Starlink Imposes Eye-Popping 'Demand Surcharge' for New Sign-Ups in This State

It looks like SpaceX's Starlink really doesn’t want to take on new customers in parts of Washington state. The company is forcing new customers in the area to pay an extra $750 to subscribe to the Starlink residential plan. The one-time charge has appeared for prospective customers in Seattle, Redmond, and Spokane, in addition to Portland, Oregon, and the surrounding suburbs. (But other areas of Washington, such as Yakima and Walla Walla, show no extra fee.) The change can crank up the starting price simply to own the Starlink dish on a residential plan to $1,099. That’s a huge contrast to how SpaceX is offering the dish for free in select areas across the US if the customer commits to subscribing for 12 months. The $750 fee is also an increase from the already-high $500 demand surcharge that SpaceX began imposing earlier this month in parts of Washington, Oregon, and North Carolina.