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Starlink offering free internet access for 30 days for Hurricane Helene victims
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- rpmisms 2y agoStill tricky to set up. Tried to get a Gen 2 working for an affected family yesterday, no beans.
- asynchronous 2y agoSurprised by this, I think it has the easiest setup experience I’ve had in years for ISP tech. What conditions were you operating in?
- rpmisms 2y agoRainy, outdoors, no internet. You know. Disaster area.
- bri3d 2y agoFor the base subscription types, your account needs to be "activated" with the dish associated, and the address on your account has to match the rough location of the Starlink. This gives you a giant chicken-and-egg problem where you need the Internet to set the account location and perform account activation, but you don't have the Internet because you have a Starlink that's not set up yet. It's odd that Starlink don't offer a "walled garden" experience allowing you to perform activation using just the Starlink itself, like almost all DOCSIS providers send down to unprovisioned modems. I can't tell if it's an intentional protection/KYC kind of thing or just an unimplemented feature.
- dotnet00 2y agoStrange, everything I've heard about the setup says that they do provide a captive portal for doing the initial setup stuff that needs a network connection.
- thepasswordis 2y agoThey do. You turn the dish on and the signup process is available.
- bri3d 2y agoThis must be new as of ~9 months ago; it definitely didn’t used to work on retail dishes (directly purchased dishes came pre activated anyway). Thanks for the correction!
- gonesilent 2y agoYou can access the starlink.com site from none registered and unsubscribed units. But you need to use the Starlink provided DHCP/DNS servers to do it. Most people use other DNS settings on devices so the walled garden part might not work depending on user device config.
- levinb 2y agoYes. I bought the last two units left at any HD for a few hundred miles; drove them up there Monday. Apparently my friend had to drive in and out of his (utterly destroyed) neighborhood in Swannanoa because it required the app and cell service to set up. And when they returned home it wouldn't work. Took multiple trips back and forth to get it usable in the area where it was actually needed. Then of course the Helene intro deal requires an extensive form to fill out, so he just paid for it. And, incrementally, we all give our money to another publicly funded, government protected, privately held monopoly. And yet... it's charity. Anyway, the entire neighborhood is using it to coordinate resources to dig out their holler. So hey, she'll do for now.
- ivewonyoung 2y ago> publicly funded, government protected, How is it publicly funded and government protected? > privately held monopoly That's a weird complaint, would it be somehow better if it were a publicly held monopoly like Google, Amazon or Microsoft. And what can SpaceX do to ensure Starlink is not a monopoly? Stop providing service and shut it down? They have been even launching competitors satellites for them.
- electriclove 2y agoSome people suffer from Elon Derangement Syndrome and cannot think logically
- wnevets 2y agoIs this separate from what federal government is paying for? [1] [1] https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-says-he-spoke-musk-about-getting-internet-areas-hit-by-hurricane-2024-09-30/ https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-says-he-spoke-musk-ab...
- realce 2y agoYes it is separate. This program is about base stations that are publicly accessible wifi, which Verizon is also doing in the area. This is just a "first month free" promotion.
- inemesitaffia 2y agoIt's not a first month free promotion. Or a promotion.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- inemesitaffia 2y agoVery separate.
- realce 2y agoIsn't it also a $300 equipment payment and shipping time to get the equipment is 2 weeks?
- bewaretheirs 2y agoI've seen multiple reports that the equipment was in stock and for sale in Home Depot stores in the surrounding area.
- seadan83 2y agoWere the home depots accepting credit cards? Second, poor communities, lots of people had no money to buy pre-storm supplies, let alone pay the equipment cost. By surrounding areas, are we talking areas people were evacuating to, or within the immense impact area?
- hathawsh 2y agoI hope we can focus on the human kindness that Starlink is showing and ignore the political overtones. Both Trump and the current administration are creating the impression that it was their idea. Maybe Elon or Starlink thought of it first? It doesn't really matter. Let's all just do what we can to help the hurricane victims.
- llamaimperative 2y agoYes let's make sure we avoid the bad vibes that might emerge by understanding who's doing useful things and who's not. Let liars lie, what's the worst that could happen?
- iknowstuff 2y ago… who’s lying?
