[seadan83]

I agree. Giving the equipment out for free*, 30 days free, and no return charge would smell of true disaster relief rather than promo.

* perhaps equipment charge after 30 days, or a half off on the equipment after 30 days. Those would very feel reasonable.

[seadan83]

I have learned now from other replies that there is a free return. 2 of 3 criteria I stipulated are met.

Units being donated meets the first criteria, though that still relies on a donation. The logistics of returning the equipment is then also complicated too..

[mlindner]

The equipment is properly free for many people and many people had previously bought it for backup.

[seadan83]

> The equipment is properly free for many people

I'm curious how do you know this exactly, and how many is many?

[inemesitaffia]

There's people paying for it, the people using it are using it for free

[seadan83]

Respectfully, that does not answer either question.

[inemesitaffia]

I've seen people distributing it. Like this

https://x.com/TheShawnHendrix/status/1844812943529254942

https://x.com/WorldMobileTeam/status/1844858574737961241

https://x.com/SawyerMerritt/status/1843039646235635868

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/184120713742013254

https://x.com/DrPhil/status/1843840218614640687

https://x.com/Unitedcajunnavy/status/1843985998721524222

And of course, there's FEMA

[seadan83]

The musk link gave a "please retry", I was unable to read it.

Some of the links felt a bit like puff pieces and none quite helped. The cajun navy link clarified free of service cost to users - but that was not my intended question.

You said the equipment is properly free. To clarify, are you referring to end users, or free to those delivering the equipment to begin with? My impression was the latter. In which case I wanted to know how you knew that, and what exactoy was "many".

My question was not: how many people are using starlink devices for free? My apologies if that seemed like that was the question I was asking. Perhaps I misunderstood what you meant by "it is properly free" (which I interpreted as spaceX giving the equipment away)