Santa has come right on time for those situated in Europe. Starlink has again reduced the price of its Residential offering across Europe.
Now, customers located in countries like Italy or Spain only pay EUR 40 per month for Residential service.
Back in April 2023, Starlink introduced its latest European discounts, lowering the price from EUR 80 to EUR 65 per month.
Plus, some countries also benefit from hardware discounts. In Italy, for example, the hardware is currently discounted from EUR 450 down to EUR 299 (= 33% reduction in price).
Meanwhile, the reasons for the price reductions are certainly manifold. First and foremost, Starlink adoption continues to lag (compared to countries like Australia or the US), in large parts due to Europe's relatively sophisticated internet infrastructure.
Secondly, Starlink, even at EUR 40 per month, remains fairly expensive for many of its rural target customers.
If you would like to know how much Starlink costs in the 70 or so countries it is available in, then feel free to check our global price list.
With that being said, Starlink likely remains the best-performing satellite-based ISP across a variety of European countries.
Data by Ookla suggests that its download speeds are on par with different broadband options and in some cases, like Germany, even outperforming them.
Third, the hardware discount enables Starlink to reduce its Gen2 antenna stock in favor of pushing the new Standard (Gen3) terminal.
Anecdotally, as someone based in Germany, I did notice an increase of Starlink devices during our camping trips (the price of Roam, however, remains identical).
The cost of the hardware will probably remain the biggest deterrent, even at a EUR 299 price tag.
Data from Cloudflare effectively confirms that sentiment (traffic of last 12 months, grouped by country):
Starlink, apart from heavy discounting, also introduced the option to rent equipment as a first in Europe.
It remains to be seen whether this will ultimately move the needle for Starlink in terms of boosting European adoption.
//3 comments
Good questions and thoughtful perspectives are welcome.
Replying to Mark Canning