- BadHumans 2y ago[flagged]
- astroid 2y agoSo it literally doesn't matter to you if he is lying or not, you simply want to make your opposition to him known in a thread that has basically nothing to do with him. Way to contribute - you are going places. (nowhere I'd want to be though)
- iknowstuff 2y agoI agree but I didn't realize this had anything to do with him
- duxup 2y agoMost of the comments so far about the nuts and bolts usage. The downside of talking about not expressing "political overtones" is that you did bring it up, and I honestly don't even know exactly what those "political overtones" would be anyhow as it relates to this story specifically anyhow.
- foobarqux 2y agoWhy doesn't the government have a few planes or blimps fly overhead with base stations from the major mobile carriers?
- option 2y agobecause the government somehow lost its ability to execute any meaningful project especially under time constraints
- svnt 2y agoIt is weird what happens when you privatize so much and then find out too late it isn’t profitable for companies to have fleets of emergency internet blimps primed and ready to go 24/7.
- catlikesshrimp 2y agoThe only mobile provider in Costa Rica was government owned, hugely profitable, subsidized internet and landlines, and was mandated to provide internet to every single citizen. In urban areas, they had to make sure every single house had mobile coverage. And courts made them comply. Then came the US around year 2002 and forced the country to a free market, and paradise was lost. Everything is US level now (more expensive, better service is even more expensive, nothing is guaranteed, you get bombarded by advertisements, and other spam types) and the company can no longer provide universal coverage and is now operating at a loss.
- breakingrules3 2y ago[flagged]
- chgs 2y agoThere’s a reason the US has the largest economy in the world. It’s modern colonialism.
- 2y ago
- duxup 2y agoYou gotta have the hardware right? Isn't this then just ... kinda a normal "free 30 days" offer? This seems not far from handing out free AOL disks, except you also need some added hardware?
- silisili 2y agoThey're mostly getting the hardware for free. A lot of people in TN and elsewhere are delivering and installing Starlink units for free to the disaster areas(more than the US govt), and begging Elon for free service. Seems like he or someone at Starlink was listening.
- realce 2y ago> They're mostly getting the hardware for free. No. Ordering this costs $320 and takes 1-2 weeks. They even charge for shipping and handling. By the time you get this, internet and cell service will most likely be re-established. I live 20 miles outside of Asheville, this is basically profiteering off a disaster imo. Much easier for the richest man on Earth to simply install a hundred base stations himself. Instead, people who just had their lives washed away need to pay his company 300 bucks.
- silisili 2y agoTo be clear, I didn't mean for free from Starlink, I meant free via donation. I follow a half dozen accounts in the area, and they're all donating a lot. Here is one, for example. Ignore the politics and just scroll through the Starlink posts - https://x.com/robbystarbuck https://x.com/robbystarbuck Here's another that claims Starlink drove the units straight out. Unclear if they were free or not. https://x.com/TheShawnHendrix/status/1841823155511320684 https://x.com/TheShawnHendrix/status/1841823155511320684
- duxup 2y agoNothing personal but that's "a lot" of vague, qualified, and loaded phrases like "mostly free" "more than the US govt" and such ... but the source is just some guy's twitter page?
- svnt 2y agoHow long does it take to rebuild fiber infrastructure? This is not a kindness, it is a promotion. Six months would be a kindness.
- zdragnar 2y agoIt's for disaster relief efforts, not to provide the monopolies who will be rebuilding the infrastructure a free pass.
- JumpCrisscross 2y ago> a free pass It’s pronounced a run for their money, i.e. competition.
- svnt 2y agoI’m not sure how disaster recovery will be over in a month, or how monopolies will become major Starlink users undetected.
- zdragnar 2y agoThe monopolies are Comcast, charter, quest etc who usually have exclusionary rights to serve high speed Internet over cable/fiber. Free starlink is meant to be a temporary patch to aid evacuation and lifesaving efforts until the communities can be reconnected physically. If anything, the monopolists should be paying for their customers to get free starlink until their own networks are back up.
- svnt 2y agoThey do not have exclusionary rights, that was the whole point of all of the telco and cable anti-trust work. I don’t particularly like Comcast but the internet has been successfully preserved as a commodity, and communities worth serving are very well-served. I can choose from at least four competitive ISPs that I know of, and I am not in a particularly strong market area.
- 2y ago
- jagtstronaut 2y agoDespite the hate on the promo the tech they offer is still pretty cool. Only way I knew my in-laws were safe near Asheville was because one of their neighbors had starlink and a generator. Took a week for them to get power and cell phone service back and there is no way to get to them without a helicopter so if it wasn't for the product we would have just learned that they were alright.
