Satcom: Germany to Subsidize Satellite Internet Services for Consumers

On Monday, Germany's transport ministry said that it will help rural citizens get better access to the internet by supporting satcom. The ministry plans to do so by helping with the purchase of hardware for satellite internet services.

The First Country Planning to Subsidize Satcom

The ministry further said that the planned subsidy scheme will open to all providers who can offer satcom in rural areas. It further added that talks were underway regarding the details of the voucher scheme. The ministry is aiming to subsidize the purchase of technical equipment.

Handelsblatt, a daily, reported that the government will subsidize the purchase of Starlink dishes and similar service providers with grants. These grants will go to individual households and will be worth €500 ($611).

However, the transport ministry mentioned that the grant will not cover monthly internet usage costs.

Recently, the Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer met SpaceX founder Elon Musk at Tesla's first European factory near Berlin sometime in May. The newspaper said that the meeting might have motivated the decision.

Starlink is offering satellite internet for a monthly fee of €99. Musk said earlier this month that SpaceX had received more than 500,000 preorders for Starlink. The company plans to eventually deploy 12,000 satellites in total, costing around $10 billion.