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Starlink advertises its high-speed Internet as being “available almost anywhere on Earth,” but in practice, its distribution officially ends in territories where the company has not yet received a permit to operate, or countries with repressive regimes. At the same time, a Bloomberg investigation revealed numerous examples of Elon Musk’s satellite internet service being used in “forbidden” locations around the world.
The terminals are smuggled in and traded on black markets, which calls into question SpaceX’s ability to control their distribution. In 2023, it was reported that the Russians had somehow already begun to use Starlink at the front – the direct or indirect sale of terminals to the occupiers was then categorically denied by Elon Musk.
According to the publication’s report, Starlink is actively used in Yemen, which is experiencing a decade-long civil war, as well as in Sudan, where regular Internet has been down for several months. Meanwhile, government crackdowns on illegal terminals in Kazakhstan this year have had little effect on their use, only increasing prices on the black market.
Starlink kits are also sold in Venezuela, where individuals and entities have been subject to US sanctions for nearly a decade under the authoritarian rule of President Nicolás Maduro. The coverage area map on the Starlink website shows the US country blacked out, but social media ads tout bundle deals for Starlink equipment as widely available.
In South Africa, where Musk was born, the government has yet to approve Starlink’s bid to operate, but terminal trade is booming. Facebook groups feature vendors who offer to buy and activate kits in one of the 8 African countries where Starlink is legal, then ship them across the border (the same thing happens in Yemen, where kits are bought in countries like Singapore or Malaysia and then are activated in roaming). In Venezuela, customers bypass the ban by paying the global service charge with an international credit card.
President Joe Biden’s administration may tighten export controls that apply to Starlink to keep it out of the hands of American adversaries, according to a former US official.
- Starlink provides Internet access through a network of approximately 5,500 satellites that SpaceX began deploying in 2019. Currently, 2.6 million customers use the service, and last year Musk said that the company broke even for the first time (in 2020, he announced an IPO of the satellite Internet business, if revenue growth becomes smooth and predictable).
- Since last year, Starlink has been in the spotlight because it provides Ukraine with satellite communications, which is important in the face of Russian military aggression. In December, the Ministry of Statistics reported that 47,000 terminals are currently operating in the country.
- At the same time, Elon Musk previously stated that his technology should be used only for peaceful purposes, and even ignored Ukraine’s request to activate the Internet near Crimea, rather than thwarting a potential attack on the Russian fleet. Ultimately, the Pentagon committed to procuring terminals for the Armed Forces that would work where needed, and in September 2023 announced that it had contracted Starlink to provide services to support Ukraine, without disclosing further details.
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