[Starlink] Re: Starlink and Iran

J Pan
2026-01-15T17:11:14Z

easier to attack gps?
https://github.com/narimangharib/starlink-iran-gps-spoofing/blob/main/starlink-iran.md
although not all technically correct. "inhibitGps" is a user choice
through the mobile app ("Use Starlink positioning exclusively") not
system determination, but gps spoofing is indeed there. starlink could
be authorized to decode military-grade gps signals as well?
--
J Pan, UVic CSc, ECS566, 250-472-5796 (NO VM), Pan@UVic.CA, Web.UVic.CA/~pan

On Thu, Jan 15, 2026 at 1:51 AM Ulrich Speidel via Starlink
<starlink@lists.bufferbloat.net> wrote:
>
> I guess you would have all been following the reporting on Iran & how
> Starlink is being used a communication backroute out of the country, but
> also how it's being jammed by the Iranian government. Today, I received
> a petition request from an NGO asking me to sign a petition to get Elon
> to turn on D2C (direct-to-cell) over Iran, and it's phrasing it in such
> a way that it'd "turn the lights on".
>
> My 5 cents worth:
>
> Jamming: Over every location in Iran, there are several dozen Starlink
> satellites visible at any one time that Dishys on the ground can in
> principle communicate with (read: 25 deg plus above the horizon and
> clear of the geostationary arc). There are purportedly tens of thousands
> of Dishys in the country. Each of those Dishys (when working)
> communicates with one of the satellites, and does so by pointing a beam
> at the satellite - which points a beam back. Even two Dishys in close
> vicinity of each other generally talk to different satellites.
>
> To jam communication between a Dishy and a satellite you have to insert
> the jammer into the transmission path - either by pointing it at the
> satellite's receiver, or by pointing it at the Dishy. In either case,
> you want to do so ideally from the direction of the respective
> transmitter that the receiver is listening to, because there isn't all
> that much sensitivity if you're jamming off beam. Basically, because
> signal power drops of with the square of the distance, you need to be
> fairly close to a Dishy in order to out-shout the transmitter at the far
> end of the beam if you're trying to jam from outside the beam.
>
> Jamming the main traffic channels to Dishy is an uphill task - for a
> total blackout, you'd have to cover a good part of the 2 GHz total in
> Ku with sufficient power in terms of spectral density to cause mischief.
> Not easy.
>
> Likewise, pointing your jammer at the satellite(s) is mission impossible
> because there's every chance that the satellites will be listening to
> Dishys that are in a different direction from you.
>
> There would I guess be some opportunity in terms of jamming management
> channels (e.g., access grant channel) but even this is complex with that
> number of satellites around.
>
> Plus those babies move, so you need jammers that can track. And 15
> seconds after you're worked out what you need to point where, Starlink
> changes the game on you.
>
> The Independent quotes "a specialist in digital repression and associate
> director of the Technology Threats and Opportunities Program at Witness"
> https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iran-internet-blackout-protest-starlink-musk-b2900101.html
> saying that they think it's GPS jamming. For all I know Starlink doesn't
> need GPS - while Dishys have GPS receivers, Starlink's got its own
> positioning system, too. Also, GPS jamming is fairly common globally and
> it's not known to be impairing Starlink all that much.
>
> D2C: Maybe someone should have asked the NZ Commerce Commission for
> advice first. They figured out a long time ago that D2C isn't quite
> there yet (and may never get fully there). It's only capable of
> supporting a comparatively small number of devices per unit area on the
> ground, and apart from a small number of premium phones, with text and
> perhaps RCS/MMS only. And that's with a telco on the ground that's
> actually cooperating and making frequencies available. One NZ, the New
> Zealand telco who partners with SpaceX on the D2C here, had its
> marketing department shouting the virtues from the rooftops until the
> Commerce Commission filed criminal charges. They're still in the game
> but when I bought a new mobile phone the other day, it took me several
> minutes to find the page that listed compatible phones. The service is
> now a little less prominent on their home page - you have to scroll a
> little to find it. Also, word doesn't seem to have gotten around that
> your mobile phone - even if satellite-capable - will connect to
> terrestrial networks with priority. So Iranians would have to go pretty
> far out into the desert just to TXT. Oh, and cellphones are a lot easier
> to jam than Dishys...
>
> Of course, that's not the only consideration here. Using Starlink is
> illegal in Iran, and I guess getting caught with a Dishy is a bit risky
> there at the moment. But RF direction finding 50k+ Dishys that change
> transmit frequency a couple of times a minute isn't trivial: It requires
> specialised equipment and skill, both of which are likely to be in short
> supply at the moment. So I suppose visual identification of Dishys (from
> the air or high rise buildings) might be a more promising tactic. But of
> course they can be camouflaged to an extent as well as moved.
>
> Also, Starlink tends to be more of a technology for underserved rural
> areas rather than cities in countries with high Internet penetration
> rates - which Iran is one of. So it's likely that many of the tens of
> thousands of Dishys are in rural locations where there haven't been any
> large protests.
>
>
> --
> ****************************************************************
> Dr. Ulrich Speidel
>
> School of Computer Science
>
> Room 303S.594 (City Campus)
>
> The University of Auckland
> u.speidel@auckland.ac.nz
> http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~ulrich/
> ****************************************************************
>
>
>
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