Starlink to charge “Outside Region Fee” for foreign activated kits

Starlink first started offering satellite internet service in 2020, and back then, availability and coverage was extremely limited. Coverage has now expanded virtually everywhere around the world thanks to the more than 6,000 activate satellites in low Earth orbit. But that doesn’t mean the service is available to everyone that wants it.

One problem for people in some regions is that coverage does not equal availability. Starlink has to seek regulatory approval before officially offering products and services in a country. Although Starlink has been able to expand rapidly, local governments are moving at a much slower pace.

Stolen Starlink kits in storage
Unauthorized reseller with dozens of Starlink kits

The red tape hasn’t prevented people in unapproved countries from getting Starlink, though. The “Mobile – Regional” subscription offered by Starlink is aimed at travelers who want to stay connected on the go, but it’s also being used as home internet in regions where people can’t technically purchase Starlink. One key feature of Starlink’s Mobile plan is that it can be used anywhere within a customer’s home continent. That allows people in unapproved locations to purchase Starlink in a neighboring country, export it back home, and then use it on a Mobile subscription plan.

The workaround has created tension between Starlink and local governments, who feel Starlink is ignoring local laws and regulations. To date, Starlink has stopped short of cutting off access for Mobile customers using services in unapproved locations. But to appease local government concerns, they have implemented several policy changes, making it more difficult to use their services in locations that don’t yet have official approval.

One of those policy changes is the new “Outside Region Fee”. I mentioned before how people will purchase Starlink in another country and then take it back home. Now when people try to activate a kit outside of the region it was originally sold, they will see the Outside Region Fee applied to their order. The fee ranges from $200 to $300 depending on which hardware model is being activated, and where it originated from. Starlink says the fee may be applied to any kit purchased from an unauthorized reseller.

In unapproved countries, a sort of black market exists for Starlink due to the high demand. 3rd party companies, who aren’t authorized or affiliated with Starlink, find ways to order and import thousands of kits from overseas markets, including the US and Canada. Due to some of the other policy changes Starlink has implemented recently, it isn’t feasible for these unauthorized resellers to directly transfer the kits to their customers. Instead, they break Starlink’s terms of service by operating the account and subscription on behalf of the end user, collecting whatever service fee they want to make a profit.

The Outside Region Fee is going to make those unauthorized operations much more expensive. Each kit that is imported from another market will be subject to at least a $200 fee upon activation. In terms of up-front costs, that’s an increase of 40%.

The new activation fee is just one of many recent policy changes at Starlink. They just sent warning emails to all Mobile – Regional customers who have used their dishes outside of their home country for more than two months. They also doubled the price of their Mobile – Global service plan. Basically, they’ve done everything they reasonably can without actually shutting off service for customers in unapproved countries.

For more information about the Outside Region Fee, refer to this Starlink support FAQ article: https://support.starlink.com/?topic=ff3e270d-5436-542c-6e20-a3738a6cae30



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2 Comments

  1. Starlink offering service where they’re not approved is definitely against international law. Unfortunately, just like with online sales taxes, there’s no simple procedure & instead you have to get approval from EVERY country!

    For geostationary this isn’t quite as big a deal especially with spot beams, but for a global system it is. If you check Iridium’s map you see several countries where they’re not allowed to offer service like Cuba (US embargo being a US company) & India (all sat phones illegal except Thuraya I think). China & Russia / USSR are more of a gray area (see Iridium @ the Sochi Olympics)

    Bottom line, most of the unapproved countries don’t want Starlink (competes with local crap ISP or they want to spy), though Greenland is a notable exception since Denmark is approved (maybe through EU rather than by country). The remainder (like *esia islands) are probably corruption or some other stupid reason.