Let's put aside the ethical and legal implications of lying to disaster survivors, and calling your normal free trial month as "disaster relief", and enrolling people recovering from a disaster in a monthly auto-renewing service after a 1 month free trial ...
Actually, no, let's not put that aside. This is repulsive behavior.
"After 30 days, we will move you to a paid Residential subscription, tied the location you are using it in at that time. We will reevaluate as necessary based on conditions in the area. Starlink will notify you as the 30 day mark approaches to remind you of the change."
So Starlink's activation instructions expressly written for the Hurricane Helene relief effort are lies?
Please forgive me if I request a citation. Especially since the information you've provided so far has all been contradicted by official Starlink sources.
Even if this had sources like the above article...
You still haven't addressed the fact that the article explicitly calls out the hardware costing $400.
So yeah, the service is free for 30 days (like the free trial only worse in some ways from the article), provided you have paid $400. The not auto-renewal is the lowest bar to clear for not being a scummy company. The $400 for the hardware is highway robbery and an opportunistic cash grab.
Even in the world where your correction had a primary source you're missing the point by making this correction.
You can't get the hardware from SpaceX since you want it immediately, so you buy at retail. It's not $400
Cash grab?
You think they make the equipment for free in Shangri LA? Is it more expensive than other phased array antennas? Did SpaceX suddenly jack up the price? Is Apple giving out free phones for their free SOS? Does SpaceX owe people phones so they can use direct to cell since that's also free?
You don't need to activate it to use it. You just plug it in and it works. There's no credit card to renew. Unless you want to activate it(there's a risk a thief would be able to resell it if you don't)
It was always an offer of free service without hardware. Like the mobile providers offering free services in the area, they aren't going to give you free equipment.
This is what was offered
"Starlink is providing free service for 30 days in regions affected by Hurricane Helene"
That's it. You can't extract free equipment from that statement. Even providers that give equipment without charge own it or tie it to a contract. What you pay SpaceX isn't an activation fee. You own your dish in full.
There's just no point in having this conversation, and I'd like you to understand why from my first comment. You're not having a conversation about facts. Your sources for this information have been:
1. Claiming that what the article says is wrong.
2. Tweets with no primary sources
This kind of stuff is really easy to find meaningful answers to, and you just don't and instead gainsay whatever goes against statements made by Elon. (Elon is not a reliable source for a reason).
"Starlink is providing free service for 30 days in regions affected by Hurricane Helene" <- This is meaningfully false if you have to buy the hardware to access it. $400 is $400 more than free.
Oh I forgot. There's organizations giving out free gasoline and propane.
Do they have to give out free cars, generators or gas stoves for it to be legit for you? Free Jerry Cans? Gas Cylinders?
I know how starlink works. I don't need to ask people on the Internet or read articles. I know at least two network engineers there from a mailing list I was on before they joined SpaceX . And I contacted one I saw on TV. I also have correspondence with researchers who reveal non public information about it.
Free service is meaningful even if you have to buy a private jet to use it. Apple's SOS is free and Google's SOS is free to the user.
So is Starlink service in hurricane areas.
Having to buy a device doesn't negate anything.
If I give out free WiFi I'm not beholden to give people free devices to connect to it either.
The truth is even if the device was free with one month of free service, it would just change what you complain about. For some people nothing is ever enough.
Cited someone on Reddit. If he didn't we'd have just taken the claim as fact but when you go and check, you find out that unlike me she's not a starlink user. And when she's called out and admits she knows nothing about it she refuses to retract her claims. Just like in the comment section of the article, several people insist only FEMA rather than SpaceX and several other orgs have delivered free dishes to help. I'm sure you can find an article to buttress that claim but it's not the on ground reality
That person on Twitter is the one that asked for free service. As I pointed out he already had the equipment.
>The $400 for the hardware is highway robbery and an opportunistic cash grab.
The only way this would be true is if they increased the prices just because of this Hurricane. It's exactly around the same price as a Jupiter dish from HughesNet too. And you can sell it too. It's your property.
I don't need articles because I've installed the stuff. When you get a new dish you have one hour unlocked Internet to activate your service. Now that's 30 days. Talk about auto enrollment into some contract is easily avoided nonsense.
Starlinks are being dropped for free by volunteers all over the Helene disaster area. They were being blocked by having to setup payment, so Elon made it free in that area to unblock them.
This is an absurd article, the people who need Starlinks in NC and such can't even log on to this page to order one, they by definition do not have internet access at the moment!
This came as a huge shock to those who only got the "free Starlink" through word of mouth here on the ground. We were told, "just go to starlink.com/activate" and type in your address. It was complete horseshit. The worst part about it was phones were in SOS mode, there was no internet anywhere, yet we could load that page to activate, which meant THERE WAS INTERNET. Just not to those who didn't pay for hardware and delivery (to places that are impossible to deliver to even today a week out). Infuriating.
Source checked. Sending in free hardware, and we're creating an update to make service free. Oh, and after 30 days, you'll be renewed on a normal retail plan
Sources: Starlink on X, Musk on X, and the Starlink details page on the free service respectively.
There have been no updated tweets. Seems like something they'd want to keep updated, given they are still tweeting about new countries being added to their service.
> I have 1k from the starlink engineer on ground and he said they've sold about the same amount to others.
Who? Where? How much congestion do they expect with the influx of so many new users (they're already upcharging/slowing down users due to congestion in the US)? With all due respect, this is frustratingly similar to "Trust me bro".
I have no doubt that Starlink - especially their rank and file employees - is trying to help, but we need to keep our expectations realistic on how much they can or will do. Especially with Musk as the helm. Musk lies on X, especially when it comes to who and what has access to Starlink, and doubly when it comes to politicized situations, which I'm sad to say Hurricane Helene is.
As someone here in the heart of it let me elucidate:
1) Residents here on the ground were told Starlink is already active in your area. Just connect through the site with your address. No one was worried about getting "retail dishes" they were told Starlink was providing free satellite internet across the devastated areas, all they had to do was open a website, enter their address and type $0 and boom, they're connected.
2) No one here even COULD get a dish delivered on the fly if they wanted to. Most roads are still to this day broken and impassable.
3) NO ONE HERE THOUGHT THIS WAS A STANDARD "FREE TRIAL" SITUATION. THEY THOUGHT IT WAS ACTUAL RELIEF, NO STRINGS ATTACHED, NO PERSONAL HARDWARE OBLIGATION.
Ultimately, you're making the mistake of thinking this is an article explaining a free trail for those with power, existing internet, passable roads, or existing hardware. The point this piece is making is that it was false advertising to people desperate to let their families know they weren't dead.
It's probably easy from the comfort of your mother's basement out of Helene's wake to spout all of this but a) you missed the point of the article and b) no one gave a fuck about retail dishes. They were told it was available via a website as HELP. As a kindness.
I'd love to see your source on 2000 free dishes. Ask anyone local here when the storm hit if they knew that, how to connect to them (without internet already). I guarantee no one knew until days later.
Actually, no, let's not put that aside. This is repulsive behavior.