- matthewdgreen 2y agoTo ask a tech question: how much capacity does Starlink have? If every single person in US rural areas switches to Starlink, can the system handle it? What's the bandwidth/customers/capacity limit for the service? (I'm obviously not talking about emergencies, where degraded bandwidth is acceptable.)
- jagtstronaut 2y agoAt least last time I looked into starlink it most definitely cannot. Definitely more ideal for very rural or very poor areas where you are gonna be one of a few dishes. That may have changed now though.
- colechristensen 2y agoI don't know if that kind of information is public. Starlink is continually adding new satellites, and each one adds bandwidth capability. Likewise with end user ground station hardware updates and spectrum purchases (at least the former is happening on a regular basis), capacity likewise goes up. I don't believe there is a theoretical or practical upper limit which would exclude very wide adoption of Starlink and similar competitors. Put in another way, I think it is possible that in a decade or two the only cell phone/data service that doesn't come from orbit will be a few terrestrial towers in dense downtown urban areas and around things like sports venues.
- CorrectHorseBat 2y ago5G is going exactly the opposite way to provide higher bandwidth, more cells with each less users. With satellite internet you're sharing the medium with everyone, and that doesn't scale well. Beamforming probably helps a lot, but I don't how accurate it can be on that distance.
- firesteelrain 2y agoWe have a free solution already but not as well known - Ham Radio. You can even send email over WinLink.
- wtallis 2y agoHas using encryption on amateur radio been legalized?
- asciimike 2y agoNo, it's still illegal
- halyconWays 2y agoNo, it's forbidden by FCC 97
- neveroddoreven 2y agoHow is this even enforced? Don't you have plausible deniability by claiming you just wanted to send high entropy random noise?
- willcipriano 2y agoHam radio people are Lawful Good types. Your Chaotic Good idea isn't well recieved by them. No way there is any ability to enforce that law in a disaster zone, they have enough trouble with looting and the like.
- marlone93 2y agoWhy is this advertising-like stuff worth of hackernews?
- 1970-01-01 2y agoIt's newsworthy as it shows just how quickly Elon can 'gift his tech' compared to say Apple or Amazon. Elon also did this for superchargers a few years ago. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17990007 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17990007
- marlone93 2y ago[flagged]
- LMYahooTFY 2y agoAre you talking about when he chose not to violate US sanctions when the Ukrainian government asked him to turn Starlink on for Crimea?
- FactKnower69 2y ago[flagged]
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- bena 2y agoThis might be good for responders, but not so much the victims. But then responders will have their own networks so won't need this. When you've been hit like this, you aren't going to use your power for this. You have bigger issues. You have to dry out your house, demolition, etc. And that's when you get power. You might not get it for weeks. And honestly, once power reaches residences, power to other services has usually been restored already. Either this is well-meaning but ill-executed. Or meant to be seen as well-meaning, but with the realization that is almost purely gestural.
- inemesitaffia 2y agoIt's okay not to know what you're talking about. Something wrong in every paragraph
- AdamJacobMuller 2y agoIf you check out the people doing this, they are bringing other things and not just starlinks, generators, fuel, dehumidifiers, etc One of the most interesting ones is Shawn Hendrix on X: https://x.com/TheShawnHendrix https://x.com/TheShawnHendrix While I'm sure having internet isn't their focus, a starlink draws a trivial amount of power especially relative to a dehumidifier/fans/etc and you can only work for so many hours a day. Being able to sit around at the end of the day and watch some youtube and being able to communicate with friends and family would be the difference between an awful situation and completely untenable one, personally.
- dadadad100 2y agoCell service is down. Wi-Fi calling/ text/ email may be the only thing working in many cases
- seadan83 2y agoText was working well before voice calls. Had first voice call with family in area just yesterday. Data started working then too. Was texting with them 5 days ago though (sunday). Wifi and email would have needed a generator and satellite link (of one type or another)
- tomohawk 2y agoThere would likely be 20K starlink terminals available in the are had the FCC not revoked their participation. Would probably be handy about now. https://twitter.com/ajtourville/status/1840577643839955098 https://twitter.com/ajtourville/status/1840577643839955098
- threeseed 2y agoFCC did so because SpaceX was unable to provide detailed information about how they would able to ramp up capacity to support all of the extra users. And at the time the decision was made its internet speeds were declining.
