T-Mobile 5G tower less than 1 mile away, I did their “BYOD” plan, which is 30GB for $10/month.. they send you the SIM card, pop it in your 5G router, done. I use this as a backup for Comcast, which is auto switched via my Ubiquity network.. still 1/5 the cost of StarLink backup, only 30GB.. plenty for occasional internet outages on Comcast.
That would work for you. what if the tower got knock down , in the case of LA fire it was burnt..
@ of course…. Just pointing out their are 5G solutions as well, and they are in general lower cost. LA has a lot more issues than no internet, right now.
The problem with using mobile as backup is that when the primary line is down it will often be for a number of people in the same area and then everyone switches to mobile, congesting the NW. From a business perspective it haven’t worked for us using mobile as backup.
@ it works for me, Comcast has too many minor outages to count, my Ubiquity router auto switches to the backup WAN connection when it’s detected.. my T-Mobile backup connection is already running, just idle, never had an issue
Like your tactics but often times Comcast is the cel tower backhaul provider. So if your leg of Comcast goes down near your home and it goes down near a cel tower there is a chance you'll be completely down.
Interesting that it's the same price as the Verizon and T-Mobile 5G home options. I think it's just staying in the mix with those solutions. I'm glad they are doing it. For widespread power outages (fire, ice storms, etc.), I can provide the local power and the starlink solution is more likely to be there than the cellular network.
True, but in the case of T-Mobile & Verizon, you dont have to pay $500 for the equipment, which includes their fake $100 congestion fee (a misleading and deceptive trade practice, illegal in nearly every state). The cell providers give you their router for free.
@@joeprager9961 It's also unlimited data. I'd love Starlink but I have Tmobile ISP for my backup and pull in faster speeds with a lower monthly price.
From Groak
Roam is deprioritized. This means that during times of network congestion, Starlink Roam users might experience slower speeds compared to users on higher-priority plans like Starlink Residential or Business. The deprioritization is in place to manage network resources, particularly in areas or times when there are many users online. This can lead to speeds ranging from 5-50 Mbps for Roam users, although this can vary based on location and network load.
New residential back up plan.
This plan is essentially the Roam 50GB plan repackaged for residential backup, meaning it shares characteristics with the Roam plan, including potential for deprioritization during peak usage times. However, it's structured to serve those who need internet only occasionally or in emergencies, thus not requiring the unlimited data of the standard Residential plan
This might be a GEO-limited service option. I live in West Los Angeles area and there is no such option for 'BACKUP' so only the $120/mo option. Good for those who can get it though!
you can just order the roam 50gb plan, it's the same thing
I have a decent sized network here at my house and i have starlink setup as a backup/failover internet service due to speeds not being what i have with cable internet. Anyway, we recently had a cable internet outage here in my area due to storms. My main internet was down for 2 days 19 hours and within those 2 days 19 hours i have used 52.13GB of data sooooooooo the backup internet plan will not work for me as most everyone streams tv service so 50GB limit is not worth it
How long can you pause for? Indefinitely and just have stire for emergency case?
You can keep it paused as long as you want.
Makes sense, thanks man
I get $100 discount instead of a charge. It's state by state. Same with roam
We live in the US and have a summer place in Sweden. There are people there during two summer months. Can we bring our Starlink Roam and use it there during this time and then bring it back. Pls explain if it is allowed and how to manage settings etc?
Yes, Roam would work for your situation. Every Roam plan has international travel for up to 2 months, so it will just work. No settings to change. The 2 month clock resets once you get back home and power it on.
Please confirm this in the terms of service, but I believe you are allowed to take your Starlink Roam out of its service area for up to 60 days, before you have to bring it back to the USA and connect from your service area.
I logged into my residential account and I noticed I can change to either a roam 50 GB plan or a backup 50 GB plan.
Not sure if I’m up to speed. I thought that the roam 50 couldn’t be paused. This video says that backup 50 can. Maybe something changed.
Roam 50GB can be paused. It’s the Residential + Mini bundle offer that can’t be paused. I know, Starlink makes this unnecessary confusing with all their plans and promotions.
So the 50GB Roaming +$20/ from $30 to $50.
Renamed Backup.
How can I tell how many GB's I use during an average month? If it is less than 50GB, can I just switch to the "Backup 50GB" plan as my only plan. Thanks!
On the Starlink app tap the profile icon, then Data Usage to see your usage for the month. Yes, you can switch your plan to Backup.
@@StarlinkHardware Thank you for the information and the quick reply!
