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Elon Musk pledged to give victims of Hurricane Helene 30 days worth of free access to his satellite-based Starlink internet service — but the billionaire failed to mention that survivors of the disastrous storm that has claimed the lives of more than 200 people will need to fork over $400 for the system’s hardware.
Starlink, a division of Musk’s rocket-building and space exploration firm SpaceX, announced on its official X page last week that its service “is now free for 30 days” for survivors of Helene who live in areas where phone and fiber cables were cut off — denying them internet access.
The post went viral, generating tens of millions of views.
Musk then wrote on X that all Starlink terminals would work automatically “without [the] need for payment in the areas affected by Hurricane Helene.”
But an experiment run by the online publication The Register showed that anyone who tried to sign up for the service from the disaster-hit area still needed to pay the $400 for the dish as well as shipping, handling and taxes.
Starlink also began promoting a special help page created solely for hurricane victims.
According to the company, anyone in the disaster-hit area who signs up for free internet service will then automatically be moved to a $120-a-month residential subscription after the 30-day grace period.
Customers who live in the disaster zone and already have a dish and want to have their fees waived need to create a special support ticket that the company will evaluate at a non-specified date.
Kinney Baughman, a resident of Boone, NC, told The Register that the Starlink offer was a “craft bait and switch…meant to take advantage of people instead of helping them.”
Baughman said it wasn’t worth it for residents to take up Musk on his offer given that it would take “months before you get service” — by which time normal internet access will likely have been restored.
“Assuming someone can get over the one or two, if not more, 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 out of power still and hundreds if not thousands of those 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 Helene.
Two weeks ago, Helene flooded streets and homes in western Florida along its devastating march that left at least 230 dead across the South.
Just as the cleanup from Helene was getting underway, Floridians in the western part of the state were forced to evacuate on Monday and Tuesday as another deadly storm, Milton, is expected to make landfall late Wednesday night.
