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Comment by throwitaway222 | Hacker News Reader

Starlink should probably reverse course on this however, it's one thing to pay 10k for up to 20 guests on a small private jet vs a company like Delta with a fleet of 747s. Charge Delta 20k, charge this guy 10k.

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Why would they not charge as much as possible? Who else is launching satellites? He’s got one of the biggest moats I’ve ever seen.

I don't know who else is launching satellites, but many airlines do offer wifi, often via partnerships with telco companies. It's just expensive and slow.

So the only moat I see (as a layman) is the speed and capacity. The one flight that I was on that had Starlink, had better internet during the flight, than most airports have on the ground.

> The one flight that I was on that had Starlink, had better internet during the flight, than most airports have on the ground.

When it comes to internet, this IS the moat.

Passengers who want en route internet will demand it. The cost won't matter because that will be expensed. They will want the performance.

ASTS - though I think their satellites are supposed to connect to phone hardware

Amazon Leo has about 350 in orbit now, on their way to 7,500.

There are quite a few providers of inflight wifi via satellite (or even cellular towers). Speeds are not usually as high as Starlink but it is ridiculous to say they have zero competition.

You also have Amazon building a constellation, OneWeb with one already in place (though not available for retail customers), and a Chinese one under construction.

Also, not everyone in "aviation" is either an airliner or a 20 seat private jet. Joe Piston flying his two seater Cessna that cost him about as much as a new Toyota is not ever going to be paying Starlink's aviation price.

They really need more price tiers and scale them by a better price differentiator: max gross weight or number of seats.

Joe Piston probably has enough on his plate flying his 2-seater without global 1Gbps entertainment-on-demand or executing trades on his brokerage account while his team of financiers crunch the numbers in row 2.

Starlink Aviation has 2 General Aviation tiers at $200/mo and $1,000/mo, 3 business tiers, $4000/mo, $12,500/mo, $20,000/mo, and negotiable “Fleet” pricing for commercial and government.

https://starlink.com/business/aviation?srsltid=AfmBOoqiIuBL1...

Of course a pilot is not going to trading stocks while flying, but there are plenty of safety reasons to have in-cockpit connectivity, including weather, notams, long-range comms with their destination, and so on. Not to mention convenient Internet for a passenger on a long flight, who themselves might want to trade their stocks.

These use cases are approximately competing with SiriusXM weather, which has price tiers from $29.99/mo to $99.99/mo.

Some of these Cesnas have 4 seats. Wife in copilot seat on an ipad, and the kids in the back playing COD on their Steam Decks.

Whats the point of taking passengers if they aren't going to be paying attention. Leave them on the ground and take someone who actually enjoys the experience.

As a Joe Piston, the starlink pricing constant-whipsaw has been really annoying.

I love the tech. It's truly game-changing. And there is no competitor right now.

I bought my mini dish for $400 or so. I've paid $250/mo, $65/mo, $250/mo again, now $200/mo, and on standby for $5/mo and now $10/mo. Don't get me started on the speed-limit and bandwidth-metering games they've played along the way.

I literally have no idea from month to month what the thing will cost. It's still awesome. But there are thousands of butthurt pilots who bought the dish at 65/mo (and many made 100W PD power upgrades, self included, for another few hundred) and got raised to 250/mo immediately.

It's not so much the cost anymore as the principle of a completely unhinged vendor. Bezos' version will have a bunch of ready buyers if he can stick to a price for longer than a Ketamine high.

> Starlink should probably reverse course on this

Why? Rich people flying private want to be connected and Starlink is the most reliable game in town. "Do you have Starlink?" is probably already being asked by those booking private.

That 20 guests on a PJ are probably worth more than a fully booked 747. Price has always been set based how much customers are willing pay, not based on the value it creates.

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