Starlink Begins Charging an Extra $500 in High-Demand Areas

Starlink continues to use a demand surcharge fee for new Residential customers in select regions to control network congestion in those areas, but many buyers are shocked that the one-time fee in their area is up to $500. Several potential customers reported on social media about the hefty surcharge. 

The $500 surcharge is being applied to residents in sections of North Carolina, Oregon, and Washington. For several months, Starlink was “Sold Out” in several regions, and buyers would be placed on a waitlist with a deposit payment. The Pacific Northwest and Atlantic Southeast have frequently been under Starlink’s network congestion rules. 

The waitlists were recently lifted in several regions in favor of one-time congestion charges, although they were up to $250 for many. Now that North Carolina, Oregon, and Washington are no longer marked as sold out, customers can purchase Starlink, but with the large $500 fee.

Starlink has been very popular on the West Coast, with much of the northwest and many of California’s major cities also being subject to waitlists. Sections of the Southeast that were affected by back-to-back hurricanes received several months of free service from Starlink, bringing the regions up to the network’s capacity. 

The congestion charge also applies to current customers who deactivated service and were caught off guard by the fee when they went to reactivate.   

“Is it just me or is this exorbitant and disgusting?” posted a Reddit user from western North Carolina. “$100, $200… fine. Still ridiculous, but fine. But $500, when people have already been through so much, homes and properties damaged or completely destroyed, savings depleted.”

It’s unknown how long Starlink will add the demand surcharge in these regions, but since it’s tied to bandwidth, it will likely remain until SpaceX is able to launch more and newer satellites to grow the network’s capacity. 

Inversely, Starlink is continuing to provide discounts in areas where there is excess capacity, including a deal to give its equipment to residents for free in exchange for a 12-month commitment to the service.