Starlink takes page from cable firms with $10 monthly rental fee for hardware
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It'd be nice if a week would go by without Starlink changing their pricing. I've never seen an ISP that is so indecisive regarding pricing.
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It sounds like Starlink is in the beginning stages of ISP enshittification with recurring unnecessary fees, constantly raising rates, and providing you hardware you can’t opt out of.
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the economics of satellite internet dictate that its gonna get more expensive and shit as you try to add people. it absolutely has its use but they're telling investors they'll have everybody on the planet paying for service in 5 years which is impossible
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Why sell something to someone when you can rent it to them forever? Standard shit ISP practice.
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Was walking through Home Depot the other day and saw a retail display for StarLink. In the '80's a single phased array element was over $1K, now you can go to the local store and pick up an entire antenna for $499 $599 $299 under $1K. Amazing.
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to big corpo dealing with customers, it increasingly seems like money is a joke to them, actual business is grifting stocks or whatever
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J.C. Helios
Ars Scholae Palatinae
But they're also telling those investors that their AI division has a $26.5 trillion addressable market, so the $1.6 trillion telecommunications addressable market seems downright reasonable by comparison... possible or not.
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If you can't pause service, do you just cancel and give the dish back, then a month later start service again and they mail you the dish again? Sounds inefficient unless they're also stacking fees on one or both of those events.
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We need more than 1 LEO satellite internet provider. This is cable modem rental fees all over again.
Competition is better for innovation - Elon should agree with that as a conservative flag bearer
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Competition is better for innovation - Elon should agree with that as a conservative flag bearer
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I guess everyone is different, but when I'm out camping (in a tent and a luxurious air mattress), the last thing I want to do is respond to work emails and stream movies. I'm usually too busy hiking, mountain biking, swimming, exploring, walking, seeing new things, starting the campfire, cooking over the fire, chopping wood, making coffee over the fire, looking at the stars and the glorious Milky Way, listening to the wild life all around me, enjoying the fecundity of the forest, drinking beer with my wife, enjoying one-on-one time with her in the woods, and not worrying about an internet connection, looking at a screen, or doing anything whatsoever remotely related to work, digital technology, or movies.
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This fish rots from the head down, this was always going to happen
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The telecom industry still wants to go back to the days where you had to rent your phone from Ma Bell, and be happy with the options they provided you
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Gotta pay for that trillions-dollar compensation package for Musk somehow.
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I can’t tell you how depressing this is to read, but you do you.
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They're bracing for the post IPO free money gravy train to be over, they need every scrap of extra revenue asap
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No, we need a government mandate to connect every residence to the Internet with reliable physical links, like we had with electrification.
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I have had plenty of those experiences but you can't run a company and be AWOL unfortunately. It's just not possible - or rather, I haven't been able to make it work.
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It largely exists with the Rural Utilities Service - RUS loan eligibility includes broadband and electrification. The RUS has historically been the largest source of funding for electification (significantly greater than the original New Deal loans).
Satellite internet is a far more efficient deployment in rural areas than physical links (something is better than nothing).
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Expect further changes. Much bigger ones. I suspect that Starlink is not a viable business as it currently stands. SpaceX always quotes EBITDA net income to provide an illusion of profitibility. They’re completely ignoring depreciation (a MASSIVE expense; those satellites don’t last long) and amortization.
When using GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles), they’re burning money. $5 billion last year. The losses are speeding up.
Once SpaceX goes public, that GAAP figure is going to be their headline net income, by law.
One glorious day, hopefully in the not too distant future, companies are going to be priced to a large degree on their ability to generate an actual profit. Remember the old kind of profit that you could actually return to shareholders? That kind.
When using GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles), they’re burning money. $5 billion last year. The losses are speeding up.
Once SpaceX goes public, that GAAP figure is going to be their headline net income, by law.
One glorious day, hopefully in the not too distant future, companies are going to be priced to a large degree on their ability to generate an actual profit. Remember the old kind of profit that you could actually return to shareholders? That kind.
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Starlink is profitable on a GAAP basis.
GAAP Profit (Loss) of SpaceX = $1.5 billion
GAAP Profit (Loss) of xAI = ($6.4 billion)
GAAP Profit (Loss) of SPCX (SpaceX+xAI) = ($4.9 billion)
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I don't understand why people have to shit on the guy for wanting access to the internet. Who gives a shit?
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Not strictly. A lot of the power and telephone infrastructure built using funds form agencies like the TVA and REA weren't municipal owned, rather they were cooperatives owned by the people they provided service to. So local control and in service to those it provoided services to, but not necessarily a "public" utility either. And the financial support was usually in the form of loans and bonds that were paid back
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Maybe a bear? I guess with remote sattelite internet we can find out if bears really do shit in the woods
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From your own number, the SpaceX division (of SPCX) is profitable on a GAAP basis. There’s more to SpaceX than Starlink. Remember that high margin launch business? Break out Starlink’s numbers from that. Go on. I’ll wait.
And as an investor (you know, the ones who end up providing the money), who cares if SpaceX is (barely) profitable. The company itself is bogged down with loss makers that dwarf SpaceX’s profit and is burning money.
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That's a bug, not a feature.
Why the fuck would anyone want this?!
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Efficient for who? I’m guessing not the rural customers.
Given the massive set up cost and ongoing maintenance costs, it doesn’t seem that great for investors either.
Its difficult to think of a scenario where a fixed line, or a terrestrial wireless service won’t be faster, cheaper and more reliable in the long term.
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I'm already returning their "free" Starlink Mini because they're jacking the standby fee up yet again, which previously used to be free. I will be cancelling completely once the promised muni fiber reaches my house, whenever that will be. Prices (and caps) keep going up and up with this shit. I'm not made of money!
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I didn’t shit on him. I literally said “you do you”.
I said it was depressing because I live near a wild place and I see people playing with phones and even deploying battery back to satellite Internet on trails. it is inappropriate best, and disrespectful in some cases.
I’ve worked in tech for over 30 years now, And I’ve watched a few colleagues just fall over dead. Props to this guy, if he wants to be online at high bandwidth all the time and everywhere. I think that kind of behavior is lacking in self-awareness and fundamentally opposed to the goal of enjoying nature/getting away from people and infrastructure.
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