EU weighs paying for Musk’s donated Starlink web service in Ukraine

The EU is discussing whether or not to cowl the subscription value of the Starlink terminals Elon Musk donated to Ukraine as a part of choices to safeguard web communications within the war-stricken nation.

Josep Borrell, EU chief diplomat, has tasked officers with drawing up plans to bolster web protection in Ukraine after Musk threatened to cease paying for the working of the Starlink terminals he donated to Kyiv, three officers with information of the choice advised the FT. The US-based billionaire has mentioned it was costing his firm SpaceX as much as $20mn a month to run the gadgets.

Musk’s cell web techniques have develop into essential to the Ukrainian military’s communications on the battlefield the place web infrastructure has been broken. There are greater than 20,000 Starlink terminals in Ukraine, lots of them utilized by the army. Whereas a few of them have been donated by SpaceX, many are paid for by the US authorities, western allies or by way of crowdfunding.

Musk on Monday tweeted: “To be exact, 25,300 terminals have been despatched to Ukraine, however, at current, solely 10,630 are paying for service.”

Whereas the entrepreneur on Saturday mentioned he had modified his thoughts and would cowl the price of working the terminals “indefinitely”, EU officers say they’re involved over his reliability. Some member states used a gathering of EU overseas ministers in Luxembourg on Monday to pledge money to fund the service.

“In the intervening time, let’s be completely satisfied that he’s paying for it. However we must be on the secure aspect,” mentioned one of many officers. “The Ukrainians are very anxious that he’ll nonetheless minimize it off.”

The EU discussions come as Kyiv reported widespread outages of Starlink gadgets on the frontline in current weeks and because the Pentagon disclosed talks with US-based billionaire over the price of the terminals within the nation. On Monday Musk insisted that SpaceX had since “already withdrawn its request for funding.”

However the EU is evaluating whether or not to barter a proper contract with SpaceX and arrange a joint fund to pay for the Starlink terminals the corporate donated. EU officers may even discover different satellite tv for pc choices, they mentioned.

Proponents of a fund say that it might permit them to take Musk to court docket if he suspended the service, slightly than relying merely on his private resolution to maintain offering it.

“One choice is that we pay for Starlink as a result of it’s already operational, they’ve 1000’s of terminals already there on the bottom . . . a contract [with EU countries] would carry stability,” mentioned the official.

“However why do we want Musk? Different firms may be capable to present this service,” they added. “It could possibly be cheaper and extra dependable.”

A second official mentioned that paying for Starlink was “simply one among many attainable choices” that the EU may look into as potential steps.

Musk was praised by western nations earlier this yr after Starlink was used to carry web companies to Ukraine within the aftermath of Vladimir Putin’s invasion in February. However this month, he angered Ukrainian officers for outlining a peace settlement involving Russia conserving the annexed Crimean peninsula.

The Monetary Occasions additionally revealed that some Starlink terminals had stopped working in areas not too long ago liberated from Russian occupation, elevating questions on whether or not SpaceX was blocking the service to some elements of the entrance strains.

The US-based tech billionaire later appeared to threaten to withdraw Starlink companies, complaining that his firm was spending thousands and thousands to “create, launch, preserve & replenish satellites & floor stations & pay telcos for entry to web through gateways.”