Elon's Starlink Internet Service
The most recent info from the beta testers for the Starlink service. Hardware costs to be a beta tester $499. Monthly service $99/month. No information thus far on end user experience or expectatio...
Forum Discussion
Bill.Satellite wrote:
If only rural customers in the US sign up, the company will go broke without MAJOR government subsidies. Maybe, in the future, when every remote area of the World is covered by his service he will be able to use that money (you know, they have LOTS of money in the remote reaches of the Outback and the desert) to subsidize the lack of US customers.
One of the biggest questions is why would anyone with good cable/fiber for nearly nothing want to sign up for this service? They answer is no one. So that only leaves the under served as potential customers and that's a much smaller base than the current internet providers have to draw from.
Don't get me wrong, I am hopeful it will be successful, will be mobile usable and will be reasonably priced. But, for now, my AT&T Mobley @ $23/month (truly unlimited) has served me very well throughout the US.
There are ~ 30 million people in the US without access to reliable broadband, and about two times that number that have very limited broadband options (like 1 - 10Mb DSL). However that is not the masin market - there are 3.8 Billion people in the world without access to broadband. If Starlink, or one of its competitors can reach a small fraction of that market, they will do very well, and it will have a hugely positive impact on developing countries.
