Starlink, Elon Musk’s internet-from-space service provided by SpaceX, is notifying customers with some good news: their monthly subscriptions have been reduced in response to “local market conditions.”
I received one of these notifications for my Starlink RV service that normally costs me €124 each month in the Netherlands. It says, “Effective 8/24/2022, Starlink is reducing your monthly service fee to €105.” Well, ok.
The price cut is welcome at a time when everything else is getting more expensive due to inflation. “The price reduction factors in your local market conditions and is meant to reflect parity in purchasing power across our customers,” reads the announcement.
Others are reporting similar discounts in locations around the world. For example, on Reddit a person in the UK reports a reduction in their monthly fee to £75 (down from £89), Mexico to $1,100 MXN (down from $2,299 MXN), and Germany €80 (down from €100). Users in Chile and Brazil are reporting price cuts of around 50 percent. A spot check on Starlink’s respective service pages in each country supports the above claims.
The situation in the US, where the dollar has been surging against foreign currencies, is less clear. A person in Nevada reports getting a reduction to $85 (was $110) but Starlink’s own pages still show a monthly subscription price of $110 after a one-time $599 purchase of the hardware kit. A few other people claiming to be from the US note that they haven’t received any price reduction.
So far there’s no mention of a reduction in speed or the addition of strict data caps following the discounted subscriptions.
SpaceX and T-Mobile will host a joint event later today where Elon Musk will be on hand to announce plans to “increase connectivity.” It’s unclear if the event has any relation to the new pricing.
