Elon Musk shoots down a big Starlink hardware rumor | Official Website of Louis Velazquez, entrepreneur, finance guy and tech innovator

If you use Starlink or you are thinking about switching, you have probably seen at least one breathless post about “the next device” that will supposedly change everything.

I have lost count of how many times I have watched that cycle play out. A new rumor lands, everyone starts gaming out what it means for existing hardware, and you are left wondering if your current kit is already on borrowed time.

That is what made Elon Musk’s latest Starlink comment stand out to me.

A Reuters story explored the idea that SpaceX could build a Starlink-branded phone as part of a broader push to grow revenue before a potential IPO later this year. After that hit, Musk stepped in, posting “We are not developing a phone” on X (formerly Twitter).

He was responding directly to a user post that amplified the Reuters story that treated a Starlink phone as a near-term strategic move and a way to deepen Starlink’s consumer footprint.

With one sentence, he took a lot of air out of a fast-growing hardware narrative.

Elon Musk says there won’t be a Starlink phone.

Image source&colon; Shutterstock

Elon Musk shoots down the Starlink phone narrative

Musk’s reply was not nuanced.

His post was described as a “denial” of the idea that SpaceX is developing a Starlink phone, and as directly contradicting the scenario laid out in the Reuters report, according to Investing.com.

Reuters framed a Starlink phone as just one of several options executives have considered as they look for new revenue streams tied to the constellation, Teslarati noted, adding useful context to the story.

The report also highlighted that in a separate X exchange, Musk called a Starlink phone “not out of the question at some point” but said it would be “optimized purely for running max performance/watt neural nets,” which sounds more like a specialized AI device than a mass-market smartphone.

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To me, that combination matters. He is telling you two things at once.

SpaceX is not about to spring a near-term Starlink phone on you. If a device ever happens, it will look more like an AI-tuned niche project than a direct iPhone rival.

That is a lot less threatening than the “everyone will be pushed to a new box” version of the rumor that I kept seeing.

Where the real squeeze shows up for Starlink users

When I look at Starlink as a money story, the place I see actual pressure right now is not hardware. It is data.

Metro Wireless, a business-focused provider that works with Starlink, laid out the 2025 plan changes in a blunt blog post.

“Starlink is overhauling its pricing structure, with pricing increasing 2-5X depending on usage,” the company wrote in its March 2025 guide to the new plans, said Metro Wireless.

The bigger gut punch is what happens after you burn through your priority data.

Once you hit the cap, “speeds will be throttled to 1 Mbps, eliminating free high-speed data transit,” Metro Wireless said, warning that some customers would see a 99 percent speed reduction if they do not adjust their usage or upgrade their plan.

In a follow-up piece on eliminating overage charges, Metro Wireless framed its whole business pitch around that change, arguing that hybrid setups with multiple links are the only realistic way to avoid crippling throttling for high-usage sites.

So while people were panicking about a phone that Musk just said does not exist, the real risk for your budget is a very old one: bill shock.

If Starlink is your main connection for a farm, campground, or rural business, that 1 Mbps throttle is more than an annoyance. It is a genuine operational hazard, according to Metro Wireless’ modeling.

How to stress-test your Starlink bill

You might recognize yourself as one of these.

Light residential user: You mostly browse, stream a couple of hours a day, and do some video calls.
Heavy home user: Your household streams constantly in 4K, games online, and maybe runs a small business on the side.
Small business or remote operation: You rely on Starlink to keep point-of-sale, cameras, and basic operations online.

If I were in your shoes, I would pull at least three months of usage data from your Starlink account and ask a few simple questions.

1. What is your average monthly data usage versus your current priority data allowance?

If you consistently remain under your data allowance cap, the 1 Mbps throttle is more of a theoretical risk than a practical one, based on Metro Wireless’s breakdown of how caps translate to slowdowns.

2. How high do your peak data-usage months run, and what caused them to spike?

If you see one or two months where you blew through the allowance because you had guests, did a major software rollout, or used cloud backups heavily, you might adjust behavior instead of buying a bigger plan, a change Metro Wireless says can be enough for some customers.

3. Which needs would go unmet if Starlink does throttle your speed?

One Starlink link plus additional 5G routers can smooth out that risk, but even if you don’t buy Metro Wireless’s package, you can copy the logic by pairing Starlink with a cheaper cellular backup, according to Metro Wireless.

That is not as flashy as a new dish or some hypothetical phone, but it is exactly the kind of planning that keeps you from paying emergency prices later.

Why I still pay attention to Starlink rumors

Even though Musk swatted the phone rumor aside, I do not think you should ignore how it spread.

The Reuters story on a potential Starlink phone quickly echoed across tech outlets and social media, and Musk’s “We are not developing a phone” reply landed only after that narrative had already formed, according to PCMag.

If you are trying to protect your money, that timing gap is where you can get hurt. You see “Starlink phone” or “new hardware,” assume a forced upgrade is coming, and spend before you have the full picture.

I have made that mistake with other gadgets, and now I stop and ask two questions before I even think about paying.

Has the company clearly said, in an official channel, that it will discontinue or degrade what I own (something you usually see in support pages or “end of life” notices)?
Are reporters describing internal options that may never ship, the way Reuters did with the Starlink phone scenario?

In this case, Reuters described an internal option and Musk then denied that a product is in development, according to Reuters and PCMag. That is very different from a clear statement that existing hardware will lose support.

For now, I would save my money for real, documented changes to your bill or your service quality, rather than chasing a rumor that Musk has already knocked down in public.