The streets of Irpin were destroyed by Ukrainian forces on March 29th. The city's cell towers were offline, preventing survivors from letting friends and relatives know they were okay. The city was back online just two days later.
Irpin was reconnected on March 31 after engineers from Vodafone Ukraine arrived with a terminal for the Starlink satellite internet service offered by Musk. The engineers attached a generator and mounted the receiver and base to a mobile base station on the edge of Irpin. The city was back online within hours, and so were the remaining residents.
The ingenuity of the engineers involved in bringing Irpin back online shows how quickly the Ukrainian government can adapt. Funding and assistance from the US government has helped the country receive more than 10,000 devices since Russia invaded. The country's response to the war has found both civilian and military uses for the terminals.
It was courtesy of the phone company.
Starlink's rapid roll out in Ukraine has been an experiment in the potential of next-gen satellite internet services. It's possible that high-speed internet from the sky could be a powerful way to provide access to people in need. When asked about Starlink in other conflict zones or places where internet access is restricted, the company did not reply.
More than 2,000 Starlink satellites have been launched by the company since the beginning of the year. It is the most mature of the three projects and will create a new generation of high-speed internet services using swarms of small satellites.
It wasn't the war that brought Starlink to Ukraine, but the service's potential to improve internet access in rural areas. The ministry for digital transformation made contact with the company several months before the war started, according to the adviser. The Starlink executives spoke with the digital minister of Ukraine. Musk's service became attractive for a different reason after Russia invaded.
Fedorov asked for Starlink terminals at Musk after Russia invaded. The CEO of the company confirmed that Starlink's service was active in Ukraine. On February 28, Fedorov posted photos of a truck stacked high with Starlink boxes and a Dishy.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
