Musk’s Starlink hooked rural customers. Then came the price increases.; The Washington Post, June 11, 2026

Faiz Siddiqui , The Washington Post; Musk’s Starlink hooked rural customers. Then came the price increases.

[Kip Currier: Unfortunately, Starlink raising prices on Internet access for rural customers is absolutely no surprise. This is what happens when administrations implement anti-competitive policies that enable monopolistic economic conditions.

Indeed, I commented on this kind of foreseeable scenario one year ago, in June 2025: See https://kipcurrierethics.blogspot.com/2025/06/trump-admin-tells-pennsylvania-other.html]

"Starlink told some U.S. customers last month it was raising prices and increased the cost of most plans for a service that counts millions of users across the country.

“I can complain about Starlink raising their prices, but it’s the only real option we have,” said Slama, a Republican and former Nebraska state senator. “Once they have rural customers on their service with no meaningful alternatives, they’re free to raise prices at will.”

Musk has long billed Starlink as a lifeline: an internet service that will finally bring reliable connectivity to people in the world’s rural and off-the-grid locales.

As its parent company moves toward an IPO, rural broadbandadvocates say the company has begun to squeeze its isolated U.S. users, raising prices in areas where options are limited and striving to box out competition.

SpaceX has lobbied against federal spending that would benefit Starlink’s rural broadband alternatives, calling the issue it targets “effectively … solved,” an assertion disputed by advocates for wider broadband access and many residents of rural areas."