(Credit: Starlink.com)
To attract more users, SpaceX is starting to offer free or $50 roof installs for Starlink, a steep drop from the previous $199 fee.
Starlink.com is offering the “free roof installs” for new buyers in North Carolina and Tennessee. In a other states, such as Alabama and Georgia, the company has discounted the service to $50. This comes a year after Starlink began offering $199 “expert installs” in select US states through a third-party provider called DSI Systems. The heavy discount suggests SpaceX itself is subsidizing the roof installs in an effort to grow its US user base.
(Credit: Starlink.com)The deal is facing criticism from independent satellite dish installers, who worry SpaceX is sacrificing quality and undercutting their own businesses in the process.
"The issue is that they’re going to use installers that haven’t been vetted, don’t have insurance, and they aren’t going to do a quality job,” says Scott Brown, a Georgia-based independent Starlink installer with Orbit Installs.
While Starlink dishes are easy to set up, many consumers and businesses still turn to independent technicians for professional rooftop installations. Brown has been installing satellites dishes for about 18 years. But to offer a quality service, he currently charges $275; other technicians ask $499 or even $799, depending on the building and specifications.
(Credit: Scott Brown)SpaceX entered the installer space last year with DSI. But according to Brown, the offering “basically failed” because DSI allegedly contracted the jobs out to other installers willing to rush the installations at the expense of quality.
It looks like SpaceX has returned with a more aggressive offering. It's unclear when it began offering the free and discounted roof installs, but one installer posted on Facebook that it's been around in North Carolina for a few weeks: "This business is dead. Get what you can while you can," he told other installers.
Although Brown expects the DSI-sponsored roof installs to face the same quality problems, he too worries his own business will suffer since Starlink.com is advertising the discounted or free roof installs to users directly.
“I kind of feel blindsided by [SpaceX] doing this. I can’t compete with $50 dollars or free roof installs in some places,” he says, noting that he’s performed hundreds of Starlink installs over the past four years. “I would really like Starlink to have some sort of application process to be a vetted installer, something along that line."
Another independent installer in North Carolina, James Leroy, added that customers might jump at the free or discounted roof installs only to regret it later. “A cheap installation will not be a professional installation, so in the long run customers are going to see issues with obstructions and possible damage claims because they got a reduced or free installation,” he says. In some cases, a Starlink roof install can require close to four hours, he adds.
(Credit: James Leroy)Meanwhile, another installer tells PCMag: "The free installs completely stopped my calls coming in. Advertising on all platforms and it’s dead. Can’t beat free."
On Facebook, another installer says he suspects SpaceX wants to do everything it can to reduce the Starlink sign-up costs to encourage adoption: “The last thing they want are [technicians] piggy backing off their product,” he writes.
SpaceX and DSI didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. But according to the Starlink website, the free or discounted roof installation doesn’t include any mounting equipment. So customers will still need to buy the needed accessories through Starlink’s online store. The Starlink support page also offers guides on roof mounting for DIYers.