SpaceX Hikes Prices for Starlink LEO Satellite Broadband Service

Bad news folks, SpaceX has just hiked the price of everything from rocket launches to their already expensive Starlink constellation of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) based ultrafast broadband ISP satellites, the latter of which due to increase in price by 11.11% per month (20% for the hardware) in order to “keep pace with rising inflation.”

At present Starlink has over 2,112 LEOs in orbit (2,085 are working) and their initial plan is to deploy a total of 4,425 by 2024. Customers in the UK previously paid a hefty £84 a month ($99), plus £50 for shipping and £439 ($499) for the kit (dish, router etc.). But for that you can expect unlimited usage, fast latency times of 20-40ms, downloads of c. 50-250Mbps and uploads of c.10-20Mbps (speeds may change as the network grows).

However, the satellite ISP has now informed customers (all 250,000 of them) that the price of their kit will immediately increase by around 20% to $599 (£529) for new orders ($549 for existing deposit holders), while the monthly price will jump by 11% from $99 to $110 on 9th May 2022.

The upward momentum of inflation suggests that prices could rise again in 2023, although the situation may eventually change once pressures from existing supply chains and conflict (Ukraine) come to an end – assuming we aren’t all burnt to a crisp in nuclear fire before then.

Copy of Starlink’s Customer Email (Reddit)

Due to excessive levels of inflation, the price of the Starlink kit is increasing from $499 to $549 for deposit holders, and $599 for all new orders, effective today. In addition, the Starlink monthly service price will increase from $99 to $110. The new price will apply to your subscription on 5/9/2022 [M/D/YYYY].

The sole purpose of these adjustments is to keep pace with rising inflation. If you do not wish to continue your service, you can cancel at any time and return your Starlink hardware within your first year of service for a partial refund of $200. If you have received your Starlink in the past 30 days, you can return it for a full refund.

Since launching our public beta service in October 2020, the Starlink team has tripled the number of satellites in orbit, quadrupled the number of ground stations and made continuous improvements to our network. Going forward, users can expect Starlink to maintain its cadence of continuous network improvements as well as new feature additions.

Thank you for being a Starlink customer and your continued support!

The Starlink Team

As we said above, it’s not just the cost of running Starlink that has increased in the current climate. Elon Musk’s Services & Capabilities Price List for SpaceX launches shows that the cost of sending a Falcon 9 rocket into orbit has also jumped from $62m to $67m, while Falcon Heavy launches have risen from $90m to $97m. Expensive stuff, albeit still relatively cheap in terms of the wider space launch market.