Starlink Discounts Pull Customers Away From This Rural ISP

SpaceX’s recent Starlink discounts are bad news for an ISP in Virginia serving rural users.

According to Broadband Breakfast, ISP Shentel saw a slight increase in “churn,” a business term for customer loss, which it attributed to Starlink’s promotional activity. It largely affected Shentel’s “incumbent markets,” where the company has been serving users with cable internet, rather than its newer gigabit fiber offerings. 

(Credit: Shentel)

“In our incumbent markets, we did see a little bit of churn to Starlink with some of the promotional offers they launched in the first quarter,” Shentel CEO Edward McKay said in a Friday earnings call.

He pointed out that SpaceX last month reduced the price of its Residential Starlink plans by $15 per month for the first four months of a subscription. In March, it offered a similar promotion that shaved off $11, but for a six-month period. 

“I think the biggest factor was [SpaceX] offered free equipment,” McKay added, referring to how the company began renting out Starlink dishes to new subscribers for free last year. A Starlink Residential subscription used to cost $120 per month, plus around $300 for the hardware. SpaceX has since reduced costs in the US, but only where Starlink has extra network capacity. 

“We’ll see how long this lasts,” Shentel’s CEO said. “They could be offering these promotions in preparation for a potential IPO later this year.”

Following April’s promotion, Starlink.com isn’t showing a new discount for May, at least so far. Still, the aggressive promotions prompted Shentel to respond. “In these markets, we implemented a speed increase late in the first quarter, providing customers with higher speeds at the same price to better differentiate our service from satellite offerings,” McKay added.

The company has been offering a 200Mbps plan for $50 per month ($40 for new customers), which appears to be an increase from 100Mbps. In addition, Shentel offers a prepaid internet “Flex” service for $45 per month with 50Mbps. 

But on Facebook, you can find some Shentel subscribers who switched to Starlink reporting faster internet speeds. SpaceX’s satellite internet can range from 100Mbps to as high as 400Mbps, depending on the Residential plan and capacity. “I never had many issues with Shentel, but the upload/download speeds are higher with Starlink,” wrote one user.

Last month’s discount also lowered the starting price for Starlink’s Residential 100Mbps plan to $35 per month, the Residential 200Mbps plan to $65 per month, and the Residential Max plan to $105 per month.

Starlink has already led to significant subscriber losses for rival satellite internet providers, Viasat and Hughesnet. But some analysts have pointed out that Starlink could also pose a competitive threat to traditional ISPs, even in urban areas, thanks to its discounts and potential user dissatisfaction with other broadband offerings.

On Thursday, Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr even noted that “satellite broadband is a real and growing competitor in the connectivity marketplace,” which could lower consumer costs. SpaceX is also preparing to upgrade Starlink with gigabit speeds and more capacity.

About Our Expert

Michael Kan

Principal Reporter

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Experience

I’ve been a journalist for over 15 years. I got my start as a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017, where I cover satellite internet services, cybersecurity, PC hardware, and more. I’m currently based in San Francisco, but previously spent over five years in China, covering the country’s technology sector.

Since 2020, I’ve covered the launch and explosive growth of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service, writing 600+ stories on availability and feature launches, but also the regulatory battles over the expansion of satellite constellations, fights with rival providers like AST SpaceMobile and Amazon, and the effort to expand into satellite-based mobile service. I’ve combed through FCC filings for the latest news and driven to remote corners of California to test Starlink’s cellular service.

I also cover cyber threats, from ransomware gangs to the emergence of AI-based malware. In 2024 and 2025, the FTC forced Avast to pay consumers $16.5 million for secretly harvesting and selling their personal information to third-party clients, as revealed in my joint investigation with Motherboard.

I also cover the PC graphics card market. Pandemic-era shortages led me to camp out in front of a Best Buy to get an RTX 3000. I’m now following how the AI-driven memory shortage is impacting the entire consumer electronics market. I’m always eager to learn more, so please jump in the comments with feedback and send me tips.

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