(Reuters) -Ukraine on Monday stated it had obtained donated Starlink satellite tv for pc internet terminals from SpaceX, however an internet safety researcher warned these might turn out to be Russian targets.
“Starlink — right here. Thanks, @elonmusk,” Ukraine’s vice prime minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, tweeted, days after asking SpaceX’s billionaire chief government officer Elon Musk for assist. Fedorov’s tweet included an image of the again of a navy-wanting truck, loaded with terminals.
Musk tweeted again, “You are most welcome”.
The terminals appear like dwelling satellite tv for pc tv dishes and can present comparatively quick internet service, by residential requirements, by connecting to a fleet of satellites in low orbit.
But John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher on the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab venture, took to Twitter to warn the terminals might turn out to be Russian targets.
“Re: @elonmusk’s starlink donation. Good to see. But bear in mind: if #Putin controls the air above #Ukraine, customers’ uplink transmissions turn out to be beacons … for airstrikes,” he tweeted.
“#Russia has a long time of expertise hitting folks by concentrating on their satellite tv for pc communications,” he added in a sequence of 15 tweets detailing the dangers. (https://bit.ly/35BEFs2)
Musk stated on Saturday that Starlink is accessible in Ukraine and SpaceX is sending extra terminals to the nation, whose internet has been disrupted as a result of Russian invasion.
Fedorov thanked Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States for serving to to swiftly approve the activation of Starlink in Ukraine.
One of the challenges is to put in finish-person terminals, which require a transparent view of the sky to connect with Starlink, Tim Farrar, a advisor in satellite tv for pc communications stated.
As excessive-rise buildings can block the service, one has to go to the highest of the very best constructing close by to arrange the antenna, he stated. “That’s a reasonably susceptible place to be.”
“It will not be going to be one thing that may supply a substitute for terrestrial internet on a big scale,” he stated.
SpaceX didn’t instantly reply to a Reuters request for remark.
(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain and Arunima Kumar in Bengaluru and Hyunjoo Jin in San Francisco; Editing by Stephen Coates)
