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If you donate something that is spare capacity on infrastructure that has a marginal cost of the data outflow from your servers on earth, and the customer has t
by svnt 2y ago
If you donate something that is spare capacity on infrastructure that has a marginal cost of the data outflow from your servers on earth, and the customer has to buy aging hardware that you are also sitting on inventory of, and that hardware is ASP $300-$600, it is not a donation.
It is extremely likely that your marginal costs for that month are only internet transit/egress to the tune of less than $0.05 per GB, and you soft cap their access such that maybe 100 GB is their practical limit for the month, you just sold a $300 device that sales were slowing on for worst-case $295, with a likely future revenue stream.
- inemesitaffia 2y agoLike I said elsewhere, this is something someone asked for. They valued it enough to ask for it. The fact that you don't see that or value it like they do doesn't change things. Starlink users are growing not receding. The devices have other places they can make money today. You can talk margins all you want. Opportunity costs exist. So does fixed cost amortization. Lots of these people already bought the hardware, and we're having difficulty paying for service. Imagine giving up $100+/dish guaranteed and someone talking about cents on the Internet.