Elon Musk’s ‘Free’ Starlink for Hurricane Helene Victims Will Cost at Least $400

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.

There are other problems with Musk’s offer. The Register has published a story investigating the free Starlink deal and traveled to Boone, North Carolina to see how it’s been received by locals. They interviewed a resident named Kinney Baughman who wasn’t thrilled.

He noted that many communities have been turned into rubble by the hurricane. If UPS can drive the roads to deliver someone a Starlink dish, wherever they live probably isn’t damaged too severely. Considering Starlink’s delivery time is quoted at 2-3 weeks, broadband or cellular service could be restored for these folks by then, in which case the space-based satellite service wouldn’t be necessary.

There’s also a comical logistical issue pointed out by The Register: You need to find a data connection to even order and activate the Starlink deal in the first place. “If you can get enough cellular signal to sign up now, you might wonder why you would wait weeks to be pulled into a paid-for satellite service.”

“I could connect to an active webpage in the middle of nowhere,” said Nicole Hemsoth Prickett, an editor at The Register who was sent out to a damaged community to try and order Starlink (the offer is geofenced). “‘Which really says hey, data connectivity could actually be working again, but not for you with Starlink unless you pony up. It was insult to injury for many here who thought Free Internet Space Magic was real.’”

That’s not even to mention that many people in affected areas are without the power needed for a Starlink dish. They would need a generator, which is not something people commonly own.

A month of free Starlink service is great, and certainly better than nothing—especially if you already had Starlink. Except again, The Register found that pre-existing customers have to reach out to customer service and hope they’ll be granted a 30-day waiver eventually. Customers on the Starlink subreddit often complain that the company’s customer service is painfully slow.

To be sure, Musk’s Starlink has been majorly helpful in war-torn Ukraine, where he gave the army completely free service and dishes. Ukrainians have said Starlink has been crucial for maintaining communications on the battlefield and controlling drones where traditional infrastructure has been destroyed. But even there he reportedly used his unilateral control to block service in Crimea and eventually pushed the U.S. government to start paying the bill.

The Starlink offer at least hasn’t caused the circus that some of his previous offers did to distract from getting people the help they needed. Like the DIY submarine intended to recover the boys trapped in a cave in Thailand. Or the ventilators he donated early on in COVID that actually weren’t ventilators.

These offers always seem great on the surface until you exercise even a little scrutiny.