The major tech company has launched a loyalty program for local residents. SpaceXAI has offered discounts to users near its data centers in Memphis. The special offer also applies to the neighboring city of Southaven in Mississippi. Customers receive a fifty-percent discount on any Starlink home plan. According to official company data, two thousand people have already used the promo. In addition to reducing the monthly fee, the company fully waives the one-time equipment payment. This benefit applies to the recently introduced Starlink V5 kit. The total savings at sign-up reach three hundred and forty-nine dollars. The SpaceXAI Memphis account published detailed information about the program on X.
Starlink home plans in the US are divided into three tiers. The basic speed of one hundred megabits costs fifty-five dollars per month. With the special discount, this plan comes out to just twenty-seven dollars and fifty cents. The two-hundred-megabit plan costs eighty-five dollars without the discount, and forty-two dollars and fifty cents with it. The maximum Max package will cost subscribers one hundred and thirty dollars per month, or sixty-five dollars with the discount. With the discount applied, the basic plan turns out to be cheaper than offerings from competitors AT&T and Xfinity. Their plans start at roughly thirty-five dollars per month. However, competitors provide fiber optic internet with speeds of up to three hundred megabits per second. Switching to satellite means a noticeable drop in connection quality for some subscribers.
Users on a related subreddit reacted to the news quite ambiguously. Some commenters noted the complete absence of fiber optic infrastructure in parts of Memphis and Southaven. For them, Starlink works great as a reliable backup connection. Other users complained about hidden fees from local wired internet providers. Due to such fees, the final bill noticeably exceeds forty dollars per month. That is why twenty-seven dollars and fifty cents for one hundred megabits looks like an attractive option. A similar discount is currently available in Vermilion Parish in Louisiana. There, SpaceX plans to build a new massive spaceport. The structure of the discount program is completely identical across all regions.
Critics see this promotion as an attempt to smooth over a conflict with local communities. The xAI data centers have found themselves at the center of a major environmental dispute. The company installed gas turbines without obtaining the necessary permits from authorities. Surrounding communities regularly complain about loud noise and harmful emissions. Senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center Amanda Garcia issued a statement. She emphasized that local communities are not asking for cheap satellite internet. People are demanding that xAI shut down the unlicensed power plant operating without permits. This plant continues to release enormous volumes of dangerous pollutants. These include nitrogen oxides that form smog and fine particulate matter. Hazardous chemicals such as toxic formaldehyde are also being released.