Starlink is the new and fastest-growing satellite constellation providing internet service. As Starlink is a newcomer in this industry, launching its first 60 satellites in 2019 and satisfying all the demands of users in such a short time draws the cons to Starlink. The company’s overhyped promises and the absence of proper awareness at the current time resulted in the users’ dissatisfaction, which ultimately became the downside of using Starlink.
Well, I’m not here to demotivate you from using Starlink because Starlink’s advantages in many aspects beat the company’s overall disadvantages. In this blog, all the Starlink disadvantages mentioned are either from the user’s real opinion or the company’s false statement. I have not provided my opinion in this blog, just the real and trusted facts about the downsides of using Starlink.
Contents
- 1 1. Not Withstand Extreme Weather Conditions
- 2 2. No Installation Help
- 3 3. Poor Customer Service
- 4 4. Clear View Require
- 5 5. Data Caps
- 6 6. Limited Availability Around the World
- 7 7. Not Better Than Fiber
- 8 8. Slow Speed In Cities
- 9 9. Starlink Outages and Frequent Changes
- 10 How is Starlink Still Satisfying the Users?
1. Not Withstand Extreme Weather Conditions
According to Starlink’s official website, weather-resilient features help the Starlink melt snow and withstand sleet, heavy rain, and harsh winds. At the same time, as per TS2 Space, the areas with frequent and unpredictable extreme weather conditions don’t get stable internet connection by Starlink because weather elements provide interference to the signal used for communication between Starlink satellites and dish, ultimately making the internet unusable or with very slow speed.
Just like any other satellite internet provider, Starlink is also unable to solve this problem completely, and its promise doesn’t come true here. The Starlink satellite uses radio frequencies that travel in straight lines and get interference due to the dense water vapors suspended in the cloud.
2. No Installation Help
Starlink doesn’t provide any installation help to its users except a manual sheet and supports the DIY (Do-It-Yourself) process. Its installation manual is insufficient to successfully install the Starlink at your desired location. Installation of Starlink requires a proper setup process, and if one thing goes wrong, it can lead to damaging the product or not being able to get internet service.
The Starlink official website claims that Starlink installation is a two-step process: (1) plug it in and (2) point at Sky. In reality, it is a lengthy process and requires masculine power, prior experience with specific tools, proper care, and technical work like wiring and plugging the cable.
3. Poor Customer Service
Apart from the lack of installation help, the customer service provided by Starlink is also not good. Starlink doesn’t offer proper customer services like phone numbers, live chat, and e-mail, through which a user can directly contact and solve his or her problem. Still, Starlink provides a ticket support option for the contact process, which is not good and consumes so much time to get a reply.
According to Business Insider, some Starlink customers said that Starlink customer service is “non-existent.” Also, once you submit your complaints to the company by raising a ticket, it takes 10 business days to get a response from the company, as per company officials. So you can now understand how poor and delayed Starlink customer service is.
4. Clear View Require
Another disadvantage is that Starlink Dish requires a 360-degree clear view of the sky to best perform and provide a high-quality internet connection. In rural areas, generally surrounded by trees and forests, getting a clear view can be a problem for the user.
An unclear view of the sky, like trees, big houses, etc., can interfere with transferring data between Starlink dishes and satellites. Most of the time, Starlink officials suggest to the users that they install the Starlink dish on the rooftop.
5. Data Caps
Data caps are the maximum amount of data or data limit on a particular network. Starlink provided data caps, which means restrictions on using the data after a specific limit in its plans. The below table will show you the data caps for using specific plans.
| S.NO | Plan Type | Data Caps |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Standard | Unlimited* |
| 2. | Priority | 1TB for $250/month 2TB for $500/month 6TB for $1500/month |
| 3. | Mobile | Unlimited* |
| 4. | Mobile Priority | 50GB for $250/month 1TB for $1000/month 5TB for $5000/month |
Once the data cap limit is crossed by the users, they experience prolonged internet, and this is mostly common with standard residential users. Starlink Roam and the best service users experience the lowest internet speed among all individuals once they reach their data caps.
6. Limited Availability Around the World
Starlink promises to provide internet globally. However, as per the current situation, out of 195 countries, only 60 are getting the Starlink service. Countries like India, where 672 million people have the world’s largest offline population, still do not have internet, as per Statista October 2023 reports. Starlink is currently not available in India.
As per NASA, 42,000 Starlink satellites will orbit in the future. Currently, only 5399 satellites are deployed. Most of the time, people want to use Starlink in Tier 2 or Tier 3 countries where it is not available, and if it is, then users are added to the waitlist, and no one knows the exact duration of when they will get it.
7. Not Better Than Fiber
The advantages of Starlink over fiber are only due to remote and rural locations like fiber cable not reaching places where Starlink can. But in terms of price, ease, internet speed, and awareness, Fiber won the race. The costs for using the internet are meager as compared to Starlink. Also, fiber users get more high-speed internet than Starlink users.
Below is the table of comparison between Starlink and AT&T Fiber, and the comparison is done on the basis of plan price, customer support, internet speed, etc, for United States people.
| Comparison Term | Starlink | AT&T Fiber |
|---|---|---|
| Internet Speed (Max Downloading) | 220 Mbps | 5 Gbps |
| Per Month Plan (Unlimited) | $90-$120 | $35 |
| Customer Support (Reply Duration) | Within 10 Business days | Within 1 hour |
| Installation Expert | No | Yes |
| Data Caps | Yes | No |
| Latency | 43 milliseconds | 10 milliseconds |
According to FBA (Fiber Broadband Association), 68 million people are using Fiber Internet, while 2 million people are using Starlink.
8. Slow Speed In Cities
If there is any location where the number of internet users is the highest, then it is a city. Cities are mostly crowded and have a very high Internet user base. Due to this, sometimes network congestion happens. For those who don’t know, network congestion is a condition in which more users are connected to the same network than the network can handle, resulting in lower quality of service or internet.
In cities, many Starlink dishes get connected to the same Starlink satellite, resulting in a lower quality of data transmission, which in turn reduces the internet speed. Due to this reason, a user living in cities like New York experiences slow-speed internet from Starlink from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.
9. Starlink Outages and Frequent Changes
Starlink Outage is another disadvantage of using it. Many times in the past, due to a high user base, outages happened, which ultimately resulted in shutting down the service for some hours. Starlink is a newcomer to the internet, providing service through satellite constellations, and this field is not very developed. So, frequent changes have been seen in the past few years.
Starlink prices are also not fixed, and from time to time, company officials change them. In February 2023, Starlink increased the price for its residential plan, while for RVs, it increased by $15, as per CNBC.
How is Starlink Still Satisfying the Users?
Besides so many disadvantages, Starlink’s advantages still attract users towards it and are able to satisfy them. According to Ookla’s Net Promoter Score (NPS) data for Q4 2022 and Q1 2023, both in metro and non-metro areas of the United States, Starlink users are more satisfied with their provider as compared to any other fixed broadband connection provider.
There are two types of Starlink users: one praises the service, while others constantly trolls and complain about it. Starlink’s users are increasing at a rate of 1.5 million per year, as per The Motley Fool.