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SpaceX does not plan to add 'tiered pricing' for Starlink satellite internet service, president says
SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell does not think the company will add "tiered pricing" for its direct-to-consumer Starlink satellite internet service, which is currently offered at $99 a month in limited early access.
"I don't think we're going to do tiered pricing to consumers. We're going to try to keep it as simple as possible and transparent as possible, so right now there are no plans to tier for consumers," Shotwell said, speaking at the Satellite 2021 "LEO Digital Forum" on a virtual panel on Tuesday.
[...] In October, SpaceX began rolling out early Starlink service in a public beta that now extends to customers in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Germany and New Zealand – with service priced at $99 a month in the U.S., in addition to an upfront cost for the equipment needed to connect to the satellites.
[...] Musk's company plans to expand Starlink beyond homes, asking the Federal Communications Commission to widen its connectivity authorization to "moving vehicles," so the service could be used with everything from aircraft to ships to large trucks.
[...] Shotwell said SpaceX has "made great progress on reducing the cost" of the Starlink user terminal, which originally were about $3,000 each. She said the terminals now cost less than $1,500, and SpaceX "just rolled out a new version that saved about $200 off the cost."
See also: SpaceX's Starlink terminal production costs have dropped over 50%, reveals president
Satellite operators weigh strategies to compete against growing Starlink network
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 08 2021, @04:48AM (1 child)
From what I recall about when I last looked into satellite internet a decade or so ago, Starlink is offering much better service for about the same monthly rate, but the installation cost is higher. The way I'm reading this, their per-user costs are high enough that it isn't economical to offer lower tiers and they are currently bandwidth limited both by the satellites and at the ground stations (only 5 of the 32 they've asked for in the US have been approved) so faster service isn't an option yet either.
The big limiter I see on the low end is the cost of the antenna. I'm not sure how much or how soon they can bring the antenna price down with mass production, but the service charges must be enough to pay for the antenna to be worthwhile.
On the high end they need to launch many more satellites and build more ground stations, both in the US and internationally, before they have the bandwidth for higher tiers. Starship should alleviate the satellite problem but the ground station problem is tied up by regulators.
The third problem I see for them going forward is radio interference from the 5G cellphone network. Considering the other games being played with cellphone service it wouldn't surprise me in the least if this is a deliberate play by the phone companies.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by isostatic on Thursday April 08 2021, @08:11AM
I'd be looking to build my fleet of dishes to 50 full price dishes for my vehicle fleet, and another 50 luggable ones around the world. Not a great cost compared with the cost of vehicles or flights.
However the additional $120k a year service charge may start to sting if they aren't used frequently. It's easier to justify the up front capital fee than an ongoing revenue fee. Pay as you go per GB, or per active terminal hours, would be a better solution for us.
(For comparison my team manages about 450 inmarsat bgan termianls around the world, our deal means we pay per megabyte - which means they can sit idle in a cupboard in Timbuktu for a couple of years, but then if we need them they are there and can be deployed quickly)
This requires starlink to support movable dishes of course.