Latest news with #satellite service
Japan Times
6 days ago
- Business
- Japan Times
Starlink techies keep Musk's network running, even in a war
In most of the world, fixing broken receivers for Elon Musk's Starlink satellite service is fairly straightforward: Users can get help by entering a support ticket with the company online. "Please make sure,' the website helpfully reminds customers, "to update your shipping address in the event replacement hardware is shipped.' But what if your location is a trench in war-torn eastern Ukraine that's obstructed by Russian President Vladimir Putin's drones, glide bombs and infantry? That's where Dmytro Stetsenko comes in. The 45-year-old chief executive officer of Kyiv-based Stetman employs 140 technicians and other staff members to repair or upgrade Starlink equipment and provide alternatives, part of a sprawling cottage industry of backstreet workshops tinkering with the gear for military and civilian use. "Thousands of Starlink terminals require repairs every week,' typically because of malfunctioning chips or connectors, Stetsenko said. "They work fine for civilian use — when you mount a satellite dish and it stays in place — but when you connect and disconnect them repeatedly, they eventually fail.' It's not just the technology that's prone to break down. As U.S. President Donald Trump prepares to meet his Russian counterpart in Alaska on Friday to discuss possible ways to end the war, Ukraine faces the consequences of relying on foreign support — be it for weapons, political backing, or indeed Starlink. Such dependence means Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy may have little choice but to accept an unappealing deal that might include land swaps amid diminished backing from war-weary international partners. And despite his on-and-off feud with Trump and the subsequent exile from the White House, Musk remains a central figure in the war. The critical yet fragile equipment that he provides with Starlink is one reason Ukraine has managed to withstand the overpowering Russian assault, more than three years after the full-scale invasion. A Starlink satellite internet receiver on the frontline in 2024 | Getty Images Europe / via Bloomberg Earlier this year, billboards declaring "Thank you, Elon Musk' popped up in Kyiv after relations between Musk and Zelenskyy had badly deteriorated. The system has become indispensable for Ukraine's troops across the steppes and fields in the country's east and south. Starlink is also vital for operating some types of drones, the defining weapons of the war. Musk's network, which connects to more than 8,000 satellites in low-Earth orbit, has more than 6 million users worldwide. A large share of Stetman's orders comes from front-line military personnel, who depend on Musk's satellites to navigate in the field. The importance of maintaining Starlink highlights an uncomfortable fact of this war: the system — alongside the mercurial Musk — has become a linchpin in Ukraine's military operations. Now there's growing pressure to reverse any support. Vice President JD Vance has already warned that his country is "done with the funding of the war.' Thanks to a post-Soviet culture of repairing almost everything, Ukraine has an abundance of technicians who can revive Starlink devices. One such self-taught expert is Oleg Kutkov, 37, who began tinkering with Starlink gear back in 2021 and now fixes broken receivers and uploads DIY tutorials to YouTube. Dmytro Stetsenko shows damaged Starlink terminal in Ukraine | Bloomberg Kutkov says Starlink is so popular, he can order a dish from a local reseller and get delivery within one hour. Ukraine has dozens of repair shops specializing in Starlink jobs, he estimated, "almost all of them are military.' The techie community gets some assistance from Ukrainians outside the country. Volodymyr Stepanets, who has lived in Poland since 2019, has created an online community called "the People's Starlink' to unite donors, IT specialists and other enthusiasts eager to maintain equipment that's more akin to consumer technology than military-grade hardware. Although he estimated that Ukraine may have more than 300,000 Starlink terminals, including inactive devices, "we are using gear in the field that was never meant for that environment,' said Stepanets, a former adviser to the commander of Ukraine's Signal and Cybersecurity Troops. "What we need is to 'repackage' it into solutions that can withstand field conditions.' Highlighting the dependence on Starlink, a global outage in July left Ukraine particularly vulnerable. "This incident — which lasted 150 minutes, a long time by wartime standards — highlights existing bottlenecks,' Major Robert Brovdi, commander of Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces, wrote on Telegram on July 25. "We should take this into account and diversify the network.' A Starlink satellite-internet communication system in Kyiv | Bloomberg This dependency is complicated by the unpredictability of Musk, the SpaceX chief executive officer whose stance toward Kyiv has ranged from emphatic support, including early mass supply of Starlink terminals, to growing hostility, with the billionaire criticizing Zelenskyy and echoing some of Putin's talking points. In 2023, Musk revealed that he had vetoed Ukraine's use of Starlink to attack Russian forces in Crimea. The company didn't respond to requests for comment. "To be extremely clear, no matter how much I disagree with the Ukraine policy, Starlink will never turn off its terminals,' Musk wrote on his social media platform X in March of this