Upon further scrutiny, the offer of a free month of Starlink service seems to be the type of deal you might give to any new customer.

As Elon Musk likes to do whenever disaster hits somewhere in the world, Hurricane Helene was another opportunity to show off his generosity and make himself part of the news. This time, Musk made headlines with a promise that SpaceX Starlink would be free for 30 days to help in places where fiber and cellular infrastructure might have been knocked offline. More than 200 people have been identified as dead in the disaster.

But the catch is that it’s really not free at all. It really looks like not much more than a glorified new-customer promotion.

For one, anyone interested in taking up the offer still has to pay approximately $400 for the dish itself (including shipping and tax) and they’re getting automatically rolled into a $120 per-month contract when the free month ends.

    • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
      0·
      1 month ago

      I’ll admit that I haven’t lived in the US in more than a decade so some of the companies may be out of date - Sprint is/was a large phone carrier.

      • littletoolshed@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        1 month ago

        They are giving you shit because:

        Sprint Corporation was an American telecommunications company. Before being acquired by T-Mobile US on April 1, 2020, it was the fourth-largest mobile network operator in the United States, serving 54.3 million customers as of June 30, 2019. The company also offered wireless voice, messaging, and broadband services through its various subsidiaries under the Boost Mobile and Open Mobile brands and wholesale access to its wireless networks to mobile virtual network operators.

        From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprint_Corporation