Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit
sib | on: Starlink Mini 2
We bought a Starlink Mini for the use case of frequent travel to far-off (international) places with limited mobile service, where we occasionally need to get online for high-priority work tasks or meetings. For $55 / month for 100GB and flexible usage in many countries, it was extremely useful.

Then, recently, SpaceX changed the terms such that the 100GB and 300GB subscriptions are no longer usable internationally (technically outside of North America). You have to pay for the unlimited service tier and even then can only use it for 30 days before returning to the home region.

A huge decrease in utility and a tripling in cost. A new device with a built-in battery is definitely not going to make up for that.

(Still a great service when it works, am posting this from remote western Mongolia.)

loading story #50451760
loading story #50451961
Terretta | parent | next
If you identity verify your unlimited account the 30 days can optionally extend to 60 through an add-on.
loading story #50451875
loading story #50452094
lyime | parent | next
It's probably not cheap to deploy 1000s of satellites in space that shoot lasers with high degree of accuracy while keep them running reliably.
loading story #50452719
loading story #50450425
loading story #50450643
teddyX | parent | next
Sounds like you got musked
afavour | root | parent
In fairness to Musk (not a phrase I say often) it also sounds like just about every internet provider out there. As soon as you get used to your plan there’s a new fee or restriction out of nowhere.
Tepix | root | parent | next
Hardly. Starlink uses monthly contracts and they change their terms all the time. Go talk to a sailor who has used it for a couple of years.
LoganDark | root | parent | next
Not just internet providers; nearly every corporation that exists or has ever existed. The rug pull is a well documented and practiced business strategy, and also the more fundamental driver behind things like enshittification and many of the other corporate-treatment crises we have been facing.
toobulkeh | root | parent | next
Why does market standard practice “whattaboutism” need to defend the despicable? This is hacker news, is it not? Let’s celebrate the bold and call out the lies. Not pander to the mediocre.
afavour | root | parent | next
I did not say it in defense of Musk, rather to damn terrestrial internet providers along with him.
wallst07 | root | parent | next
"musked" isn't a thing, reply is spot on in my opinion.
thih9 | root | parent
I think it might be, Tesla, Cursor, Twitter/X have also been notably user hostile.
gadders | root | parent | next
It's purely because of his politics. Everyone loved Teslas before he moved to the right.
slowin | root | parent | next
I feel like this is a false narrative I hear a lot. “Everyone” didn’t love Teslas, it was a niche product and then Musk exposed himself as one of the worst people on earth, and the market shrank even more. It’s a strawman to claim Teslas were loved by “everyone” (implicitly or explicitly often stated as people with a left wing bent).
loading story #50451939
loading story #50451852
oblio | root | parent
> he moved to the right

If by "moved to the right" you mean "he fell off the far end and if he were a politician his politics would be considered radical extremism", sure.

loading story #50451413
arcanemachiner | root | parent | next
So it's not OK to compare things in relative terms, but we should only compare them in an absolute sense? Pretty lofty ideal. (The appeal to emotion is very inspiring though, not gonna lie.)

What does the competition even offer here?

tjwebbnorfolk | root | parent
This is HN, where anything less than the commenter's idea of perfect is a crime against humanity
loading story #50450905
phoghed | root | parent | next
Sib will certainly switch to the first good alternative when it becomes available, any day now surely
slowin | root | parent | next
That’s the thing about kleptocracy, Musk has artificial barriers constructed by the government, making competition nearly, if not literally, impossible.
sirtaj | root | parent
If one appears, one of the reasons will be that people complained about the existing one, signalling the market.

This "just eat your gruel and be grateful" attitude on Hacker News is becoming very common now but remains surprising. This is the attitude of serfs, not hackers.

dotancohen | root | parent
Musk's ambition enables GGP to post on HN from Western Mongolia, but he is derided because his company used to offer an even better option once.
rexpop | root | parent | next
> Musk's ambition enables

It's so weird to me the attribution of collective efforts to a single individual.

> his company used to offer an even better option

Yes, it's a degradation in service not unlike a bait-and-switch.

I just don't understand how you can hold your mental model of the world.

loading story #50451896
loading story #50452120
Dylan16807 | root | parent
Enables it for 30 days. Such a massive cut in usability on top of tripling in price for existing users does deserve derision.
loading story #50450136
asveikau | root | parent
We could use a description Musk would not approve of and say the problem here is capitalism.
slowin | root | parent | next
Except that SpaceX relies on government handouts and regulatory moats. Pretty much the opposite of capitalism, not that there aren’t myriad of problems with that too.
bell-cot | root | parent
Gov't handouts and moats are provided to lots of companies. All over the world. Especially in the rocket & satellite biz, which are seen as top priorities for national prestige/security/infrastructure.

But somehow, those handouts and moats have produced exactly zero credible competitors for SpaceX and Starlink.

If you hate Magnus Carlsen, you can talk about how much time he gets to practice playing chess, and imply that is cheating and the secret of how he beats all his competition at chess championships.

Just don't expect anyone who knows much about chess to be convinced.

azan_ | root | parent
We could also say that capitalism was a solution problem solved by starlink.
consumer451 | parent | next
> am posting this from remote western Mongolia.

Short story at least, please. What's a day over there like for you?

loading story #50451685
scotty79 | parent | next
I don't get what's the point of geographically restricting these things. What's the benefit?
loading story #50451675
loading story #50450916
loading story #50452251
loading story #50451406
loading story #50450616
testing22321 | parent
Yeah, Starlink got A LOT less useful for global with the recent change. You can re-register in the country you’re in, but there are limits to how often you can do that, so still not great for driving around a continent like South America or Africa.