year. "I am simply stating that, without Starlink, the Ukrainian lines would collapse, as the Russians can jam all other communications!' But all of Ukraine's efforts to wean itself off Starlink have shown limited success. In the days after Zelenskyy's acrimonious Oval Office meeting with Trump in February, the stock price of Eutelsat Communications, which operates the leading alternative network as well as older satellites in higher orbits, soared amid optimism that Ukraine and other European countries would steer more business its way. For now at least, the spread of alternative technologies, both foreign and domestic, remains modest. Starlink is popular among soldiers, who know all too well the system's shortcomings. The main vulnerabilities include maintenance complexity, overheating and high visibility from the air, making soldiers on the ground potentially easy targets. Damaged Starlink terminal boards | Bloomberg Other hazards are more biological in nature. The cables on Starlink receivers are a popular snack for mice. At the same time, the devices are "quite valuable due to their ease of use and rapid deployment,' said Oleksandr, 41, a brigade communications officer who asked to conceal his last name for security reasons. Then again, the network isn't always reliable, added Taras, a 38-year-old junior sergeant who also asked not to give his family name. "Starlink's internet connection on the front line is often poor,' he said, "so we have to back it up with wired or mobile internet wherever possible.' The procedure for repairing broken equipment varies from unit to unit. Oleksandr's brigade does the work itself. Taras' unit sends broken terminals to a service center based in the central city of Dnipro. Soldiers often rely on the nation's postal service to send their orders to inconspicuous workshops and receive them back. Stetman has its own website and customer support service for the Starlink re-equipment project and for its own satellite service. In the meantime, the service provider has gained invaluable experience working on Musk's system, said Stetsenko. That's put Ukraine's Starlink repair business in a position where might eventually also be useful during peacetime. "The kind of infrastructure we now have in Ukraine — if there were no war — would likely land us a multimillion-dollar contract with SpaceX,' he said. "They would gladly pay for repair services in this part of the world.'
Phone Arena
24-07-2025
- Phone Arena
T-Satellite is here and trolls AT&T and Verizon big time
The wait is over and T-Mobile's Starlink-backed satellite service, called T-Satellite, is now live. It was in beta for many months, but T-Satellite's official page now says: T-Mobile brags (rightfully so) that thanks to Starlink's 650+ satellites, you get more coverage on the same phone. The Magenta carrier doesn't miss the opportunity to troll its Verizon and AT&T rivals, though. For now, T-Satellite allows users to text on over 60 supported phones – as time goes by, data and calls will be added. The service extends coverage to remote areas where traditional signals can't reach. Beside sending and receiving texts, users can share their location, contact 911, get emergency alerts, and send pictures and voice messages through Google Messages. Soon, more devices will support multimedia messaging, and select apps will gain access to satellite data. T-Satellite is supported on a wide range of popular smartphones. All models from Apple's iPhone 13 through iPhone 16 series are compatible. Google's latest Pixel 9 lineup, including the Pixel 9 Pro and Pixel 9 Pro Fold, also support the service. Among Samsung devices, compatibility spans across the Galaxy S21 to S25 series, as well as the latest Galaxy Z Fold and Z Flip models, plus several Galaxy A series models like the A54 and the A56. Select models from Motorola's Razr series and Moto G lineup are included too. Some devices may require T-Mobile variants to enable full satellite functionality. Image by T-Mobile T-Mobile is on a mission to eliminate dead zones for good, as the company puts. There are over 500,000 square miles in the US that remain untouched by any carrier's towers – and that's where T-Satellite is supposed to come into play. T-Mobile isn't just promoting its new satellite service, though – it's openly trolling Verizon and AT&T as well. In its messaging around the official rollout of the space service, T-Mobile claims its rivals are "scrambling to catch up", while it's already offering coverage from space. Verizon takes the brunt of the jabs, with T-Mobile highlighting that Verizon has "less than 10" satellites (compared to T-Mobile 's 650+) and joking that Verizon customers will be stuck waving their device in the air "like a magic wand" to get a signal. The company also mocks Verizon 's limited phone compatibility, suggesting customers read the fine print to find out their devices likely won't work. AT&T doesn't get off lightly either. T-Mobile quips that users are still "searching the skies for signs of life" from AT&T 's satellite service, which remains in testing with "no timeline" in sight. It even adds that with AT&T , users "won't be texting – but [they] will be reconsidering". Nothing wrong with T-Mobile teasing its rivals: the trolling tone is playful, at least to me. Companies should use bold(er) humor every once in a while – not everything out there has to be said either in formal, dry tone or with infantile, skin-deep jokes. As far as T-Satellite goes, I'm not in the US, but it sounds like those who often leave the city for the great outdoors will benefit from the service!
