SpaceX’s Starlink service, which offers ultrafast broadband speeds via a mega constellation of satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), appears to have quietly added a new and super cheap £8 per month roaming plan for customers in the UK. But as usual, there are a few catches to consider.
At present Starlink has over 7,000 satellites in Low Earth Orbit (c.3,00 are v2 Mini / GEN 2A) – mostly at altitudes of c.500-600km – and they’re in the process of adding thousands more by the end of 2027. Customers in the UK typically pay from £75 a month for a 30-day term, plus £299 for hardware on the ‘Standard’ unlimited data plan (inc. £19 postage), which promises latency times of 25-60ms, downloads of 25-100Mbps and uploads of 5-10Mbps.
However, Starlink has previously also introduced a couple of ROAM plans for “RVs, nomads, and campers, and working on the go“, which tends to cost either £50 per month with a 50GB (GigaByte) monthly usage allowance or £96 if you want unlimited usage (plus £299 to £399 for the hardware and £19 shipping). Service performance on ROAM can be more variable, but it does support in-motion use, international travel and the ability to pause your service when not in use. Handy.
The big news today, as spotted by Stewart on ISPreview’s discussion forum (here), is that Starlink appears to have added a third roam plan that only costs £8 per month with a 20GB usage allowance (not much, but ideal as a short-term backup)! The catch is that this plan doesn’t currently show up for new customers, but existing subscribers seem to be shown the option when they attempt to unpause an already paused service.
In an ideal world, we’d like to see Starlink offering something similar to this plan on their Standard fixed location package. But this is still going to be very attractive for those who only need it as a backup or for limited usage in rural areas, as well as travel. Hopefully the provider will make this available to new sign-ups too, although there’s still the cost of hardware to consider.