“Ukrzaliznytsia” has completed Starlink testing and is now preparing to launch the service — first, fast and stable Wi-Fi based on SpaceX satellite Internet will appear in Intercity+ trains.
For the first time, Starlink near Ukrzaliznytsia trains was reported six months ago — in June 2022, the head of State Special Communications announced the launch of the service by the end of 2022. Since then, there has been no news about the initiative – until today. The national railway carrier has officially confirmed that it has completed Starlink testing on Intercity train routes and is preparing to install the equipment — terminals already well known to Ukrainians.
Currently, Starlink test equipment is installed on only one Intercity+ high-speed train that runs on different routes. During the testing of the service on the Kyiv — Kharkiv route, the average speed of the Internet per port was 65.7 Mbit/s, and uninterrupted Internet access was maintained on 96.7% of the route. On the occasion of the completion of testing, Ukrzaliznytsia published a promotional video — the chairman of the board of the carrier, Oleksandr Kamishin, and the head of the Ministry of Digital Affairs, Mykhailo Fedorov, tested the operation of Wi-Fi based on Starlink in field conditions.
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The Ministry of Digital has already handed over 450 terminals to Ukrzaliznytsia, and at the beginning of February it is expected to deliver another batch of terminals (its size is not reported) within the scope of the project. Ukrzaliznytsia expects to equip all Intercity+ trains with Starlink terminals and auxiliary equipment by the end of this year, so that Ukrainians can watch movies, send messages and even work with high-quality Internet. It is obvious that the service will be rolled out gradually along individual routes.
The project is implemented by the joint efforts of “Ukrzaliznytsia”, the Ministry of Digital and the Ministry of Community Development, Territories and Infrastructure of Ukraine, which was created at the end of 2022 by merging the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Ministry of Communities. The goal is to install Starlink terminals on all high-speed trains to provide passengers with high-quality Internet during the entire journey. The installation of Starlinks in ordinary trains and electric trains is not yet discussed, so far only Intercity+.
Last week, Poland transferred another 8,000 Starlink terminals to Ukraine (in total, Poland transferred about 15,000 Starlinks), and their total number exceeded 30,000 — these are only those donated by philanthropists and various government organizations.
In fact, Starlink works much more in Ukraine, because the statistics of the Ministry of Digital Affairs do not include volunteers and ordinary Ukrainians who are now buying terminals with preferential zero customs clearance. At the end of last year, SpaceX put into orbit the first satellites of the updated Starlink network, which provided a further increase in the bandwidth of the network, as well as its expansion to smartphones with 5G and Tesla electric cars.
