this post was submitted on 10 Jun 2026
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274
Starlink charges $10 monthly hardware fee in move away from one-time purchases - Ars Technica (arstechnica.com)
submitted 1 day ago by muelltonne@feddit.org to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 11 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

I got a mini dish for emergencies as I live in an area where natural disasters can occur.

My plan was to just keep it around just in case in a paused state and on occasional trips, or in case of emergencies id have it.

Then they stopped letting you pause it and charged $7.50 CAD/m to keep it in standby, but it came with unlimited low speed, but enough to do emails or browse websites. Kinda shitty but okay, having data always working wasnt terrible for the $7.50, and could even toss it in car for road trips where there's bad internet for music streaming.

Then a couple weeks ago, they emailed saying its going to $15/m and it would no longer work while in motion.

Fuck that. I canceled.

Its definitely to juice the IPO revenue numbers.

Edit: oh, and the free pausing, to paid standby to the price increase on standby was all in under a year.

[–] MrSulu@lemmy.ml 1 points 6 hours ago

For some, Starlink will literally be dropping through their roofs soon.

[–] Folstar@lemmus.org 32 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

It's super cool that ISPs are allowed to be the worst companies on earth. Really great idea to pass the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and turn what everyone knew would become (arguably already was) a utility into the Wild West.

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 7 points 16 hours ago

Biden made it a lot better. The 100/10 floor did a LOT of good.

[–] OhVenus_Baby@lemmy.ml 18 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

If it's subscription based then they need to care, maintain, and upgrade the hardware for free each time it's due.

[–] Trigger2_2000@sh.itjust.works 11 points 21 hours ago

In their world, it will never be due for such things. They will just move it to "not supported" and claim "upgrades are not available"; because they didn't make any.

Yeah, it's a rip off move.

[–] MehBlah@lemmy.world 26 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The forever payment system at work. Always pay and its never yours.

[–] JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyz 13 points 23 hours ago

My ISP tried to push me to accept their wifi routers with the plan, they would have been free for 6 months and then only 14€/month, i.e 168€/year. For two TP-Link Deco routers that are less than that to buy new.

But hey, they would upgrade them every 5 years for ""free""!

[–] nullspace@lemmy.world 48 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Don't companies usually wait until after their IPO to enshittify their products?

[–] OhNoMoreLemmy@lemmy.ml 6 points 22 hours ago

Musk really needs to do it now to get a decent listing. 

The problem is he has no income for all his AI stuff, Twitter advertising revenue is still in the toilet, and spaceX's biggest customer is the US government, but the Democrats fucking hate him, and the mid terms are coming up.

So time to squeeze the little guys to get some revenue.

[–] Vanth@reddthat.com 29 points 1 day ago (2 children)

My dad just switched to Starlink. I advised he watch his bill closely because Musk is going to start playing money games any day. He blew me off, confident they would operate like most other cable companies and keep his prices set for 2-3 years even without a specific contract lock. Don't say I didn't warn ya'.

Also, double fuck you to Musk. My parents are rural and this is far and away the best service they're able to get. Instead of paying around what the others charge plus a little more because they are better, my folks are going to get taken to the cleaners.

[–] Corngood@lemmy.ml 28 points 1 day ago (1 children)

confident they would operate like most other cable companies

Oh god, imagine this being the best case scenario

[–] postmateDumbass@lemmy.world 4 points 21 hours ago

I remember the first time i had to go in to drop off my set top boxes after a move (back near the turn of the century) and the cable company customer service was behind 6" of bulletproof lexan.

With a bank style secure drawer to deal with the boxes.

Not a good sign for agreeable customer service.

[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 0 points 19 hours ago (3 children)

Wasn't Biden going to build out the broadband infrastructure to reach rural communities? What happened to that project? Did it get DOGEd?

[–] nullify3112@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago

I don’t know if it’s related to Biden but lots of small towns in New Hampshire have fiber, meaning better internet than a lot of big coastal cities.

[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 2 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (1 children)

Billions have been given to telecoms for ages to build out infrastructure to rural areas and it always fails. The ISPs say oh its so expensive, we only got this tiny fraction done, and the government nods their heads and gives them billions more when they say theyll do it next time, and the same thing happens over and over.

[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 2 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Damn, why is the world like this? Or at least this country?

I mean, I know the answer is corruption, corporatism, neoliberalism, and capitalism. But, like, why are those things the way the world is? It didn't have to be this way...

[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 1 points 7 hours ago

It happens up here in Canada as well, so not just a USA thing, at least with the telecoms.

And ya it really sucks.

[–] Vanth@reddthat.com 3 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah, billion$ that got bogged down by state level politics, telecomm company resistance, and lack of Democratic party backbone.

I don't know how much momentum was even left to get DOGE'd.

[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 1 points 7 hours ago

That sucks...

I mean, it's a huge logistical feat. But it's not like nothing's been done on the same scale before. The people have roads, they have landline, I don't see why they can't have fiberoptics.

