Starlink’s New $30/month Mini Bundle Offer Is Weird

A new promotion from Starlink lets you add a Roam plan to your existing Residential subscription for $30/month instead of the normal $50/month. You also get $150 off the Mini dish. But this discount can actually end up being more expensive in the long run due to some weird restrictions and loopholes.

Starlink is sending out invites to existing customers in the US, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK. If you got an email and are considering the bundle, it’s important to understand all the details. I’m going to break down the offer and do the math to see who actually saves money with this new promotion.

Residential + Roam 50GB Mini Bundle

As I’m writing this, the US is coming off of record Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. For the first time, Starlink joined in, offering all US customers $150 off their newest Starlink Mini kit. That discount is over, but Starlink recently started a new promotion, sending out the email below to select Residential customers.

The bundle allows you to add a Roam 50GB plan to your existing Residential account for just $30/month, a discount of $20/month compared to the normal price. You also get $150 off the price of the Mini kit when you accept the offer. The offer is valid until December 31st.

Great deal, right? The devil is in the details. There are several restrictions that make this offer less desirable, and in some cases, more expensive than purchasing at the normal price. First, the $30/month Roam plan can’t be paused like the standalone $50/month Roam plan. That mean’s you’ll be paying $30/month every month until you cancel. Second, the bundle is tied to your Residential subscription, so your Roam plan ends if you cancel Residential.

The Mini Bundle Can Cost You More

Starlink’s choice to not allow customers to pause the Roam plan in the Mini bundle is weird. The Roam 50GB plan was just recently launched, and it’s very popular with recreational travelers. I’m a big fan myself, because it’s an affordable way to activate my Starlink for sporadic camping and road trips.

I typically use my Roam 50GB plan less than six months out of the year, and I know that’s a very common use case. The plan is intended for recreational travelers who aren’t using their Roam subscription full time.

My Cost Without the Bundle

The cost of Residential is $120/month with or without the bundle, so I’ll ignore it completely and just focus on the cost of the Roam 50GB plan and the Mini kit.

Ongoing annual cost: $250

I’m able to save money on the monthly service by keeping the plan paused when not in use. I looked back on my trips this year and counted five months where I would have activated my Mini’s Roam service plan. The first year total is $849 because it includes the hardware cost in addition to the monthly service fees. But my ongoing annual cost after that is only $250, $50/month for each of the five months I plan to unpause my Roam plan.

My Cost With the Bundle

If I would have had access to the current bundle offer, my Mini kit would have cost me $449 instead of $599. And the monthly service cost is $30/month instead of $50/month. But I can’t pause the Roam plan with this bundle, so I have to pay the service fee all year long.

Ongoing annual cost: $360

Although I would have saved $40 in the first year due to the Mini hardware discount, my ongoing service cost would be higher with the bundle. I only use my Roam plan five months out of the year, but I can’t pause the Roam plan with the bundle, so I have to pay $30/month all year. In the second year the bundle actually cost me $110 more than without it.

Who Does it Make Sense For?

To save money with the $30/month Roam plan you would need to use it in more than 7 months out of the year. That’s the breakeven point, where the monthly discount actually decreases your ongoing annual costs compared to just getting the $50/month plan.

I imagine the number of people out there traveling that much with the Roam 50GB plan is relatively small. Full time digital nomads and travelers typically need more than 50GB of data each month, so they are on the Roam Unlimited plan anyway. Those of us that do stay under 50GB of data travel recreationally, usually in the warmer months, and probably not every single month of the camping season.

Mini Discount Loophole

Another thing that makes this new Mini bundle offer weird is that there is a pretty big loophole to get the $449 Mini kit price. You don’t actually have to commit to paying $30/month year round.

What you can do is accept the bundle offer, buy the $449 Mini, and then upgrade your Roam 50GB plan to the $50/month standalone plan. Then pause it until you need to travel with your Mini. If I use my own situation again to do the math it works out like this:

Ongoing average annual cost: $250

My ongoing annual cost is the same as without the bundle, but my first year total is a whopping $130 cheaper because I was able to get the hardware discount and change my plan to one that can be paused.

So, What’s the Point in Offering the Bundle?

I can only speculate, but if I had to guess, I would say it has something to do with Starlink’s overall business model. They make their money from the monthly subscription fees that customers pay, not from hardware sales.

Evidence of my theory is in the restrictions on the new Mini bundle. It’s only being offered to existing Residential subscribers, customers that already pay $120 each and every month to Starlink. And Starlink isn’t allowing people to pause the Roam plan on the new bundle, meaning you are basically locked in to paying $360 per year until you cancel.

As I’ve already pointed out, most people who travel recreationally throughout the year will end up paying more with the bundle in the long run. Although the lower monthly price and hardware discount are tempting, you can’t pause service without losing access to the bundle, so ongoing annual costs can be higher unless you travel nearly full time. In my opinion, this is by design. Customers can be lured in with the lower monthly price and hardware discount, without calculating their long term costs.

Final Thoughts

Starlink’s new Mini bundle plan seems like a discount at first, but it’s important to do the math for your situation. Figure out how many months in the year you actually plan to use Roam, and then plug in the numbers like I did in my example.

People using Roam less than 8 out of 12 months each year are better off paying the normal $50/month rate (and keeping it paused in the remaining months), while full time travelers can save money every year with the $30/month bundled plan.