Starlink tempts users with $200 Global Roaming service The Starlink satellite network has invited customers to try out a service that will allow them to take advantage of an internet connection "almost anywhere on land in the world" for $200 per month. Operated by Elon Musk's SpaceX corporation, Starlink unveiled its Global Roaming service in an email to customers, offering them …
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I just received this email:
The Starlink monthly service for residential customers is changing as follows:
$20 decrease in areas with excess capacity. New price will be $90/month.
$10 increase in areas with limited capacity. New price will be $120/month.
As a current customer in an area with excess capacity, your monthly service price will decrease to $90/month beginning today.
If you do not wish to continue service, you can cancel at any time on your account page. Your Starlink hardware can be returned for a full refund within 30 days of purchase, or a partial refund of $250 within 12 months of purchase.
As the SpaceX team launches more satellites to increase capacity, the Starlink team is making continuous network updates to improve performance over time. Thanks for being a customer and for your continued support of Starlink!
"Starlink is raising prices quicker than my old land line ISP did."
In case it got missed, Starlink is actually *dropping* prices in underutilized areas. I got the same email, including the line about my area being underserved.
I'm not a fan of the Muskrat by any means (and have earned plenty of downvotes as a result) but I've been happy with Starlink for my over two years as a user. I'm impressed (maybe surprised is a better word) that they're rolling back prices for users in underserved areas instead of just offering promotions to new users in those areas.
You haven't thought the pricing structure fully through...
In my area there are no alternatives beyond single-digit speed DSL. Of course there is high demand. And because there is high demand, Starlink is charging me more.
In underserved areas there are high-speed alternatives - cable or fiber service, 5G, etc. Thus there is competition and the price is lower.
I maintain my statement. This is the same crappy game my local Telco played for years as the only option in town. They could also say there was high demand for their services, and charge whatever they wanted - simply because there was no reasonable alternative.
I suspect that the current state of Twitter would actually result in keeping people away from the service :).
I'm looking at possibly adding a Starlink dish to my setup as a low throughput backup. It won't be a primary route, but I will need to get something to use it every so often to test the link and ensure it stays live. All comms from my place is via a VPN anyway, I just have to be careful with lag imposed on anything realtime like video conferencing.
This smells very much like a copy of the electro scooter strategy: flood countries with a product and so force a de facto acceptance of a product.
That also rather fits with the man's attitude to laws and regulations: only something that applies to others..
"flood countries with a product and so force a de facto acceptance of a product"
Or, to rephrase, offer people the chance to buy a product even if they are foreigners.
Anyway, if only it were so. "the company still does not have a license to operate in many areas of the world"
So don't worry, the Chinese government won't allow Starlink to force uncensored internet on people living in rural China.
SpaceX are trying more and more tricks. Originally I was promised service when available in my area for a deposit on the equipment. The service became available in my area but the cost of the kit went up... I bought the kit and it was fine for a few months; hardly any obstructions, fast speed. Then curious stuff started happening.
I had carefully sited the aerial to avoid all obstructions; I checked where it pointed, checked obstructions while active, then moved it to the best location and, eventually, fixed it permanently. A few months later, however, the aerial was rotated to point directly at the only available obstruction.
Shortly after this I received an email offering me a bigger, more expensive, aerial to handle the newly introduced instructions. Cost $1200. I did nothing.
Now I too have been told that I live in an area with "limited availability" (a result of pointing the antenna at the sugar pine) and therefore will have to pay more.
So I know how to disconnect the motors. Presumably I need to do this and point the antenna away from the obstruction then I will pay $30 less per month, until they come up with a new scam.
Or maybe I could "upgrade" to Global service and will they then point the aerial away from the obstructions, back towards one of the PoPs? (The thing was pointing towards Seattle, it's now pointing towards Hawaii, but it could also point towards San Francisco and have even fewer potential obstructions; Seattle is 400 miles way, SF is maybe 350 miles away, Hawaii is 2400 miles away and my PoP is Seattle.)
The fact you think it should be pointing anywhere but up & slightly northward says you are clueless. It's not supposed to point towards Hawaii, Seattle, SF or anyplace on Earth. In North America, it points up, canted slightly towards the North. It's a phased array antennae, tracking the nearest in-view overhead of 3200+ LEO satellites.
https://satellitemap.space/
"the company still does not have a license to operate in many areas"
What stops them from simply not stopping their satellites from working when over a given territory?
International treaties? Threat of sanctions?
The failure of the internet to open national borders is disappointing. See e.g. geographical restrictions on video streaming. Starlink has the potential to improve the world with ubiquitous uncensored global internet. So lack of service due to "licensing" is just more disappointment.
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