Elon Musk’s satellite internet continues its euphoria in the country. The arrival of the Starlink Mini product immediately generated high demand among consumers, resulting in the service being out of stock in four states across the country due to its resale through unauthorized channels and the continued low availability.
Starlink Mini, a portable and compact satellite internet kit that offers high-speed connection to homes and directly to cell phones, arrived in the country in January of this year, but is currently out of stock in Mexico City, Monterrey, the State of Mexico, and Guadalajara, according to the map of entrepreneur Musk’s company.
The company detailed on its official website that this situation is associated with the Starlink Mini residential service reaching its maximum capacity, meaning satellite saturation or a lack of capacity in terrestrial links, making it impossible to carry out new activations and preventing new availability dates from being determined.
One of the factors leading to Starlink service outages is the resale of the product through social media such as Facebook, where groups promote the entire connectivity service kit.
Expansión conducted a search on social media and identified unofficial sales groups for the Starlink Mini product. In some cases, they sell only the product, and in others, the installation or residential plan.
An anonymous source previously told Expansión that reselling the product and service through unauthorized channels could affect its availability and, in turn, affect the satellite companies that have a contract with Starlink to distribute and resell its service in Mexico.
“People buy multiple kits to resell them, and in other cases, to sign up on the official Starlink website for the residential plan with multiple accounts so they can sell it to multiple consumers and even businesses. This situation is not exclusive to Mexico; it also occurs in other Latin American countries,” the source said.
Rolando Alamilla, market research manager at the consulting firm The Ciu, explained that there are few units of the Starlink Mini kit (antenna/router) in Mexico due to the cost of exporting for the company itself, as well as importing for authorized distributors, which may be SMEs. Therefore, the demand for the product cannot be met immediately.
“Distributors are introducing the product (Starlink Mini) conservatively. Although satellite internet is niche, we are seeing more users starting to migrate to this service, but not yet at traditional levels,” stated Alamilla.
However, the specialist believes that the alliance Starlink reached with various retailers such as Liverpool, Palacio de Hierro, Home Depot, and Office Depot to distribute its Starlink Mini product will help the company market its product in a more orderly manner and avoid stockouts over time.
Elon Musk’s satellite company is beginning to carve out a significant market niche in the country, thanks to the entrepreneur’s image, which is generating interest among consumers to try its satellite service, despite its cost, as the Starlink mini equipment alone costs over 5,000 pesos.
Starlink has 3.2 million satellite broadband subscribers worldwide. Meanwhile, in Mexico, just three years after launching its service, it has managed to sign up more than 150,000 customers, according to the company’s information to the Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT) in a public consultation.
With this user base, Musk’s company is beginning to take market share away from satellite players that have been operating in the country for longer.
Source: expansion
