The Ukrainian government is planning to purchase thousands of new Starlinks, prime minister Denys Shmyhal said on Tuesday, and will make their imports tax and duty-free.
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✓ Demand for Starlink has grown in recent weeks, local retailers said, as a small gray market emerged of people paying as much as $1,125 for immediate delivery of the devices, rather than waiting to source them from Poland or for SpaceX to make the delivery.
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The small portable devices, which connect to satellites via a book-sized antenna, have provided crucial internet connectivity to the Ukrainian military and civilians in areas with little to no mobile phone networks or broadband coverage.
It is unclear if the prices have also changed for the Ukrainian government, which uses a mix of Starlink from various donors, including Musk’s SpaceX, the Polish government and Nato allies and from crowdsourced supporters.
Ukraine’s Starlink problems show the dangers of digital dependency
https://www.ft.com/content/692a222b-7823-4308-80a1-afa05111351c
When Russia invaded Ukraine, Musk agreed to transfer Starlink terminals into the country, to provide internet to civilians and the military alike. These small devices, which were initially intended for a consumer market, work via a link to SpaceX’s satellites. Musk deserves praise for this, in my view. As I have written before, one crucial attraction of Starlink is that it creates a “distributed” system — ie one that is spread about. This is much harder to destroy with missiles than something centred on a cell tower. And with some 25,000 Starlinks now sitting in Ukraine, according to Musk, this network has kept vital civic and humanitarian functions running, ranging from hospitals to banks. Starlinks have also been extensively used by the Ukrainian army to fight its savvy campaign, funded by multiple sources. But recently events became odd. Last month Musk suddenly tweeted that “Starlink is meant for peaceful use only” (even though American officials tell me that SpaceX is selling thousands to Nato groups at ever-increasing prices). Ian Bremmer, head of the risk consultancy Eurasia Group, alleged in a subscriber note sent on Monday that Musk told him he had declined Ukrainian requests to turn on coverage in Crimea, fearing Russian retaliation. Musk retorted that “nobody should trust Bremmer”. Other officials have corroborated Bremmer’s point. Then, in late September, Starlink terminals stopped working in parts of eastern and southern Ukraine that Putin claims to have annexed, but which have been recaptured by the Ukrainian army. Kyiv officials say this has created some “catastrophic” situations.
https://www.ft.com/content/692a222b-7823-4308-80a1-afa05111351c
To what degree will US politicians permit a capricious billionaire to exert influence in fields ranging from social media to a foreign war? How should investors price the policy risks when private companies supply military agencies, or venture into space? Could the US government invoke the Defense Production Act over SpaceX? Is it acceptable for Musk to talk with the Russian government, as Eurasia suggests he has done? Then there is a wide lesson about utility dependence — and diversification. Ukraine became dependent on using Starlink to get internet coverage this year since it needed to act fast, and the system was far better than alternatives, and initially quite cheap. As Fedorov notes, it has delivered enormous benefits. But this reliance also creates a potential vulnerability (not dissimilar to Germany’s previous heavy use of Russian gas, or US dependence on Taiwanese computing chips). I have little doubt that if Ukraine needs to reduce its exposure to a billionaire in the future, it would eventually find a way. But in the meantime, the events will be carefully studied by other small nations — be that Taiwan or Estonia — who fear they might also need to defend themselves one day, and need distributed internet systems. And, more widely, the saga should be a big wake-up call for any business leader, investor and policymaker. The war in Ukraine underscores in a very extreme form the degree to which we live in a digital world, where platforms are the lifeblood of the economy and much else. The question of who controls them, and whether we trust their reliability, thus matters deeply in these unstable times. Trust when shattered is hard to restore. . ." READ MORE
Starlink prices in Ukraine nearly double as mobile networks falter
Russian assault on electricity grid drives Starlink prices up.
Enlarge / Local residents access the Internet from the Starlink network, set up by the Ukrainian army on November 13, 2022, in Kherson, Ukraine, after the city was liberated from Russian occupation.
"The list prices of Starlink communications devices have nearly doubled in Ukraine, as mobile networks have started failing under Russia’s assault on the country’s electricity grid and increased demand for the SpaceX-manufactured satellite communication device.
Starlink terminals, which are made by Elon Musk-owned SpaceX, will increase in price to $700 for new Ukrainian consumers, according to the company’s website. This represents a rise from about $385 earlier this year, screenshots of past pricing data shared by users inside the country show.
The consumer cost of the monthly subscription to Starlink has fluctuated recently, dropping from about $100 to $60 on Ukraine’s Independence day on August 24 to “reflect local market conditions,” and will now rise to $75.
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Prices have also soared in neighboring Poland, where many Ukrainians source Starlink to avoid problems with domestic mail delivery, but remained the same in Slovakia and most other European countries.
Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The small portable devices, which connect to satellites via a book-sized antenna, have provided crucial Internet connectivity to the Ukrainian military and civilians in areas with little to no mobile phone networks or broadband coverage.
It is unclear if the prices have also changed for the Ukrainian government, which uses a mix of Starlink from various donors, including Musk’s SpaceX, the Polish government, Nato allies, and crowdsourced supporters.
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In separate, ongoing negotiations between SpaceX and the US Department of Defense, SpaceX had as recently as October asked Washington to pay $4,500 a month for each terminal intended for Ukraine, a person familiar with the situation said. A Pentagon spokesman said the department has been in contact with SpaceX about Starlink but declined to detail the discussions. He said the US and Ukraine have identified satellite communications as a critical capability on the battlefield.
Musk turned on connectivity for the satellite-based service within Ukraine days after Russia launched its full-blown invasion on February 24, responding on Twitter to a request by a Ukrainian minister.
Since then, Ukrainian military has used Starlink extensively along the frontline, where months of battles have rendered mobile networks unreliable, using vast amounts of high-speed data to communicate with each other and with their bases and to transmit high-resolution drone images.
The Ukrainian government is planning to purchase thousands of new Starlinks, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Tuesday, and will make their imports tax and duty-free.
Civilians in areas taken back from Russian control also often rely on Starlink while Ukrainian mobile network providers restore services.
In recent weeks, though, mobile networks in big cities such as Kyiv have also faltered, as Russia has sought to cripple Ukraine’s electricity distribution system.
Musk has previously complained that the cost to SpaceX of delivering Starlink services to Ukraine could run as high as $100 million by the end of 2022, after the Financial Times reported that the Ukrainian military faced operational problems in October after discovering the devices didn’t work in areas recently liberated from Russian control.
SpaceX had also asked the US government to pick up the costs of providing the service to the Ukrainian government and military that could run to $400 million over a 12-month period, CNN reported in October. It is unclear what additional costs Musk is referring to, since many users pay SpaceX directly for buying the terminals and a monthly subscription fee.
Dimko Zhluktenko, a software engineer who runs a charity to fundraise equipment for soldiers, said he had purchased as many as 200 Starlinks in the past to send to the front lines, averaging about $500 for the price of each terminal, a deposit, and the first month’s subscription fee.
But his most recent fundraising effort, where he was raising $50,000 to buy 100 more, has been derailed by the price increase. . .
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