Will a new Starlink dish arrive by the holiday season? A SpaceX executive is hinting that Starlink has been building up its inventory for a late-2026 subscriber-growth push.
CFO Bret Johnsen subtly mentioned the strategy in SpaceX’s Q3 earnings call today. “We strategically managed our channel distribution to prioritize delivery of kits to retail channels ahead of the holiday season, which we expect will lead to increased activations in Q4,” he said.
It’s a curious statement considering Starlink has been selectively selling the V5 dish on Starlink.com. In June, CEO Elon Musk also teased what appeared to be a next-gen Mini dish. The company is now discounting the first-gen Mini dish to $149 on Starlink.com, a sign it’s trying to clear out the older inventory.
Johnsen added that during the third quarter, the company “began ramping production of our V5 kits, which supported our progress on alleviating inventory constraints.” The statement suggests that the V5 model, which first arrived in July, was specifically designed to help SpaceX churn out more dish models at a faster rate, and possibly at a more cost-effective way.
(Credit: SpaceX)
The V5 is currently available only on Starlink.com if you choose the lower-tier Residential 100 Mbps plan. The new dish model doesn’t offer a major speed boost over the older V4, but it’s smaller, lighter, and more power-efficient while delivering about the same performance. Third-party retailers have yet to start selling it in the US.
(Credit: Starlink.com)
There are signs that Starlink’s growth might be stagnating. In its Q3 earnings report, SpaceX revealed that the number of consumer subscribers for Starlink reached 13.6 million globally during the period, up from 12 million in the previous quarter, “driven by growth in more developed markets,” Johnsen added.
Still, the company added 1.6 million subscribers during the period, slightly lower than the 1.7 million it added from Q1 to Q2. That suggests Starlink’s subscriber growth can experience some “seasonality,” according to industry analyst Tim Farrar. In early August, the company revealed Starlink had 13 million-plus Starlink subscribers.
“Striking to get 1M+ adds in first 6 weeks but only 0.6M in last 7 weeks,” Farrar noted. Hence, it’s possible Starlink saw higher growth in the summer months as people adopted it for outdoor use, but usage slowed in September as the school year resumed.
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On how it defines the users, SpaceX said: “Consumer subscribers includes both personal (e.g., residential and roam) and business (e.g., local priority and global priority) subscription plans, but does not include managed enterprise and government customers with contracts in domains including aviation, maritime, land mobility, fixed sites, and government entities.”
(Credit: SpaceX)
Overall, Starlink’s revenue, classified as its “Connectivity” business, increased 69% year over year to over $5.2 billion, including sales to government and enterprise customers.
Total revenue across all businesses also soared 161% year-over-year to $14.6 billion, thanks mainly to its AI business, which rents out data center compute to top AI developers. Revenue for its Super Intelligence business reached $7.5 billion, up from a mere $813 million a year ago.
About Our Expert
Michael Kan
Principal Reporter
Experience
I’ve been a journalist for over 15 years. I got my start as a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017, where I cover satellite internet services, cybersecurity, PC hardware, and more. I’m currently based in San Francisco, but previously spent over five years in China, covering the country’s technology sector.
Since 2020, I’ve covered the launch and explosive growth of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service, writing 600+ stories on availability and feature launches, but also the regulatory battles over the expansion of satellite constellations, fights with rival providers like AST SpaceMobile and Amazon, and the effort to expand into satellite-based mobile service. I’ve combed through FCC filings for the latest news and driven to remote corners of California to test Starlink’s cellular service.
I also cover cyber threats, from ransomware gangs to the emergence of AI-based malware. In 2024 and 2025, the FTC forced Avast to pay consumers $16.5 million for secretly harvesting and selling their personal information to third-party clients, as revealed in my joint investigation with Motherboard.
I also cover the PC graphics card market. Pandemic-era shortages led me to camp out in front of a Best Buy to get an RTX 3000. I’m now following how the AI-driven memory shortage is impacting the entire consumer electronics market. I’m always eager to learn more, so please jump in the comments with feedback and send me tips.
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