- pjkundert 2y agoIncorrect. They were denied because they had not yet provided coverage in the area (years before they were required to, under the contract). As FCC's Commissioner Brendan Carr wrote: “Instead of applying the traditional FCC standard to the record evidence, which would have compelled the agency to confirm Starlink’s $885 million award, the FCC denied it on the grounds that Starlink is not providing high-speed Internet service to all of those locations today.” “What? FCC law does not require Starlink to provide high-speed Internet service to even a single location today. As noted above, the first FCC milestone does not kick in until the end of 2025. Indeed, the FCC did not require—and has never required—any other award winner to show that it met its service obligation years ahead of time.”
- AdamJacobMuller 2y ago[flagged]
- gamblor956 2y agoYou have it exactly backwards. These extra terminals are available because the FCC revoked their participation. If they had not, right now those terminals would be in the Midwest or other areas far from Helene.
- xyst 2y agoAfter 30 days, start coughing up $120/month [1] [1] https://www.starlink.com/service-plans https://www.starlink.com/service-plans
- inemesitaffia 2y agoEven if it was a thousand days, you wouldn't be fine with it
- maverickmax90 2y agoThis!
- inemesitaffia 2y agoIt's now till December 31
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- olouv 2y agoIt appears that issues with payment setup were delaying relief efforts, as indicated by this tweet: https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1841207137420132549 https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1841207137420132549.
- seadan83 2y agoMy folks in the area just got power and data a day ago. That seems like a gotchya, how can you do anything for setup without power nor internet access? This kinda feels like musk offering to help the Thai kids trapped in a cave. The "pedo" guy pointed out the offer of help was useless. If you have internet access to set up payment, then you have internet access... Am I missing something? That and a lot of folks in Appalachia didn't have money to buy supplies, let alone a starlink sub. I do applaud any help going to the area nonetheless. I hope I'm missing some big pieces, and am started to feel this is a distraction.
- inemesitaffia 2y agoWhen you turn on the device, when it's brand new you get an hour free Internet to set it up. Now you get 30 days. You can get a full refund on the hardware if you use it for under 30 days
- seadan83 2y agoThat does raise the utility - thank you for conveying that info.
- ultra_nick 2y agoIt's nice that Musk and his companies always seem to be willing to provide free emergency services. Over various disasters they've provided free energy, internet, and cell service. I can't believe people complain about charity when so many other companies do nothing. Same with Mr.Beast's charity acts. There's something wrong with people who do nothing and hate on other people doing charity.
- jrflowers 2y ago> I can't believe people complain about charity when so many other companies do nothing. It is possible that people are interpreting this 30 day promotional period as “Starlink offers hurricane survivors $120/mo internet access starting November 2nd”, which would not be factually inaccurate assuming today as the start date of the promotion. $120/mo is roughly double the average broadband cost in e.g. the Asheville area.
- mlindner 2y agoStarlink service has no contract so you can pause it any time.
- inemesitaffia 2y agoIt's not a promotion or promotional offer. It's an aid for people who have activation issues.
- mysterydip 2y agoI looked into signing up. It was over $300 up front, after the first 30 days waived. No thanks.
- h0l0cube 2y agoI think intention matters here. It’s great for those people who are helped by Mr. Beast, but it’s coming from a place of ego and profit, not charity. Happy for those helped, but it’s still a little unseemly. However, I do think Musk genuinely likes to help people^ (e.g. Puerto Rico and Ukraine), but also I feel his response to the (valid) rejection of his help by the divers in Thailand was ungracious and maybe a little telling. Hopefully he’s grown since then ^ also it’s good PR
- elintknower 2y agoActually insane that the FCC opted to cancel the rural broadband contract with SpaceX for Starlink, to placate ancient telecoms who wanted to spend 4x more doing it with fiber... Not an elon fan, but the current admin / gov in charge is run by halfwits.
- verzali 2y agoHas the cancellation actually affected Starlink in any way? Have they put up satellites more slowly or charged customers more?
- dotnet00 2y agoThe interesting thing is that an FCC commissioner has also been constantly commenting on how nonsensical that decision was. I don't really know enough about the decision to decide either way, but it does seem dumb to me that the other providers don't seem to be getting threatened with removal if it is true that no one has received improved connectivity due to those subsidies (even if we accept that the money has only been allocated and not spent yet, it'd be a failure to have spent all this time just working on allocating money).
- aaron695 2y ago[dead]