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I don't think they've announced much regarding the pricing or specifics of the terminals, but Musk has said in an interview they will require an antenna array w
by stupidcar 7y ago
I don't think they've announced much regarding the pricing or specifics of the terminals, but Musk has said in an interview they will require an antenna array with line of sight, and will be about the size of a pizza box.
- gpm 7y agoI think there was an interview where they talked about aiming to get the cost of a base station down to ~$200 (some number of hundreds, think it was two). That was probably cost to SpaceX not an end user though, and it obviously doesn't include cost of service.
- stupidcar 7y agoMost people probably won't buy the terminal outright, though, I expect? You'll just buy a Starlink subscription with a fixed initial term and they'll lease you the terminal as part of that.
- toomuchtodo 7y agoPeople pay $1000 for an iPhone. I don’t think $200 upfront is onerous.
- Kye 7y agoPeople in areas this is meant for don't pay $1000 for iPhones.
- gpm 7y agoAirplanes, cruise ships, ski (and other) resorts, rich hermits, expensive summer camps, consumer trains, etc all do. For lots of commercial activities a thousand dollars is a rounding error compared to the costs of their other equipment too.
- oh_sigh 7y agoNo, but they don't need to each buy one - they can pool their money and have one receiver for an entire village, and that may be much better than what they have now, which is either nothing or spotty 3g access
- Thlom 7y agoSame as existing terrestrial BGAN-terminals in other words.