Although SpaceX holders tend to go for the Crew Dragon and the Starship, Starlink is, to this day, one of the company’s main sources of recurring revenue. It is true that putting the extensive network of satellites that provide the service into orbit has a very high cost, which makes us assume that the numbers still do not add up, but in this case it makes sense to understand that it is a service with a lot of potential growth, so its profitability seems more than likely, if not in the short term, if at least in the medium term.
A little over two years have passed since the service began to be available in Spain and, since then, coverage in the national territory (including the islands) has been practically completealthough in this regard a strange “spot” is shown that affects part of Guadalajara and the Community of Madrid, a dark area that, according to a query to the web for the towns included in it, is due to the fact that “Starlink has no more capacity in your area and hopes to expand service in your area in 2023«.
Since its initial launch, Starlink has grown not only in coverage, but also in speed. Already in 2021 we saw how, little by little, it was getting closer to broadband and, although it has not yet been equated to them, it does offer a speed (an average of 130 Mbps, according to the company), together with a latency quite low, so that it is possible to make the vast majority of common uses of the Internet normally, including the consumption of audiovisual content and online gaming.
Something that discourages some users from making the leap to this service is its cost. Let’s remember that, upon arrival in Spain, you had to make an initial payment of 499 euros for the purchase of the equipment, to which you had to add another 60 for shipping costs, and of course, a monthly fee that at that time was 99 euro. Recently, however, Starlink added an interesting possibility, which is to rent the access equipment (ie the antenna and associated devices). In this way, those who are not interested in owning the access kit (whose price has also dropped to 300 euros, plus 23 for shipping costs), they can choose to pay rent for it, which amounts to 15 euros.
The next and most recent step, as we can see on its website, is that now the monthly fee for Starlink has dropped to 65 euros, to which, yes, we will have to add the 9 euros per month for the concept of Regulatory Tariff, which SpaceX endorses to the National Commission of Markets and Competition. In this way, the final fee is 74 euros for those who have bought the equipment, and 89 euros for those who prefer to rent it.
Starlink’s service is still expensive compared to the access plans offered by operators, both direct and indirect. However, there are many cases in which this service can be the best option (in some cases it may even be the only one), so a price drop is something to be thankful for. The key is whether we will see more movement in this direction, especially when its main competitor, Amazon, starts to roll out its own satellite network.
