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: 2) by takyon on Thursday April 08 2021, @05:40PM
Fictionalistan would be barred from getting a rocket (which is basically a missile) by the International Traffic in Arms Regulations.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/rockets/a23080/spacex-elon-musk-itar/ [popularmechanics.com]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Traffic_in_Arms_Regulations [wikipedia.org]
Falcon 9 is probably a bad choice too since it's not fully reusable like Starship will be. Fictionalistan might not be a great place for rocket launches (better to be near the equator, and it needs pad/infrastructure built, possibly costing more than the rocket).
So instead you have SpaceX launching satellites for small countries from the U.S. Turkmenistan's first satellite in April 2015, CubeSats for Bangladesh (BRAC Onnesha), Ghana (GhanaSat-1), and Mongolia (Mazaalai) in June 2017, CubeSats for Costa Rica and Kenya alongside CRS-14 in April 2018, Arabsat-6A for Saudi Arabia/the Arab League in April 2019, etc.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]