(Credit: SpaceX Starlink)
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Normally, Starlink customers need to purchase a dish to subscribe to the satellite internet service, but in parts of Iowa, SpaceX is only allowing new sign-ups to rent its dishes.
A Reddit user spotted the unusual offer on Starlink.com for new customers interested in the Residential plan, which normally bundles the standard Starlink dish for $349. For eligible addresses in Iowa, SpaceX will offer Starlink access with essentially no up-front cost. New subscribers pay only $20 for shipping plus taxes.
(Credit: Starlink.com)If you examine the full list of charges, you’ll see that the dish arrives as a rental, costing $0 per month. The page also offers no option to buy the dish with a Residential or Residential Lite plan.
(Credit: Starlink.com)Instead, the deal bundles a “free professional setup,” which appears to involve a contracted technician visiting the user’s address to install the dish on their roof. But the offer notes: “If you cancel service, you will have to return your Starlink hardware rental.”
Although the offer is unusual, SpaceX has long experimented with various methods to drive user growth. Earlier this year, the company offered the standard Starlink dish for free in certain parts of the US in exchange for customers committing to a one-year contract for the Residential plan.
SpaceX has since phased out the free dish offer, replacing it with discounts on the Residential and Residential Lite plans in certain areas of the US while reducing the standard dish price to $89. The same deal appears in Iowa, but replaces the $89 cost of the dish with a free rental, while bundling the professional installation.
The low up-front cost might entice some consumers to try Starlink, which already has over 2 million active customers in the US. Customers in Iowa who want to own their dish should consider third-party retailers, where both the standard Starlink dish and the Mini model have been on sale.
In 2023, SpaceX also experimented with the rental model for the Starlink dish in the UK. But the company charged about $18 per month, in addition to a $118 activation fee.