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Starlink unlimited aviation plan to rise from $10k/month to $20k

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61–70 of 233 posts

Re: Starlink unlimited aviation plan to rise from $10k/month to $20k

#61

I’m pretty sure rest of starlink customers will get similar treatment in the future. Their potential customer base is limited and it’s only ISP that literately burns their backbone network every few years and has to replace to keep it running. On top of that, their claims it’s profitable does some heavy lifting with how to account for the cost of launching rockets. It’s extremely cool product and very useful for many…

it has already gone up in price two times since i got mine. i still happily pay for the convenience and safety of having internet on my campervan in the middle of a national forest. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

What harm are you worried about coming to in the middle of a national forest that having the internet could possibly save you from? You're in a van, for heaven's sakes. You can roll up the windows, lock the doors, and/or drive off from most dangers save a breakdown or a wildfire, and the internet won't save you from a wildfire.

I've tent camped a lot on forest service land (and BLM land) both out west and in the east. Generally having arrived there by human power. Not once have I been confronted with a situation where the internet would've added to my safety in any way whatsoever.

Re: Starlink unlimited aviation plan to rise from $10k/month to $20k

#62
post #44

Note that the objection is as much to the abruptness as the scale of the price increase. Large customers sinking millions into (here aviation) assets rightly expect that their vendors respect their market lifecycles. Starlink's behavior creates a credibility gap that could drive such customers to the 2-3 upcoming competitors with poorer service and even higher costs, but perhaps more reliability as partners. I'd see…

> Note that the objection is as much to the abruptness as the scale of the price increase.

When companies buy a service, they normally agree a bespoke contract for 5 years or so and a fixed price for additional units, often with an option of a further x years period too.

So sounds like there wasn't a bespoke contract as lawyers should have picked it up.

Re: Starlink unlimited aviation plan to rise from $10k/month to $20k

#63

I’m pretty sure rest of starlink customers will get similar treatment in the future. Their potential customer base is limited and it’s only ISP that literately burns their backbone network every few years and has to replace to keep it running. On top of that, their claims it’s profitable does some heavy lifting with how to account for the cost of launching rockets. It’s extremely cool product and very useful for many…

it has already gone up in price two times since i got mine. i still happily pay for the convenience and safety of having internet on my campervan in the middle of a national forest. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

At some point, everyone becomes price-sensitive.

Re: Starlink unlimited aviation plan to rise from $10k/month to $20k

#64

I am traveling in Europe currently and got a Saily SIM card - 5g coverage is really good and seems to be expanding fast - a small village I visited 2 years ago that had no cell coverage at all I was getting 250mbps download, faster than than the wired internet at most of the places I was visiting. This prompted me to actually look into Starlink speeds and apparently 5g is generally faster than Starlink... This made m…

Remote areas of USA (and other third world countries when it comes to the communication infrastructure) + companies that operate in remote areas (logistic, resource extraction, etc) + military are main customer base.

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Re: Starlink unlimited aviation plan to rise from $10k/month to $20k

#66

I am traveling in Europe currently and got a Saily SIM card - 5g coverage is really good and seems to be expanding fast - a small village I visited 2 years ago that had no cell coverage at all I was getting 250mbps download, faster than than the wired internet at most of the places I was visiting. This prompted me to actually look into Starlink speeds and apparently 5g is generally faster than Starlink... This made m…

There are plenty of super remote areas in Europe as well. Even more in the US, where population is more clustered to population centers

But the big selling points of Starlink are either as a backup connection (which the consumer plan actively enables: in months where you use less than 10GB you pay $10/month) or as a connection for ships and airplanes

Re: Starlink unlimited aviation plan to rise from $10k/month to $20k

#67
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree, but not for the reason you think. They need to fund R&D to justify their high valuation. A new stock issue would decrease the valuation, and they will have a difficult time borrowing the money with their poor bond valuations. So this will (maybe) slow the bleed. Musk doesn't need to deliver to keep valuation up. We've seen him doing pretty well stringing people along indefinitely with "3 months maybe, 6 m…

It’s not an opinion it’s laid out clearly in the prospectus. Spacex is not a space company. It is a 2 trillion dollar AI company with a small launch business and a smaller ISP.

I am not disagreeing with that. I am saying that having enough revenue is necessary to keep the house of cards standing.

Re: Starlink unlimited aviation plan to rise from $10k/month to $20k

#68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He then reviewed my billing history and account details, confirmed that my service address had never actually changed, and determined that nothing had been moved. As a result, he issued a full refund.

Yeah but it still sounds like $1,500 demand fee was not a mistake, charging OP was the mistake. People first mentioned these fees at like $100... now you can go to Costco, grab a Starlink, and they'll randomly ask for $1,500 to actually start service. Congestion is a thing when each node needs to go to space, but it also feels like they're cashing in on years of "just move to a cabin in the woods and work off Starlin…

Isn't this fee specifically before they have you by the balls?

Re: Starlink unlimited aviation plan to rise from $10k/month to $20k

#69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their potential customer base is literally everybody because they are the only ISP that can cover the entire globe. Everybody’s potential customer base is technically limited because there are only so many humans, but they have the least limited potential customer base of anything that exists.

Yes, but the primary reason for Starlink is for areas with poor traditional ISPs. If you had a choice between Fiber or Starlink, you’d choose Fiber. So as traditional ISPs improve service and coverage, Starlink becomes less in demand.

The killer app is military usage, so they just need enough consumer and b2b demand to keep what they charge governments within what they can justify to taxpayers

Re: Starlink unlimited aviation plan to rise from $10k/month to $20k

#70
post #41

There will be many price increases seeing as: -SpaceX raised $75bn in the IPO which will only last so long for a loss making high capital requirements company. -Then $25bn via bonds which have an annual interest rate repayment of $1.46 billion + repayment of the $25b (depending on bond length in years 2031,33,36,46 and 2056) -Morgan Stanley said: "In our model, we estimate SpaceX raising an average of $72bn annually…

SpaceX stock has also dropped below their IPO price. It doesn't change their current financials but it may make it more difficult to raise money in the future.
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