SpaceX Starlink Fair Use Policy for Canada and U.S. Delayed to 2023

SpaceX has delayed the implementation of a new Fair Use policy on Starlink connections in Canada and the U.S. to February 2023, according to an update on the company’s website (via Tesla North).

The policy, which will institute data caps on Priority Access usage for all Starlink Residential customers in Canada and the U.S. and all Business/Maritime subscribers, was initially supposed to go into effect in December 2022.

“To ensure our customer base is not negatively impacted by a small number of users consuming unusually high amounts of data, the Starlink team is implementing a Fair Use policy for Residential customers in the US and Canada and all Business/Maritime customers beginning February 2023,” SpaceX said on its Starlink FAQ page.

Starting in February 2023, Starlink Residential customers in Canada and the U.S. on the Standard/Fixed plan will have their Priority Access data usage capped at 1 terabyte (TB) per month. Starlink Business subscribers will get up to 3 TB of Priority Access data (depending on their plan), while Starlink Mobility connections will get up to 5 TB.

Priority Access means your “data usage will be prioritized” during peak usage hours on the network. If a subscriber goes over their Priority Access limit, they will be downgraded to “Basic Access” with lower data rates for the rest of the billing cycle.

Any data used between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. won’t count towards a user’s Priority Access data cap.

According to SpaceX, less than 10% of Starlink subscribers in Canada and the U.S. currently use more than 1 TB of data per month. But if you do go over the limit, you’ll be able to purchase additional Priority Access data.

Customers “will have the option to opt-in to the automatic purchasing of additional Priority Access at any time from within their account, even before exceeding their Priority Access data usage limit,” SpaceX explained.

Subscribers that opt-in to extra Priority Access will be charged on a per gigabyte (GB) basis, at prices in accordance with their service plan. For Residential customers in Canada, additional Priority Access will cost $0.32 CAD per GB.

Customers on any of Starlink’s Business Fixed plans will be able to opt-in to additional Priority Access data for $1.28 per GB. Starlink Mobility Commercial and Premium/Maritime subscribers, meanwhile, will have to pay $2.56 per GB.

Priority Access is currently unavailable for Starlink for RVs, Starlink Best Effort, and Starlink Mobility Recreation subscriptions.

Back in October, SpaceX announced a new Flat High-Performance Starlink dish that is due to launch this month and will make the service operational on moving vehicles. In addition, SpaceX last month achieved full Starlink coverage in Canada.