Demand surcharge
A one-time fee Starlink can add at checkout when demand at a service address is high. Shown before you pay; not part of the monthly price.
Example (hypothetical): checkout lists the kit, the first month and a separate "demand surcharge" line.
Congestion charge / congestion fee
Another name people and news outlets use for the demand surcharge. Same thing.
Sold out / at capacity
Checkout says a plan is not available at your address right now because the local network is full. It can apply to one plan and not another.
Waitlist
A queue you can join when your address is sold out. You are told when service opens; how long that takes isn't published.
Trigger
The account change that brought up the surcharge check: new order, reactivation, address change, plan switch, or Mini/Roam activation.
Crowd layer
Numbers built from many reviewed reader reports for one county. Marked with a green circle.
Press layer
Single, dated amounts quoted in news articles, each linked. Marked with a rust diamond and "unverified" until confirmed.
Sample size (n)
How many accepted reports a number is based on. Surcharge cells need n ≥ 5; speed cells need n ≥ 20.
"n = 7" means seven reports from that county in the window.
Median
The middle value when all reports are lined up from lowest to highest. Unlike an average, one extreme report barely moves it.
Hypothetical example: reports of $0, $250, $250, $300, $1,500 have a median of $250. Their average would be $460.
p25 and p75
The values a quarter of the way and three quarters of the way up the line. Between them sits the middle half of all results.
Rolling window
Only reports from the last 6 months count, so old quotes drop out on their own.
Obstruction %
The share of the dish's sky view blocked by trees, roofs or poles, as reported by the Starlink app. Tests above 1% don't count toward speed medians.
Latency (ping)
How long a signal takes to make a round trip, in milliseconds. Lower is better for calls and games.
Standby / reactivation
Pausing service and turning it back on. Owners report that reactivating can bring up a fresh surcharge check.
Service address
The address your plan is registered to. Surcharges and sold-out status are tied to it, not to where you bought the kit.
§ TermsBeginner guide
Glossary
Every term this site uses, in one or two sentences. Examples marked hypothetical are made up to explain the idea.
Updated