SpaceX is no longer willing to pay for Starlink satellite service in Ukraine!
SpaceX Will No Longer Pay For Starlink In Ukraine!
The stars are shining for once on Russian President Vladimir Putin in his invasion of Ukraine!
According to an exclusive report by CNN, SpaceX’s director of government sales wrote a letter to the Pentagon, warning that it can no longer continue to fund the Starlink service.
SpaceX delivered about 20,000 Starlink satellite terminals to Ukraine so far, with CEO Elon Musk stating on Friday that the “operation has cost SpaceX $80M & will exceed $100M by end of year“.
We are not in a position to further donate terminals to Ukraine, or fund the existing terminals for an indefinite period of time.
In the letter that was sent in September, SpaceX asked the Pentagon to fund the Ukraine government’s use of Starlink, which would cost $124 million for the rest of the year, and could cost as much as $380 million for the next 12 months.
Here is a breakdown of Starlink costs in Ukraine, and who paid for what:
- USAID – about $3 million on hardware and services
- Poland : almost 9,000 Starlink terminals
- US : almost 1,700 terminals
SpaceX priced the two Starlink satellite terminal models it sent to Ukraine at $1,500 and $2,500, even though the consumer model is cheaper at just $599.
SpaceX claims to have paid for about 70% of the service provided to those Starlink terminals, but that’s based on their claim to have offered the highest level of service at $4,500 per month, even though the majority only signed on for the cheaper $500 per month service. Starlink consumer service in Ukraine, in comparison, costs just $60 per month!
Read more : Elon Musk Personally Blocked Starlink In Crimea!
Loss Of Starlink In Ukraine Will Be Disastrous
SpaceX’s Starlink satellite service has been vital to Ukraine’s success on the battlefield, proving its government and military with secure communications and Internet connectivity.
It not only provides Ukrainian forces with secure communications, it allows them to control drones to monitor and even attack Russian forces.
However, that reliance on SpaceX and its Starlink satellite service is a double-edged sword – it appears to be highly reliant on whims and fancies of its erratic CEO – Elon Musk.
Revelations about this letter raises concerns about Musk’s allegiance in the Ukraine War, after his much-derided Ukraine peace plan on October 3, 2022.
Not only did Elon Musk personally block the use of Starlink in Russia-occupied Crimea, the Ukrainian counteroffensives in the South and East were recently stymied by outages on the battlefield.
That has affected every effort of the Ukrainians to push past that front. Starlink is the main way units on the battlefield have to communicate.
According to SpaceX, about 85% of the 20,000 Starlink terminals in Ukraine were paid or partially paid for by countries like the US, the UK and Poland. Those countries also paid for about 30% of the Internet connectivity, which costs $4,500 per month per unit.
The SpaceX letter rankled the Pentagon, with one senior defence official saying that SpaceX has “the gall to look like heroes” and present them with a bill for tens of millions of dollars, when Starlink service in Ukraine was already being sponsored in large part by outside sources.
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