“Black” Starlink terminals are massively sold illegally all over the world [Bloomberg investigation]

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Starlink advertises its high-speed Internet as being “available in almost any point of the Earth,” however, in practice, its distribution is officially completed in territories where the company has not yet received permission to operate, or countries where repressive regimes operate. At the same time, a Bloomberg investigation revealed numerous examples of the use of Elon Musk's satellite Internet service in “prohibited” places around the world.

The terminals are being smuggled in and traded on black markets, calling into question SpaceX's ability to control their distribution. In 2023, it was reported that the Russians had somehow already begun to use Starlink at the front – the direct or indirect sale of terminals to the occupiers was then categorically denied by Elon Musk.

According to the publication's report, Starlink is actively used in Yemen, which is experiencing a decade-long civil war, as well as in Sudan, where regular Internet has been down for several months. Meanwhile, government decisions against illegal terminals in Kazakhstan this year have had little impact on their use and only increased prices on the black market.

Starlink kits are also being sold in Venezuela, where individuals and entities have been subject to U.S. sanctions for nearly a decade during the authoritarian rule of President Nicolas Maduro. The coverage map on the Starlink website shows the South American country in blackout, but advertisements on social media suggest package deals for Starlink equipment as widely available.

In Musk's home country of South Africa, the government has yet to approve Starlink's bid to operate, but trade in terminals is booming. Facebook groups feature vendors who offer to buy and activate kits in one of the 8 African countries where Starlink is legal, and then ship them across borders (the same thing happens in Yemen, where kits are bought in countries like Singapore or Malaysia, and then activated while roaming). In Venezuela, customers circumvent the ban by paying the global service rate using an international credit card.

President Joe Biden's administration may tighten export controls that apply to Starlink to keep them out of the hands of American adversaries, a former US official said.

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• Starlink provides Internet access through a network of about 5,500 satellites that SpaceX began deploying in 2019. The service currently has 2.6 million customers, and Musk said last year that the company had broken even for the first time (in 2020, he announced an IPO of the satellite internet business if “revenue growth becomes smooth and predictable”).
• Since last year, Starlink has been in the spotlight for providing Ukraine with satellite communications – important in the face of Russian military aggression. In December, the Ministry of Digital Development reported that 47 thousand terminals are currently operating in the country.
• At the same time, Elon Musk previously stated that his technology should be used only for peaceful purposes, and even ignored Ukraine’s application to activate the Internet near Crimea, thereby thwarting a potential attack on the Russian fleet. The Pentagon eventually committed to purchasing APU terminals that would operate where needed, and in September 2023 announced that it had awarded a contract to Starlink to provide services to support Ukraine without disclosing additional details.

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