No plans to set Starlink internet rates

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell does not believe the company will add “tiered pricing” to its direct-to-consumer Starlink satellite internet service, which is currently offered at $ 99 per month with limited early access.

“I don’t think we’re going to price levels for consumers. We’re going to try to keep it as simple and transparent as possible, so there are no plans for consumer levels right now,” Shotwell said on Tuesday at Satellite 2021 “LEO Digital Forum ”on a virtual panel.

In a tiered pricing system, what the customer pays is based on the level of service they choose.

Starlink is the company’s capital-intensive project to build an interconnected internet network with thousands of satellites, known in the space industry as a constellation, designed to provide high-speed internet to consumers anywhere on the planet.

The company has so far launched more than 1,200 satellites into orbit.

In October, SpaceX began launching the early Starlink service in a public beta version that now extends to customers in the US, Canada, the UK, Germany and New Zealand – with a service priced at $ 99 per month in the US, on next to an initial cost. for the equipment needed to connect to the satellites.

Elon Musk has continued to expand its Starlink service, with the public beta gaining over 10,000 users in its first three months. Shotwell noted that SpaceX “does not have time to get out of the beta phase,” saying that the company still has “a lot of work to do to make the network reliable.”

Musk’s company plans to extend Starlink beyond homes, asking the FCC to extend its connectivity authorization to “moving vehicles” so that the service can be used with anything from airplanes to ships and large trucks.

For now, SpaceX is focusing on serving customers in rural and hard-to-reach areas, with Shotwell saying Starlink “will be able to serve every rural household in the United States” or “about 60 million people.” While SpaceX is adding services to other countries, Shotwell said SpaceX initially focuses on the US “because they speak English and are close and if they have a problem with their dish, we can get one out quickly.”

“But we certainly want to expand that capacity beyond the United States and Canada,” Shotwell added.

A major hurdle for Starlink, as well as for any satellite-based broadband service, is the cost of user terminals: ground equipment that connects customers to the network.

Shotwell said SpaceX has “made great strides in reducing costs” for the Starlink user terminal, which was initially about $ 3,000 each. She said the terminals now cost less than $ 1,500, and SpaceX “just released a new version that saved about $ 200 in cost.”

This means that SpaceX absorbs about two-thirds of the cost of the terminals, as the company charges beta customers $ 499 in advance for a user terminal. Musk said earlier this year that Starlink “has to go through a deep chasm of negative cash flows,” a significant portion of which is expected to be due to the cost of user terminals.

While SpaceX does not charge customers for the total cost of the terminals so far, Shotwell said the company expects its cost to be reduced to “the range of a few hundred dollars in the next year or two.”

Shotwell reiterated SpaceX’s previous comments that Starlink is not trying to replace the service of “giant AT&T providers, Comcast, etc.” because she noted that satellite internet is “very complementary to the services it offers.”

“The Starlink system is best suited for highly distributed rural or semi-rural populations,” Shotwell said.

Meanwhile, Shotwell said SpaceX’s challenge is to learn how to adapt to consumer customers, while “making sure we can build a trusted network.” But, she added, none of these are challenges “that we cannot solve.”