Starlink eating HughesNet subs
January 25, 2024
EchoStar-owned broadband-by-satellite service HughesNet has reportedly lost more than 30 per cent of its subscribers over the past three years with Starlink seemingly picking up the cancellations.
Some of the comments suggest that for HughesNet subscribers “in a deep valley with limited potential visibility of Starlink” they will have to stay with HughesNet. Other HughesNet subscribers are unhappy that there’s a fee of a minimum of $400 (€367)to break their contracts.
Another online comment said: “There are probably legacy satellite subscribers who have never heard of Starlink and as the other post said, don’t have a great need for better service. So Starlink is out-of-sight and out-of-mind. I’ve followed Starlink since before they launched the service, but I only knew of it through tech news, and only in the last year have they started advertising a little.”
On the upside for established HughesNet users they cite the high initial equipment costs for Starlink (currently $599 in the US), while others with low capacity demands and where latency is not crucial say that their low-cost (about $20 per month) suits them very well. A Starlink business connection, with commensurately high bandwidth allowance, costs an initial $2500 for equipment (and then $250 per month).
Starlink’s business connections supply bandwidth of 100-220 Mb/s, and often up to 300 Mb/s or so.
While Starlink has increasingly eased availability for the Eastern and Midwest US – where capacity was significantly over-subscribed – it is still tough to get through a deliberate waiting list for Starlink.
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