Starlink adds $10 monthly hardware fee

Starlink announced on June 9 that new customers must now pay a $10 monthly rental for the user-terminal kit instead of a one-time purchase, and the company increased its broadband subscription price by $5 to $10 depending on the plan [Ars Technica]. Existing subscribers can keep their hardware for free, but any replacement or upgrade will be billed at the new rental rate. The hardware rental covers the phased-array dish, the Wi-Fi router, and the power supply. SpaceX previously sold the kit for $599 (dish) plus $99 (router). Under the new model, the same kit is effectively priced at $10 per month, or $120 per year, with an optional outright purchase price of $699 for the dish and $149 for the router [Ars Technica]. Service tiers – Residential, Business, and Premium – now cost $30, $45, and $60 per month respectively, up from $25, $40, and $55. By converting hardware sales into a subscription, SpaceX secures a steady income stream that can fund the next generation of low-Earth-orbit satellites [Ars Technica]. This move also forces rivals like T-Mobile’s Home Internet and Amazon’s Project Kuiper to reconsider their pricing structures or risk losing enterprise customers who value predictable OPEX. With rentals, SpaceX can replace dishes en-masse as newer antenna designs become available, reducing the incentive to lock customers into a static hardware generation.