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SpaceX's Starlink is trying to exempt itself from a New York law requiring ISPs to offer internet plans starting at $15 per month for low-income residents.
On Wednesday, New York’s Affordable Broadband Act (ABA) went into effect, forcing broadband providers to offer low-income consumers internet plans at $15 for download speeds no lower than 25Mbps and $20 per month for speeds at 200Mbps or greater.
The law could drastically reduce the price of Starlink, which costs $120 per month for residential users. But the ABA also has a loophole for small internet providers that serve "no more than twenty thousand households" in the state.
On Tuesday, a day before the law came into force, SpaceX filed for an exemption, which was spotted by a Reddit user. The company says Starlink serves “fewer than 20,000 households within New York State," according to a letter to NY's Public Service Commission.
“As of the date of this filing, SpaceX provides broadband to [***Begin Confidential***] [***End Confidential***] residential customers in New York. This figure is consistent with the data most recently filed with the Federal Communications Commission, accounting for user growth since such filing,” the letter adds.
The disclosure might be surprising since SpaceX told the FCC last August it had over 1.4 million Starlink customers in the US. However, the satellite internet service is less used in densely populated areas like New York City, which already have access to high-speed ISPs. Instead, Starlink is usually more popular in rural areas, where traditional broadband options are limited or unreliable.
New York’s Department of Public Service tells PCMag that SpaceX's request is under review.
The law notes the state’s Public Service Commission can issue an exemption if it “determines that compliance with such requirements would result in unreasonable or unsustainable financial impact on the broadband service provider.”
Other smaller ISPs, including Windstream New York, have also filed for the same exemption, saying they serve under 20,000 households in the state.
AT&T decided to shut down its 5G home internet service in the state because the law "imposes harmful rate regulations that make it uneconomical for AT&T to invest in and expand our broadband infrastructure in the state."