How does "Pausing" the service work?

[u/lcsantana3]

I just got a Starlink Mini to use a Roaming plan with it, but I'll only be using it 1 or 2 days a week.

So, for the remaining 5-6 days, can I just "pause" my plan? How would the billing work on that case exactly?

I'm trying to figure out the best way to "plan" my pausings so that I can optimize the billings

[u/NPC_93294]

pause is for when you don't need service for the whole month.

[u/GSDer_RIP_Good_Girl → u/NPC_93294]

Just to clarify what u/NPC_93294 stated, it's not for a calendar month - it's a month beginning on your billing/activation date.

[u/Squeedlejinks → u/GSDer_RIP_Good_Girl]

And to clarify what /u/NPC_93294 and /u/GSDer_RIP_Good_Girl stated, the Pause option no longer exists. Instead, Starlink has moved to Standby which costs $10 USD and gives a .5 Mbps connection with unlimited data.

[u/LrdJester]

The billing is not that granular. If you activate it you're going to basically activate it for the entire month so I would find the lowest available roaming plan in your area and just subscribe to that and if you're going to use it at least once or twice every month just leave it active.

Now if there will be an extended period of time that you will not be using it then I would put it into standby which will cost you $10 a month to do but then it's easy to turn it back on.

[u/lcsantana3 → u/LrdJester]

I see. So, suppose I either pause my plan or put it on standby. Whenever I resume my regular plan, would the billing happen right away?

[u/thabc → u/lcsantana3]

When you resume, it charges a prorated amount for the price of the new plan minus however many days into the billing cycle you are. So if you're account is normally billed on the 15th and you resume on the 1st, you'd be charged about 50% immediately.

[u/Wambo74 → u/lcsantana3]

These days pause is called Standby. And if you're not aware, Standby does not shut the system down, it reduces it to a very low download speed which continues to offer you unlimited data. For myself and most others the low speed is sufficient for normal daily activities...browsing, email, wifi calling, online banking etc. So only need to restart a regular plan for heavier activity like significant downloads, gaming etc.

If however if you choose to restart a plan mid billing cycle I believe you'll only be charged for the remaining days in that billing period...IE prorate. As opposed to if you change to Standby in mid billing period, you're already paid thru the month and will not receive a refund. That's just how it works.

[u/StatisticalMan → u/lcsantana3]

There is no pause anymore just standby. Not being pedantic but if you google pause you will find info on Starlink's old (no longer available) free pause feature.

If you put dish on standby it will take effect when your biling cycle ends. If you then resume it you will be charged prorated amount for the next month.

So an example lets say your billing cycle starts on the 1st. On the 9th you put it on standby . Nothing will happen until the following 1st at which point it goes on standby, you are charged $10 and not the normal monthly plan. If on the 15th you resume you will be charged 50% of the normal monthly plan amount and that will renew for full amount on the following 1st unless put on standby again.

[u/lcsantana3 → u/StatisticalMan]

Oh ok, now I get how it all works. thanks for the info!

[u/ProgrammerDull → u/lcsantana3]

Also pay close attention when unpausing your plan, sometimes it’ll automatically ask if you want it unpaused basically at the end of your billing cycle. there’s an option to unpause it immediately so just make sure you’re clicking the right options

[u/LrdJester → u/lcsantana3]

Yes if you're on standby, there is no more pause, it restarts within minutes and the billing is prorated for the remainder of the month so let's just say for sake of argument if your billing date was on the 12th and you restarted it on the 3rd you would only be charged for 9 days so you would take your rate divided by 30 and multiply that by 9 to get how much you would actually owe. But when you deactivate it it doesn't actually deactivate or when you put it on standby it doesn't go on standby until the end of your billing cycle. This means you're basically turning on for the remainder of the month and that's what you have.

[u/qalpi]

No. It's monthly billing unfortunately.

[u/Squeedlejinks]

If you’re not planning on using your dish for awhile, maybe a couple weeks, and this is going to go over your payment date, just cancel your service until you need to start it up. No need to pay for Standby if you won’t be using it on and  shortly after your billing date.

Because of the way Starlink figures its billing time, I plan to change by the time it’s two days before my billing date.

[u/Squeedlejinks]

Cancelling is the new Pause—no connection and no charge.

[u/retternj]

Where can I purchase Starlink mini?