As someone here in the heart of it let me elucidate:

1) Residents here on the ground were told Starlink is already active in your area. Just connect through the site with your address. No one was worried about getting "retail dishes" they were told Starlink was providing free satellite internet across the devastated areas, all they had to do was open a website, enter their address and type $0 and boom, they're connected.

2) No one here even COULD get a dish delivered on the fly if they wanted to. Most roads are still to this day broken and impassable.

3) NO ONE HERE THOUGHT THIS WAS A STANDARD "FREE TRIAL" SITUATION. THEY THOUGHT IT WAS ACTUAL RELIEF, NO STRINGS ATTACHED, NO PERSONAL HARDWARE OBLIGATION.

Ultimately, you're making the mistake of thinking this is an article explaining a free trail for those with power, existing internet, passable roads, or existing hardware. The point this piece is making is that it was false advertising to people desperate to let their families know they weren't dead.

It's probably easy from the comfort of your mother's basement out of Helene's wake to spout all of this but a) you missed the point of the article and b) no one gave a fuck about retail dishes. They were told it was available via a website as HELP. As a kindness.

I'd love to see your source on 2000 free dishes. Ask anyone local here when the storm hit if they knew that, how to connect to them (without internet already). I guarantee no one knew until days later.