People are taking to Facebook Marketplace to rent out SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet for vacationers and remote workers.
Startup CEO Austen Allred said on X, formerly Twitter, that he rented out one of the satellite internet kits for a family vacation and saw that one Facebook user was renting out seven of the devices and making about $5,000 a month doing it.
“Tried to grab a Starlink for a family camping trip but was too short notice to have it shipped on time,” Bloomtech CEO Austen Allred wrote on X last month. “Look on Facebook marketplace and people are *renting them out* for $25-30/day.”
It wasn’t confirmed what the unnamed Starlink owner’s take-home earnings from renting out the device (we reached out to Allred for more information but didn’t hear back ahead of publication), but a quick look through Marketplace shows there are plenty of people actively renting out the SpaceX internet dishes.
Over a dozen Starlink rental listings were spotted on Facebook Marketplace with prices ranging from $25 to $35 per day. The service costs about $599 for the equipment and $110 per month in the US depending on specific plans, but prices can vary based on the user’s location. At $110 a month, a Starlink owner could break even on the monthly fee if they rented it out for at least four days a month at $30 per day and recoup their equipment costs in one month if they rented it out for about 24 days.
One owner, Thomas Sands, told he’d actually just started testing the waters after he saw Allred’s tweet. And McKenzie Coffman, another Starlink owner on Facebook, said he realized there could be a market for Starlink rentals after he’d lent his terminal out to a friend.
“It’s the new ‘AirBnB’ of mobile internet,” Coffman, who said he paid $600 for the hardware and $135 a month for the mobile subscription, told over text. “No one wants to pay $600 for the equipment to use it once a year.”
He pointed out that he could always pause the service if he couldn’t find renters.
Many sellers on Facebook are also catering the device to remote workers, and there appears to be a market for some. One owner based in North Carolina said on Facebook that his device was booked out and he’d already ordered a second unit to keep up with demand.
“Starlink is a great way to ensure that you can stay connected while you take your time to disconnect and relax, be it for emergency situations, leisure during winding down, access to music and movies on the go, or doing your WFH tasks so you don’t have to burn vacation days while you have your getaway!” an ad from another Starlink owner reads.
Other sellers are offering users multiple units, including Starlink’s mobile option that is ideal for RVs, and some are offering to ship the device directly to the renter. Though, many are asking for a $500 deposit to ensure the device is returned safely.
Facebook Marketplace isn’t the only place people are attempting to turn Starlink into a side hustle. A handful of websites have also popped up offering to rent the device for around $30 per day. And SpaceX might not be far behind in offering the service in-house. Earlier this year, PCMag reported that Elon Musk’s company had begun notifying customers in the UK that they could rent the hardware for ÂŁ15 (equivalent to $18) per month in addition to a one-time ÂŁ99 ($118) activation fee.
Starlink service is available in 48 US states and over 55 countries, according to SpaceX. The company said in May that it had over 1.5 million subscribers.
(Source – Business Insider)
