Elon Musk pledged to give Hurricane Helene victims 30 days of free access to his Starlink satellite-based internet service – but the billionaire failed to mention that survivors of the catastrophic storm that has killed more than 200 people will have to to give up. over $400 for system hardware.
Starlink, a division of Musk’s space and rocket-building firm SpaceX, announced on its official X website last week that its service is “now free for 30 days” to Helene survivors living in areas where power cables are down. telephone and fiber were interrupted. — denying him access to the Internet.
The post went viral, generating tens of millions of views.
Musk then wrote in X that all Starlink terminals would automatically operate “without [the] need for payment in areas affected by Hurricane Helene.
But an experiment run by online publication The Register showed that anyone who tried to sign up for the service from the disaster-hit area had to pay $400 for the plate, plus shipping, handling and taxes.
Starlink also began promoting a special help page created just for hurricane victims.
According to the company, anyone in the disaster-stricken area who signs up for free Internet service will automatically be moved to a $120-a-month residential subscription after the 30-day grace period.
Customers who live in the disaster area and already have a plate and want the charge waived must create a separate support ticket that the company will evaluate at an indefinite date.
Kinney Baughman, a resident of Boone, NC, told The Register that Starlink’s offer was a “craft bait and switch…intended to take advantage of people instead of helping them.”
Baughman said it wasn’t worth it for residents to take Musk up on his offer, since it would be “months before you get service” — by which time normal Internet access would likely have been restored.
“Assuming someone can jump over one or two, if not more, of the bridges that are down and physically get their hands on the device, you still need electricity to run the thing,” Baughman said.
“Thousands of people are still without power and hundreds if not thousands of them don’t have a generator.”
The Post has sought comment from SpaceX.
Musk, a supporter of former President Donald Trump, has been critical of the federal response to Helena.
Two weeks ago, Helene flooded streets and homes in West Florida along its destructive march that left at least 230 dead across the South.
Just as the cleanup from Helene was getting under way, Florida residents in the western part of the state were forced to evacuate Monday and Tuesday as another deadly storm, Milton, is expected to make landfall late Wednesday evening.
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