Elon Musk’s endeavour — Starlink, is a satellite internet constellation that aims to provide internet via low-orbit satellites that connect with receivers on Earth. These receivers, or Terminals to be exact, aren’t very pocket-friendly. The hardware is currently priced at $649 CAD with additional shipping and taxes, $65 and $92 respectively. While Musk’s ambitious offering is available in numerous regions across Canada, its high initial cost prevents it from being adopted on a larger scale. But might be changing in the near future.
During a discussion at MWC 2021, Musk stated that his company — Starlink is attempting to reduce the price of its user terminal from $500 ($621 CAD) to $250 ($310 CAD). “Over time, we’d like to reduce the terminal cost from $500 to, I don’t know, $300 or $250, or something like that,” he said.
Lowering Starlink terminal cost, which may sound rather pedestrian, is actually our most difficult technical challenge
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 3, 2020
Additionally, Musk stated that with the sale of each terminal, the company is losing money. According to Musk, each terminal costs the company more than $1,000 USD. But on the bright side, “We obviously are subsidizing the cost of the terminal,” he said. “We are working on next-generation terminals that provide the same level of capability, roughly the same level of capability, but cost a lot less.”
Musk says Starlink will reach customers around most of the world by the end of 2021 and that the company is expecting to have global coverage by next year.
With the new lowered initial costs, if Starlink is something that you’re interested in, you might want to read more about the service here.
Via: arsTechnica