[–] XLE@piefed.social 13 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)

"You will own, uh, nothing, and you will, uh, be memed"
- Some Afrikaner billionaire

[–] slugger@sopuli.xyz 67 points 1 day ago

I'm shocked /s

[–] kat_angstrom@lemmy.world 7 points 21 hours ago

Enshittification

[–] gankouskhan@piefed.zip 36 points 1 day ago (3 children)

And they will drop the extra charge after you've paid it off right.... right guys?

[–] bitchkat@lemmy.world 3 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Just like when Comcast forced me to rent their modem if I wanted a static IP on my business account. Fuck them and I made dynamic IP work for my needs. I did have to move my email server to a 3rd party host.

[–] gankouskhan@piefed.zip 1 points 9 hours ago

Rat bastards. They should be tried for their crimes against humanity.

[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 4 points 19 hours ago

I wouldn't be surprised if they make this retroactive to even apply to the people who bought their hardware.

When I was 18, I signed up for an internet service for the first time. They asked if I wanted to rent or purchase a modem/router, and because I did the math and saw that it would be more economical in the long run to purchase it, that's what I chose. I paid extra up front so that the hardware would belong to me and I could take it with me later.

Fast forward to moving day, when I canceled my internet plan and boxed up my modem/router to take with me. A few months later, I got a call from the company. They said I never returned my hardware and that I owe them a fee to replace it. I told them I purchased the hardware up front; it's mine, I already paid for it.

Their answer? "No you didn't."

The gaslighting commenced as they claimed to have no record of that. They continued to harass me for months, threatening legal action and debt collection and all that. Eventually I got fed up and just paid the fine. Essentially paid for it twice, but fuck me I guess. This is america where the consumer is always wrong.

[–] dan@upvote.au 18 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Rent-to-own isn't that common, even though maybe it should be. With most rentals (of anything) you have to keep paying indefinitely. That's why there's usually a cost/benefit analysis of renting vs owning.

Renting can sometimes be better for less tech-savvy people, since the company owns the equipment and is familiar with it, and will replace it at any point if it has issues

[–] gankouskhan@piefed.zip 1 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

I am still trying to figure out why I have to pay my ISP $10/mo to use my own modem, or $20/mo for one they provide and $30 if I want them to enable wifi on their modem.

[–] dan@upvote.au 1 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (1 children)

$10/mo to use my own modem

lolwut

Sounds like a way to hide the full price of the internet plan. Restaurants do this in some big cities like in San Francisco... They add junk fees like "5% employee health care mandate" rather than just increasing the menu prices.

[–] gankouskhan@piefed.zip 1 points 6 hours ago

It's some bullshit is what it is. Fortunately I told them to pound sand and I just test the limits of my seemingly truly unlimited mobile hotspot. Funny thing is my neighbor who has the ONLY ISP WE CAN HAVE (because if building contracts) came to ask if I was having issues with the ISP because they have to keep coming out here and it fixes nothing or they say it's not on them (the company) it's something you (neighbor) are doing". I've had pretty similar experiences with this company at other rentals I've been in, but anyway to make a boring story short I check their routers Internet "uptime" reports and it was pretty abysmal. We are talking like 5-12 brown outs a week. All of which occurred within the time window of 09:00-18:00. My phone's hotspot? Consistently over 700/30 and under $70/mo total. These bastards need to go out 'protection agencies" have failed us time and time again.

[–] troglodytis@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I really really wish I had a viable alternative

[–] Crashumbc@lemmy.world 2 points 18 hours ago

I feel that way about Comcast...

[–] dan@upvote.au 15 points 1 day ago (2 children)

The article says you can still buy it at a retail store like Best Buy though.

[–] qwerty@discuss.tchncs.de 18 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Probably a way to lower initial cost for new customers. $400 or however much it is, is a hefty ask before you even tried the service.

[–] adarza@piefed.ca 1 points 12 hours ago

they had been offering a no-cost equipment promo in some coverage areas for awhile, with only a year or something commitment. you paid $20 to ship the gear. your recurring bill was the monthly plan rate. that's it.

they're probably going back and now charging those sign-ups a 'rental' fee.

[–] HiTekRedNek@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

How dare you use logic in an emotional,hate-inducing post!

[–] Peppycito@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Till they go out of stock.

[–] anon_8675309@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Yeah. If you want one do it now.

[–] Peppycito@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 day ago

Petty rent seeking dildos. This will surly make them a trillion dollar business.

[–] AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works -2 points 16 hours ago

PCMag notes that you can save money in the long run by buying the router from a retailer. “Over the long term, the $10 monthly fee isn’t a great deal, either, since it means forking over $360 during a three-year subscription,” the article said. “The standard dish currently retails for $349 at retailers such as Best Buy and Walmart, but it’s been discounted to $199 or even $89.”

Seriously, this is raging for the sake of raging. It's not like they stopped selling the equipment.

[–] lemmyng@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

MAKE. IT. SHITTY(-ER)!