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SpaceX now offers more expensive high performance Starlink for residential customers

SpaceX has now made available the much more expensive Starlink high performance terminals — previously only available to business customers — for its residential customers.

The purchase price for the terminal is the same as for business customers, $2,500. The standard terminal package costs only $599. However, residential customers who buy this more expensive terminal will still pay the standard $110 month rate for the service, instead of the $500 monthly fee that business customers will pay.

SpaceX notes that the high-performance Starlink kit would be best for users who reside in harsh environments, such as those who are in hot or cold climates. Starlink’s Support Page also indicates that the high-performance dish has better download speeds in hot weather, better snow melt capability, improved water resistance, and better visibility of satellites.

I would expect that eventually, when SpaceX is faced with competition in this market, these features will end up on all its terminals. Until then, however, new customers will have to make a choice.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

7 comments

  • pzatchok

    I would put mine under a green house like tent while in the snow regions.

    Hang a shade over the thing in the sunny areas.

    It might work and it would be way cheaper.

  • GaryMike

    This option is for business owners who can pass the costs to their customers and claim the expense on their business tax return.

    Were I still in business I would do it in a heartbeat.

  • Steve Burrows

    Use the business version for my business, and the RV version with my travel trailer. Both are game changers!

  • GaryMike observed: “This option is for business owners who can pass the costs to their customers and claim the expense on their business tax return.”

    I would opine that the option is for business owners who want to provide a superior customer experience, and the benefits realized,

  • Dick Eagleson

    This is a excellent business move. Every consumer-level customer who goes for this option is instantly profitable as there is no loss-leader pricing for the terminal hardware.

  • John Fisher

    I’d be interested in seeing a teardown of the high performance terminal. I’m curious if there are any differences besides the increased area (which equates to approximately 2.7 dB increased directivity based on a simple area ratio). For example, can the antenna ‘split’ itself into two separate antennas that track different satellites. Having spent a large fraction of my career on the development of AESA technology for the military, I’m curious about all things Starlink.

  • Jeff Wright

    To Mr. Fisher- wasn’t some saucer shaped airships planned for AESA? I understand there were passive millimetric wave cameras. Storm chasers need those.

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