Hmm, the residential plan in the Netherlands is €50 a month, unlimited data.
Hotspot from iPhone is my backup plan.
Works for most minor outages, but in natural disasters the cell networks go down or are bogged down due to everyone using it as a backup.
@ that makes sense. So, can I buy this and hit pause right away? Then I don’t pay monthly until I need to really use it?
A $45 APC gets you 7 hours uptime on your wired internet provider. An $250ish Ecoflow River wil get you 36+hours. If you have to bail and need Internet on the run Starlink Roam/backup for $500 is an option 😂 It's all about the options.
Sometimes the wired ISP’s go down. That’s what it’s backing up. The APC doesn’t keep the terrestrial networks up, just your devices powered up at home.
Hoping for Backup immortal plan. 50 GB should not expire unless used by user
It is not a backup...a backup would be charged only when you use it.
It’s backup because it’s an alternative connection for when the primary ISP goes down. T-Mobile has a similar plan with their 5G network. You still have to pay to maintain access. With Starlink’s plan you can keep billing paused and only pay when you need to activate it.
@@StarlinkHardware Oh, that makes sense...I though you paid monthly whether you used it or not, not sure if that was clear & I just misunderstood, but thanks...what I was missing :O) In my situation I'm getting starlink but they are putting fiber out front so eventually I'll have that. Now I see a way to make the 'future' non-used starlink worth having invested in after that point :O)
Gotta buy gas for all those star ships somehow.
Using the Mini with unlimited plan with gen 3 router for home internet right now. Only had it about a month to test out.
Just ordered the Standard Gen 3 kit because the Mini was for testing starlink and to take to the Philippines with me. I know the Standard has better preformance and it's $120 instead of $165 a month. I had to pay the $100 congestion charge, it hurt.
elon has enough money- he needs to give me free access
After five Starlink hardware failures over a three month period, and pathetic Starlink “support”, I ended up using AT&T as a backup.
✅
"I really don't get the congestion fee... I don't think that's fair...".
That's because it's ILLEGAL under both federal and state laws. It's a "misleading and deceptive trade practice" and is therefore illegal in FL, CA, NY and any state that has a DUTPA law.
It's also quite ripe for an FTC action or a state attorney general's office action, or a class action law suit, for the reason you cite: "it's unfair."
It's unfair (misleading & d3ceptive) because it makes their system price APPEAR to be $100 cheaper when it's not!
I looked up my own address in FL and that same "congestion fee" appears so it likely appears for EVERYONE in the US. Maybe the entire planet.
With Trump in charge and Musk in charge, don't hold your breath on the FTC taking federal action against Starlink. It'll never happen.
But, people in NY, VT, MA and CA should file complaints with their state attorney general's office if they got stung by this.
or you can just go to best buy or some other retailer an pay $349 for the standard kit an get any plan you want. you make 50gb sound so important 🤣
3rd party kits, including used, are still subject to availability checks, congestion charges, and plan restrictions. So you won’t be able to initially activate a Best Buy Standard kit on Roam 50GB. But you could activate on Backup 50GB.
@@StarlinkHardware and my comment was about what you said at 4:55 just because you cant order the less expensive kit option from the website. doesn't mean you cant go to a retailer
Life is so unfair cry cry cry. Now tell me how fair the cable companies are????
Greetings ginger german
So basically, it's like the T-Mobile backup plan, expect that this is $50 instead of $20. I know Musk wants to go to Mars really bad, but by overcharging his customer is not the way.
Big difference between cellular and Starlink. Cellular goes down in natural disasters. Just look at California right now, or the southeast US during the hurricanes last year. Starlink stays up.
@@StarlinkHardware yeah but t-Mobile is joining Starlink so that’s not gonna be a problem and eventually every other phone service we probably switched to
I hope you can help me or lead me in the right direction, we got solar panels, that Tesla bought out the company that put them in(‘solar city) we had century link internet that kept failing, so we got Starlink, now we are getting messages from telsa, that they can’t let us know about our solar panel’s efficiency, is this a Tesla problem or a Starlink problem, it’s hard to find someone to talk to
Expect mobile nw to be congested in case of anything remotely close to a disaster.
STARLINK will just get more expensive with catches and fees, wat h and see the scam.
Wrong again, other companies are putting up their own constellations, so it will get cheaper. Plus it's been around for years already and he hasn't done it.
Not the least bit interested in anything Elon, or making him any richer.
lol .. cry about it.