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> the very high cost of Starlink service It's $99/mo for 100+ megabit service. Sure, it's moderately expensive if you're comparing to cable service in cities.

> the very high cost of Starlink service It's $99/mo for 100+ megabit service. Sure, it's moderately expensive if you're comparing to cable service in cities. It's downright cheap compared to the cost of connecting the extremely rural customers Starlink targets with physical cables. You don't think running a new set of physical cables to every rural residence in the world (or even cell towers to cover the same) would be expensive or have any environmental impact? Starlink wins on both and not by a small margin. And then of course there's the prospect of bringing service to the remote mountains and jungles and deserts and polar regions and oceans where nobody lives and which will never (and should never) have ground-based infrastructure. And a bit of sorely needed competition to keep the ground-based monopoly service providers in check. And service for disaster areas or war zones where infrastructure is destroyed.

laumars 5y ago
Plus $500 sign up fee ;) This might all seem reasonable in rural America but it’s hugely expensive for internet in Europe.
- modeless 5y ago
  That pays for the antenna. The antennas are expensive now because they are new technology, never manufactured on this scale before, but that is changing fast. The fee will get smaller soon enough. Ground-based infrastructure will not be experiencing any analogous rapid cost reduction. And in rural areas it costs a lot more than $500 per residence already. What infrastructure exists is heavily subsidized.
  - laumars 5y ago
    I know it pays for the antenna but the fact remains the cost of Starlink isn’t just $99/month like you’ve claimed.
  - ineedasername 5y ago
    I think when I got my first cable broadband the modem cost ~$300, probably more than $500 now after inflation.
- Dylan16807 5y ago
  > Plus $500 sign up fee ;) That's going to average out to less than $10 a month pretty quickly.
  - yread 5y ago
    Let's first see if you can even keep using the same make of antenna before replacing it with a new model for 5 years
  - laumars 5y ago
    The problem with that logic is that it’s not paid across 50 months. It’s a sign up lump sum to pay for the antenna rather than a fixed monthly cost added to your contract duration. Also your post doesn’t take into account the life span of the antennae, that could be less than 5 years. It doesn’t take into account any competing services that you might want to switch to (eg some internet contracts in the U.K. typically run for 2 years and you’re encouraged to shop around at that point). Nor does it take into account any other personal circumstances that might lead one to cancel Starlink.
    - ineedasername 5y ago
      I had to pay hundreds for my first cable modem, so the early stage costs are comparable.
      - laumars 5y ago
        My point wasn’t whether the cost is reasonable. My point was just that the first month is a $600 bill rather than $100 like the GP suggested. For some that cost is still reasonable for what they’re getting. And that’s fine. But from a purely mathematical standpoint the GP was significantly off in terms of the price they quoted. You can all argue about whether that matters or not but that’s really just a subjective matter. Some folk cannot afford a $500 sign up cost. Whereas for others it will be an absolute bargain for what they need. It really depends on their income/savings, what other internet providers are available to them and how dependent they are on the internet. So the answer to the point you’re discussing is going to vary depending on the individual.
i_like_waiting 5y ago
It's crazy how many options it opens. With combination of remote work, many areas that were effectively shielded off from digital nomads, now have a chance to attract those tourists. I remember as well rejecting lots of vacation places because of terrible internet. Poor local people stayed poor and I spent my money in popular tourist destinations that already had high internet speeds. Overall its one of the factors that can transform the society and possibly partially break down the big cities.
Thlom 5y ago
Isn't it $99/mo for service? Afaik there is no guaranteed bandwidth at all at the moment as all users are beta testers? All users are on a "best effort all you can get" plan. I'm sure there will be different tiers as the network matures.
- modeless 5y ago
  I hate to break it to you, but you don't get guaranteed bandwidth on your wired consumer ISP either. Reported speeds have been more than reasonable for a consumer service. 100 Mbps isn't even the peak speed, that's more like 250 Mbps.

laumars 5y ago

Plus $500 sign up fee ;) This might all seem reasonable in rural America but it’s hugely expensive for internet in Europe.

modeless 5y ago
That pays for the antenna. The antennas are expensive now because they are new technology, never manufactured on this scale before, but that is changing fast. The fee will get smaller soon enough. Ground-based infrastructure will not be experiencing any analogous rapid cost reduction. And in rural areas it costs a lot more than $500 per residence already. What infrastructure exists is heavily subsidized.
- laumars 5y ago
  I know it pays for the antenna but the fact remains the cost of Starlink isn’t just $99/month like you’ve claimed.
- ineedasername 5y ago
  I think when I got my first cable broadband the modem cost ~$300, probably more than $500 now after inflation.
Dylan16807 5y ago
> Plus $500 sign up fee ;) That's going to average out to less than $10 a month pretty quickly.
- yread 5y ago
  Let's first see if you can even keep using the same make of antenna before replacing it with a new model for 5 years
- laumars 5y ago
  The problem with that logic is that it’s not paid across 50 months. It’s a sign up lump sum to pay for the antenna rather than a fixed monthly cost added to your contract duration. Also your post doesn’t take into account the life span of the antennae, that could be less than 5 years. It doesn’t take into account any competing services that you might want to switch to (eg some internet contracts in the U.K. typically run for 2 years and you’re encouraged to shop around at that point). Nor does it take into account any other personal circumstances that might lead one to cancel Starlink.
  - ineedasername 5y ago
    I had to pay hundreds for my first cable modem, so the early stage costs are comparable.
    - laumars 5y ago
      My point wasn’t whether the cost is reasonable. My point was just that the first month is a $600 bill rather than $100 like the GP suggested. For some that cost is still reasonable for what they’re getting. And that’s fine. But from a purely mathematical standpoint the GP was significantly off in terms of the price they quoted. You can all argue about whether that matters or not but that’s really just a subjective matter. Some folk cannot afford a $500 sign up cost. Whereas for others it will be an absolute bargain for what they need. It really depends on their income/savings, what other internet providers are available to them and how dependent they are on the internet. So the answer to the point you’re discussing is going to vary depending on the individual.

i_like_waiting 5y ago

It's crazy how many options it opens. With combination of remote work, many areas that were effectively shielded off from digital nomads, now have a chance to attract those tourists. I remember as well rejecting lots of vacation places because of terrible internet. Poor local people stayed poor and I spent my money in popular tourist destinations that already had high internet speeds. Overall its one of the factors that can transform the society and possibly partially break down the big cities.

Thlom 5y ago

Isn't it $99/mo for service? Afaik there is no guaranteed bandwidth at all at the moment as all users are beta testers? All users are on a "best effort all you can get" plan. I'm sure there will be different tiers as the network matures.

modeless 5y ago
I hate to break it to you, but you don't get guaranteed bandwidth on your wired consumer ISP either. Reported speeds have been more than reasonable for a consumer service. 100 Mbps isn't even the peak speed, that's more like 250 Mbps.