Re: [Starlink] Starlink no longer available to the Ukrainian army?

[Mike Puchol <mike@starlink.sx>]

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I would detach the outages from anything related to payments or claims by Elon. I put together a short thread on Twitter to explain the issues around providing service around the battle fronts:

https://twitter.com/mikepuchol/status/1578524400055648256

If anyone wants to dig into any particulars let me know.

If SpaceX suddenly turned off what in Ukraine is now an essential service and a military asset, based on some strong words thrown around, or questions around payments, it would be devastating for the credibility of Starlink as anything other than a consumer product.

My personal view is that SpaceX has the right to be fairly compensated for their contribution, just like the manufacturers of Javelins are not giving them away for free. What “fairly” means is where the conversation must happen. SpaceX was too generous early on and set expectations, and now seems to be moving to the other side of the spectrum in terms of their costs, with figures that seem, on the surface, unrealistic.

Best,

Mike
On Oct 14, 2022 at 14:07 +0200, Juliusz Chroboczek via Starlink <starlink@lists.bufferbloat.net>, wrote:
> As some of you recall, Elon Musk recently posted a tweet in which he
> recommends that Ukraine should capitulate to Russia. Andrij Melnyk, the
> Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany, replied in two words.
>
> https://twitter.com/melnykandrij/status/1576977000178208768
>
> A few days later, Musk announced that Starlink would no longer pay its
> fraction of the cost of deploying Starlink terminals with the Ukrainian
> Army, and that the US government, if it so wishes, should foot the bill.
>
> https://twitter.com/officejjsmart/status/1580782290849759232
>
> Perhaps unrelated, there are reports of Starlink outages in Ukraine.
>
> https://www.ft.com/content/9a7b922b-2435-4ac7-acdb-0ec9a6dc8397
>
> -- Juliusz
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