{"id":25989,"date":"2025-07-27T22:29:18","date_gmt":"2025-07-27T22:29:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/25989\/"},"modified":"2025-07-27T22:29:18","modified_gmt":"2025-07-27T22:29:18","slug":"you-can-now-get-starlink-for-just-15-a-month-in-new-york-but-there-are-still-some-hurdles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/25989\/","title":{"rendered":"You Can Now Get Starlink for Just $15 a Month in New York, but There Are Still Some Hurdles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Starlink has brought high-speed internet<\/a> to millions of rural Americans for the first time. It\u2019s also one of the most expensive internet service providers<\/a> in the country. So, how is it available in New York<\/a> for just $15 a month?\u00a0<\/p>\n

If Starlink<\/a> wants to sell internet in the state, it has no choice. That\u2019s thanks to the Affordable Broadband Act<\/a>, a New York state law passed in January<\/a>.\u00a0However, customers will still have to pay $349 upfront for Starlink’s equipment kit. That might be an insurmountable cost for many lower-income households.<\/p>\n

The Affordable Broadband Act says that major ISPs (those serving 20,000 households or more) operating in New York must offer plans starting at $15 a month with download speeds of at least 25Mbps to qualifying households, or a $20-a-month plan with minimum download speeds of 200Mbps.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That price must include \u201cany recurring taxes and fees such as recurring rental fees for service provider equipment required to obtain broadband service and usage fees.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some providers, like AT&T, chose to pull out of the state entirely<\/a> rather than offer the discounted prices that New York\u2019s law requires.<\/p>\n

Households are eligible for these plans if they have an annual income up to 185% of the federal poverty level<\/a> — $59,477.50 for a family of four — or participate in programs like the National School Lunch Program, Medicaid or SNAP.<\/p>\n

Starlink published an FAQ page on its website in June detailing its New York Affordable Broadband Service Plan<\/a>, which was first reported by PCMag<\/a>. (Disclosure: PCMag is owned by the same parent company as CNET, Ziff Davis.) <\/p>\n

\"Starlink-New-York-Affordable-Broadband-Act-screenshot\" Starlink<\/p>\n

As across the country, affordability is the main barrier to internet adoption in New York. According to 2023 data from the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society<\/a>, nearly 30% of households making under $35,000 per year do not have internet in the state, compared with 13% for households earning between $35,000 and $75,000 and only 4% for households earning over $75,000.<\/p>\n

But access to fast and reliable internet is still challenging for many people in rural New York. The most recent FCC data shows that about 3% of homes in New York don\u2019t have access to the FCC\u2019s definition of minimum broadband speeds<\/a>: 100Mbps download and 20Mbps upload.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Representatives for Starlink didn’t respond to a request for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Starlink has brought high-speed internet to millions of rural Americans for the first time. It\u2019s also one of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[64,63,237,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-25989","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-internet","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-internet","11":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}