(Credit: Starlink.com)
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In the US, SpaceX is taking its Starlink discounts even further by offering access for only $59 per month, a drastic decrease from the usual $120.
On Friday, the official Starlink site began promoting the deal, which pops up if you try to subscribe to the satellite internet service's Residential Plan in certain locations. You can also get the Residential Lite plan, which offers slower speeds, for $49 per month, down from $80.
(Credit: Starlink.com)On top of all this, the deal will reduce the standard Starlink dish’s price to $89, a decrease from $349. The discount is pretty staggering and is the first time SpaceX has cut the Residential Plan’s price by 50%, saving subscribers $732 per year.
Of course, there's a catch. The discount only lasts for the first year of service, and the "terms and duration are subject to change," SpaceX says.
In addition, the company is only offering the deal to new customers and in select areas where Starlink appears to have excess network capacity. The available areas seem to somewhat correspond to this map that the Starlink site previously used to promote its free dish deal.
(Credit: Starlink.com)But it looks like the discount can change. For example, in Cedar City, Utah, Eugene, Oregon, and San Francisco, the Starlink site will offer the Residential Plan for $85 per month, without featuring Residential Lite. But in Albuquerque and Boise, we encountered the $49/$59-per-month deal instead. Meanwhile, Lawrence, Kansas, didn’t seem to show the deal at all.
“Discount will apply to one service line,” SpaceX says about the offer. “Customers who change their plan, cancel their service, or are suspended will lose their promotional pricing. The service promotional offering varies by location.”
Curiously, the main Starlink homepage has also been promoting the $59 deal—but for the Residential Lite plan, rather than the regular Residential tier. So, I wonder if the company is still tinkering with the discount.
(Credit: Starlink.com)The deal arrives a month after SpaceX took the rare step of cutting the Residential and Residential Lite plans in the US to $99 and $65, respectively, to attract new customers. In addition, the company cut the standard dish’s price to $175. But again, the deal only applied to new sign-ups in select areas.
The company is now following up with even more aggressive pricing. This comes as SpaceX’s subscriber count in the US recently crossed over 2 million.